Apple Keyboard (M0116)

Released 1987

Apple's 81-key mechanical ADB keyboard has a numeric keypad, arrow keys and a detachable cable, without the Extended Keyboard's function row.

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Layout: Full size
Switches: Mechanical
Backlight: None
Keys labelled for: Mac
Switches: Mechanical Alps switches; Deskthority's exact-model inspection documents tactile SKCM Orange and Salmon production variants and a mechanically locking SKCL Caps Lock switch. Switch variants and language layouts are not separate hardware generations.
Key travel: Exact-model key travel and actuation force are not published in the recovered maker documents and remain omitted.
Keycaps: Deskthority documents dye-sublimated PBT keycaps with an ABS space bar; these material identifications come from specialist inspection, not Apple's product sheet. The legends use Apple's bottom-left italic layout.
Layouts: Apple's March 1987 product sheet lists 81 keys, including the numeric pad and four cursor-control keys. The pictured US M0116 has a large Return key, Control to the left of A and Caps Lock at the lower-left corner. The related international M0118 layout moves these keys; it is a language-layout option, not a different generation.
Special keys: Escape, Control, Command, Option, locking Caps Lock and a separate power key. The four arrow keys sit in one row below the right Shift key; there is no F-key row. Apple's hardware reference explicitly distinguishes this keyboard from the larger Apple Extended Keyboard.

Connects by: Cable
Power: Cable
Receiver: Detachable Apple Desktop Bus cable and two bidirectional ADB ports; either port connects upstream, with the other able to connect a mouse or another compatible input device. ADB is different from both USB and the earlier Macintosh Plus keyboard's synchronous serial port.
Battery life detail: Powered over the ADB connection; no battery is required. A keyboard-only current requirement was not recovered and remains unpublished.
Works with: Apple's product sheet specifies any Apple personal computer with an ADB interface and names the Macintosh SE and Macintosh II. Modern computers require a suitable separate ADB converter; none is included here.
Software: Apple's product sheet advertises a separately packaged remapping desk accessory for assigning menu commands or text strings to a key or combination; it is not listed among the keyboard's supplied items.

Weight: 1000 g
Width × depth × height: 418 × 142 × 44.5 mm
Size: Apple's exact M0116 product sheet gives width 418 mm, depth 142 mm, height 44.5 mm and weight 1 kg. Third-party measurements of surviving examples are not substituted for the maker's figures.
Materials: Separate moulded enclosure, mechanical switch board and individual keycaps, visible in the original product photograph and specialist exact-model inspection.
Colours: The recovered original maker product photograph is monochrome; an exact factory colour description was not recovered.
In the box: Apple Keyboard and cable, referral card and limited warranty statement in Apple's M0116 order list; the computer and mouse are separate. Apple's March 1987 price list introduces the keyboard without a future availability note, while April 1987 University of Minnesota ordering information names the M0116 in available Macintosh SE configurations. An exact first-sale month or day is not established, so year precision is retained.

Model	Layout	Switches	Backlight	Battery	Connects by	Weight	Released
AppleApple Desktop Bus Keyboard (A9M0330)	Full size	Mechanical	None	–	Cable	–	1986
AppleApple Extended Keyboard	Full size	Mechanical	None	–	Cable	1600 g	1987
AppleMacintosh Plus Keyboard (M0110A)	Full size	Mechanical	None	–	Cable	1200 g	Jan 1986