The Franklin Ace 500 is the last of the Franklin line of computers. The first few computer that Franklin produced were illegal clones of the AppleII but after a lawsuit that Franklin lost the company decided to produce legal clones.

The Ace 500 is a clone of the Apple IIc. It is very similar to the IIc with the notable addition of a separate numerical island to the built-in keyboard. The power supply unit is external, and on the right side of the machine there is a 143K built in floppy disk drive. The use of an external power supply is interesting, as the machine does have space inside for an internal PSU. It seems that the power requirements were such that a larger PSU was needed that did not fit within the case.

The Franklin Ace 500 came standard with 256K of RAM, but there was room for another 256K making the machine capable of supporting 512K Ram. The motherboard had a battery-backup for the clock and the calendar.

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.