Commodore 64

(redirected from CBM 64)

Commodore 64

(C64) An 8-bit Commodore Business Machines personal computer released around September 1981. Prototypes were (apparently) made before Christmas 1980 (and shown at some computer fair).

The CPU was a 6510 from MOS Technologies (who were a wholly owned subsiduary of Commodore at this time(?)). The C64 had 64 kilobytes of RAM as standard and a 40-column text, 320x200 pixel display generating composite video, usually connected to a television.

DMA-based memory expanders for the C64 (and C128) allowed 128, 256, and 512 kb of RAM. Several third party manufacturers produce accelerators and RAM expanders for the C64 and C128. (Some, risking a holy war, compare this to putting a brick on roller-skates). Such accelerators come in speeds up to 20MHz (20 times the original) and RAM expanders to 16MB.

The C64's 1541 5.25 floppy disk drive had a 6502 processor as a disk controller.

See also Commodore 65.

["Assembly language programming with the Commodore 64", Marvin L. De Jong].

Commodore 64

An early personal computer from Commodore Business Machines. Introduced in 1982, the Commodore 64 (for 64K of RAM) was one of the best-selling machinees in the embryonic days of personal computers. Following the VIC-20, which used the same case, only white instead of beige, the Commodore 64's lower price (USD $595) helped it outsell its higher-priced competitors such as the IBM PC, Apple II and Atari computers. See Commodore PET, VIC-20 and Commodore.

The Commodore 64
This is the main unit with a 300 bps analog modem plugged into the back, a drive for 170KB floppies and a tape cassette. The floppy drive weighed almost 10 pounds. Like most personal computers of that era, the BASIC programming language was built in. See BASIC.