Editing Apple Desktop Bus (section)

===AppleBus===
Early during the creation of the Macintosh computer, the engineering team had selected the fairly sophisticated [[Zilog SCC|Zilog 8530]] to supply serial communications. This was initially done to allow multiple devices to be plugged into a single port, using simple [[communication protocol]]s implemented inside the 8530 to allow them to send and receive data with the host computer. The idea was to allow multiple devices to be connected to a port, eliminating the need for many different types of ports or the use of [[expansion slot]]s.<ref name=history>{{cite journal|last=Oppenheimer |first=Alan |date=January 2004 |title=A History of Macintosh Networking |url=http://www.opendoor.com/nethistory/MacWorld2004/index.html |journal=MacWorld Expo |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061016132614/http://www.opendoor.com/nethistory/MacWorld2004/index.html |archive-date=16 October 2006 }}</ref>

During development of this AppleBus system, computer networking became a vitally important feature of any computer system. With no card slots, the Macintosh was unable to easily add support for [[Ethernet]] or similar [[local area network]]ing standards. Work on AppleBus was re-directed to networking purposes, and was released in 1985 as the [[AppleTalk]] system. This left the Mac with the original single-purpose mouse and keyboard ports, and no general-purpose system for low-speed devices to use.<ref name=history/>