Apple ProFile

Background

The ProFile was Apple's first hard drive. It was introduced in September 1981 at a price of $3,499 U.S., initially for use with the Apple III. The original model had a formatted capacity of 5 MB and connected to a special interface card that plugged into an Apple III slot. In 1983 Apple offered a ProFile interface card for the Apple II, with software support for Apple ProDOS and Apple Pascal. Also in 1983, Apple introduced the Lisa computer, which was normally sold with a ProFile. The ProFile could be connected to the built-in parallel port of the Lisa, or to a port of an optional dual-port parallel interface card. Up to three such interface cards could be installed, so in principle up to seven ProFile drives could be used on a Lisa. Later a 10 MB model was offered, but required an upgraded PROM/interface card to recognize the additional 5 MB.