The Franklin Ace 1200 is a clone of the Apple II Plus computer. It is identical to the ACE 1200, but adds two floppy disk drives.

Due to the success of the Apple II computer, quite a few manufacturers tried to cash in on that success by making their own Apple Clones.

Franklin was sued by Apple computer for violation of trademarks that Apple held. In order to make a highly compatible clone, Franklin had copied large portions of the Apple Operating System. In August of 1983 Apple won a judgement against Franklin Computer. Franklin released the Ace 2000 and the Ace 500 after which the company quit the computer market.

The 6502 is an 8-bit MicroProcessor designed by MOS Technology. The team was led by Chuck Peddle and had also worked on the Motorola 6800. The 6502 is a simplified, but faster and cheaper design than the 6800.

The 6502 was introduced in 1975 and was the cheapest microprocessor on the market. Together with the Zilog Z80, the 6502 helped start the home computer revolution of the 1980s. The 6502 was used in a wide range of devices: the Atari 2600, the 8-bit Atari home computers, the Apple II, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Commodore 64, the BBC Micro and many others. All used the 6502 or a variation of it.

The 6502 is a 1MHz design, while the 6502A is designed for 2MHz. The 6502A is 100% compatible with the original 6502.

Commodore soon bought MOS Technology, but conitnued to sell the microprocessor to competitors and licensed the design to other manufacturers.