Commodore PET – The Worlds First Personal Computer

by Putri Silvia 08 November 2026 35 min read 510x views

Commodore PET – The Worlds First Personal Computer

Sections on this page:

Commodore PET History
Commodore PET Manuals, Brochures & Magazine Articles
Commodore PET Games, Downloads, ROMs, Screen Shots, Reviews
Commodore PET Chronology
Commodore PET Hardware Identification
Commodore PET Picture Gallery
Commodore PET Videos

Commodore PET History:

Written by Ian Matthews in February 2003
Last Updated Nov 29 2018

Commodore PET - The Worlds First Personal Computer First announced and demonstrated in January of 1977 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, months before the Apple II or Radio Shack TRS80, the Commodore PET was the worlds first Personal Computer. (See the note at the bottom of this leaf for a verification of this date).

The PET came completely functional out of the box with:

a keyboard including a distinct numeric pad (almost entirely unheard of at the time, equal as an option)
a 9″ unified Blue and White monitor
a chief commission with the powerful new 1 Mhz MOS 6502 processor
many enlargement sockets additional RAM or a Processor board
4K of memory
power supply
a cassette strip run which was a practical retention equipment for the time
several enlargement ports including an RS232 (serial) port
ability to grip and create fantastic graphics (for the time)
upper and lesser case text
an functioning system that was burned onto a ROM part and loaded on boot… WOW that was cool

All this was wrapped up in a firm steel, fine looking, pale chassis. The prototype PET’s chassis (shown in the photo at the top of this page) used rounded edges that was apt designed by Ira Velinsky. Commodore was a notable manufacturer of metal filing cabinets so whenever it came period for production, they decided to use the now acquainted square cases to keep manufacturing expenses down.

Altair 8800, Southwest Technical 6800, IMSA 8048, Processor Technology SOL

The PET was a revelation as all previous home computers were small additional than circuit boards that could lone be understood by difficult center enthusiasts akin the members of the Home Brew Computer clubs.

Inside the Commodore PET

The archetypal prototype PET demonstrated at the 1977 Consumer Electronics Show had been cobbled together in a hurry and on the cheap. It had a chassis made of timber and a image pipe taken from a $90 dreary and pale TV that MOS bought from a local hardware store.

The visionary engineer rearward this project was Chuck Peddle. The worlds archetypal Personal Computer was not prepared equal a week before the display and in the three days foremost up to CES, Chuck worked 20 hours a day getting the PET prototype functional; he completed this now historic project only a few hours before the doors opened.

A twelvemonth earlier, in the fountain of 1976 Chuck Peddle, who worked not for Commodore but for MOS Technologies‘, completed betterment of the versatile and extremely cheap MOS 6502 processor. He and his mostly ex-Motorola colleagues developed the KIM-1 “Computer Trainer” to display off the functionality of this landmark new part but that was lone the start. Chuck developed the PET idea and took it to Radio Shack expecting to have them retailing it for him but they were not interested. Soon after, in the summer of 1977, Commodore’s founder Jack Tramiel took a three myriad dollar debt justify from Canada’s Irving Gould to buy Pennsylvania based MOS Technologies, its staff, its patents, it production facilities, alongside alongside the PET concept.

Commodore PET 2001 Chicklet Keyboard 1978

At the period Commodore manufactured agency equipment akin filing cabinets but its biggest business was in calculators so it is no astonishment that the first production Commodore PET 2001’s had a sheet metal element chassis and calculator manner keys dubbed “chiclet keyboards”. These 47 lb beasts were all manufactured in Commodore’s first (and abbreviated lived) U.S. facility located in Palo Alto California.

There are multiple rumours about the origin of the name PET. Officially it was an acronym for Personal Electronic Transactor, but P.E.T. are additionally the initials of originator Jack Tramiel’s wife. Whatever the origin, Jack idea that PET “sounded” fine and would have several affirmative linkage alongside the Pet Rock fad of the delayed 1970’s.

The PET made the shield of the October 1977 Popular Science, had a small compose up in the February 1978 Playboy and had a extremely engaging and detailed assessment from the shield of the February 1978 Electronics Today.

During the archetypal few months Commodore could lone create concerning 30 machines per day so they could not encounter the huge demand. They managed to collect a meager 500 machines in its archetypal year.

UK PET Advert – Kit Spencer – Choose Commodore Software

The four kilobyte PET’s (yes that is 4096 bytes which equates to a whopping 4096 characters!) were offered through mail order for $495 and a three to six week wait. Immediately orders starting flowing in and so Jack Tramiel quickly adjusted the cost to $595. Then the $795 8K example was actively promoted and the 4K example was downplayed by indicating 8K machines would container much sooner than 4K machines.

When Commodore expanded to Europe in 1978 Jack doubled the cost for the identical device but the lone bodily alter was a 220 watt power supply. The UK \ EU models were sold under the Commodore PET 3008 3016 and 3032 badges. As was nearly continually the case in those days, Jack’s instincts were right; the re-branded but alternatively identical 3000 sequence and connected forthcoming models were extremely prosperous in the European markets at the higher prices.

CBM Brochure – Meeting The Needs of Professionals

The COMMODORE BASIC Operating System was written by Bill Gates and Paul Allen from their fledgling Micro-Soft Corporation (later renamed to Microsoft Corporation). Commodore Basic was the lone unlimited application licence always granted by Microsoft to any business for all products despite of the number of copies used. Commodore went on to create exactly millions of machines alongside assorted forms of Commodore Basic and did not pay Microsoft a sole cent beyond the first licence acquisition in 1976/7.

The PET was a big hit and in these first days of computers. Commodore was receiving as many as 50 requests a day from small, would be device stores that wanted to market the PET. Jack was in the luxurious stance of being capable to choice and choose his dealers. He insisted all stores have:

a fine endeavor history
a retailing shop front
an in shop assistance technician
a parts inventory, and most importantly
pay Commodore a prosperity deposit ongoing for all orders

Commodore PET affirmative 2041 Floppy Disk Drive

Within a twelvemonth Commodore had adequate negative feedback concerning their nearly unusable chiclet keyboard that they decided to current a norm keyboard model. To create area for the “real” keyboard, they had to eliminate the integrated cassette strip drive. Just following that, the costly metal cases were replaced alongside cheaper synthetic cases. By 1980 the PET had a massive 12″ green and pale detect version, dubbed the “Fat 40” which afterward became standard.

I recall purchasing my Commodore PET 4016 alongside 9″ screen, strip run and a 2031 170K sole floppy run for concerning CDN$2000 (adjusting for cost increase that is concerning $6000 in 2018!) from my local dealer in Belleville, Ontario in concerning 1980. I motionless own that equipment and all devices activity akin the day they remaining the factory. (Click on the keyboard image to the correct to see that PET.) At the period Canadian $ were fair improved than ‘par’ alongside American $ and that Commodore was a Canadian business alongside grave operations in Toronto, fair a two hours from my house.

Commodore Education Brochure – PET, SuperPET, 2041 Disk, VIC-20, Printers

Commodore developed many revisions of the PET hardware and firmware, perchance the most interesting of which is the SuperPET. Using Ontario Canada’s University of Waterloo, Commodore developed the worlds first “co-processor computer”. The Commodore SuperPET was a standard Commodore PET 8032 alongside 6502 processor, affirmative an unified enlargement commission that carried a Motorola 6809 processor and 64K additional memory. In fact there was an $795 ($1750 in 2018 dollars) upgrade kit to convert your 8032 into a SuperPET. The SuperPET manufacturing was contracted to BMB CompuScience of Milton Ontario, Canada.

There were two small toggle switches under the correct flank of the chassis to change which CPU was in use and in what manner the device was to operate. The SuperPET ran Waterloo MicroAPL, MicroFORTRAN, MicroBASIC, MicroPASCAL, MicroCOBOL in supplement to the norm Commodore Basic v4. It was to be used primarily by scientists and students to activity off-line from a company’s or school’s mainframe. A SuperPET could be effortlessly connected to a mainframe and upload any was achieved while off-line (i.e. debugged APL code, processed data…). At a period whenever mainframes disbursal hundreds of thousands of dollars, the SuperPET was really an innovative device alongside the low low retailing cost tag of fair $2795 (adjusting for cost increase that is concerning $6000 in 2018).

By 1982 PET revenue were declining alongside increased competition and Commodore decided to refresh the row alongside what Commodore called the CBM-II line: the “B” and “P” Series were conceived. These machines came in many distinct configurations including ones that did not have unified monitors. These were the archetypal manufacturing computers to athletics the snappy Ira Velinsky designed circular case which won an global Industrial Design award.

The “P” or Personal Series machines were demonstrated at commerce shows and a small number of beta machines were released to Canadian and American dealers to show to prospective clients what they could do. Unfortunately many dealers sold those demo machines. In case you don’t know, beta method pre-release and not finished. As specified these beta machines were buggy so they P Series PET’s got a bad name before they were equal released. Commodore additionally idea that the new P Series would cut into their exploding Commodore 64 endeavor so they cancelled the P line all-together. All of the P128 inventory that Commodore was capable to recover from dealers was plowed into a district fill.

“B” or Business Series machines on the another hand were released in the two North America and Europe. A top of the row Commodore B had several extremely notable specifications:

two unified 5.25″ drives alongside a 1MB of capability (in 1983!)
128K of RAM expandable to a intellect boggling 1MB
powerful 6509 CPU at 1Mhz
potential admission to almost all part of PC endeavor application on the earth (see below)
Zilog Z80 co-processor commission that would authorize MS DOS 1.25 and CP/M-86 programs to operate
there are lone three known 8088 cards in known beingness today (2001)
the lone programs that were always developed to run on these cards were “MS-DOS 1.25 for Commodore B Series” and a developer type of CPM-86 (i.e. no genuine software)
the notable Commodore SID audio chip
high resolution graphics
separate keyboard
integrated 80 column, 12″ Display alongside swivel basis (the P Series was colour!)
integrated Commodore Basic Version 7
a smooth, round, sexy case… motionless today the finest looking device ever mass produced

Even alongside all this functionality Commodore failed to market the B Series PET’s in amount and did not assistance it alongside extremely many “B” particular new programs.

As was continually Commodore’s want, they refused to support any of its products alongside much in the way of advertising. This was the period whenever another earth broad companies akin IBM had an advert in all mag and all night on TV. From the commencement the B was doomed. Most of the B Series units were sold in Europe, including the West Germany manufactured C710 ‘high boy’ that I own. The most famous B was the B-128 and in the end Commodore managed to market a measly 15,000 units globally.

Just before Commodore was to plow under the B Series schematics, test machines, and prototype enlargement cards, they did what no another device business had (has?) always done; hand-over these engineering resources to a third gathering without charge. The Chicago B128 Users Group (CBUG) became the keeper of all things “B”.

CBUG worldwide members bought hundreds of machines from a company called Protecto Enterprises of New York who were tasked alongside liquidating the remaining B machines for Commodore.

CBUG developed or distributed so much software, hardware and hype about the B, that it may have really been a viable merchandise for Commodore produce. However its destiny was sealed as Commodore moved on to nearly exclusively create residence computers akin the VIC20 and C64.

In its final weak attempt to keep several of the Business segment, Commodore then produced a few insignificant revisions of the first Commodore PET including the 8296, which was expected to contain Paper Clip term processor, Oracle database, CalcResult spreadsheet. Many of these 8296’s had ExecuDesk ROM part on their chief commission which would commencement the software but a person would motionless have to use ExecuDesk disks to run the applications. ICPUG’s Joe Griffen informs me that the UK models had their application merely provided on diskette. The 8296 that I own (from Britain) certainly did not have any ROM unified software (although I am extremely grateful to Ernie Chorny of the Toronto PET Users Group for burning me that chip.)

Thus ended the narrative of the amazing Commodore PET.

The three largest factors in Commodores eventual downfall were:

It’s all but complete nonaccomplishment to advertise / advance its products at a period whenever big players akin IBM were spending millions
Founder and visionary Jack Tramiel’s departure in 1984 which caused Commodore to endure direction
Commodores surrendering of the Business Market to IBM clones whenever they killed the PET / CBM II lines

My gathering of PET’s grows all year. I now have three Chiclet 2001 Pet’s, two norm keyboard 2001 PET’s, my first 4016 PET, one SuperPET, an 8096, an PET 8296, a C710, and a B128 in the factory box. I motionless bask playing alongside them; they are motionless amazing machines all following all these years.

Note concerning the publish date of the PET: Because so many another texts and websites wrongly province that the PET was archetypal appear at the West Coast Computer Faire, I re-re-rechecked this timing alongside Chuck Peddle in April of 2014 and he stated “We demo’ed an first type to Radio Shack at the CES and afterward did several stories in commerce mag using the identical prototype. So, you are right. General community publish was at the West Coast Computer Faire. We had final operating versions and sold merchandise in the Dallas Computer Show in delayed summer. We took archetypal provider command alongside inspect at June CES.” Thank you Chuck!

Commodore PET Documents:

Commodore PET Magazine Articles

Commodore PET, SuperPET, 4040 and 8050 Frequently Asked Questions Commodore Magazine August 1982
Commodore SuperPET Deeper Down – Criticism TPUG February 1985
SuperPET OS/9 UNIX Released TPUG February 1986
PET Preview & Disassembly of a Chiclet PET 2001 Electronics Today Feb 1978
Wood Chassis Prototype Commodore PET 2001 Comparison to Competition Popular Science Oct 1977
Commodore PET 2001 Review Creative Computing December 1980
Commodore Quarter Century: From Retail Shop to Global Giant Torpet November 1983

Commodore PET Manuals

Commodore PET Brochures

Commodore PET Software Download

Commodore PET Chronology and ROM Versions

Much of the satisfied below was provided courtesy of Joe Giffen of the ICPUG reprinted alongside approval Feb 21, 2003

1976

Spring 1976 MOS Technologies finishes betterment of the 6502 processor
September, MOS and the PET idea are bought by Commodore
October, Jack Tramiel approves the betterment of the PET prototype

1977 January

Chuck Peddle shows the archetypal PET to Radio Shack, expecting to have them retailing it.
Commodore PET 2001 announced at the West Coast Computer Faire. A complete component prepared to plug in to a mains provision and go. The device was programmable in BASIC and set the form for many machines to arrive in that it used a non-standard form of ASCII code (often called PETSCII) in which two complete character sets were available. One set comprised high and lesser case alphabet during the other, the default, had high case alphabet and obstacle graphics symbols. This institution has carried correct through to the 128. The device additionally set the form to arrive alongside outlets being provided for association of a second cassette drive, IEEE peripherals and non-intelligent peripherals (via a person port). It was accessible alongside 4K of person recollection and is most easily recognized by its small calculator manner keyboard and built-in cassette drive. The Operating System contained a figure of errors, most of which were corrected in afterward versions of the PET. The Operating System of these first PETs is variously described as “OLD ROM”, “ORIGINAL ROM” or “BASIC1”. These machines power on alongside the message:
*** COMMODORE BASIC ***
xxxx BYTES FREE

1979 Spring

The 2001-16 and 2001-32, introduced in 1979, were the outcome of the archetypal and most significant revision of the PET. The recollection was at the identical period expanded to give options of 16K or 32K. A complete size GRAPHICS keyboard was fitted leaving no area for a built-in cassette drive. The Operating System was totally revised, becoming what is cognize as “NEW ROM”, “UPGRADE ROM” or “BASIC2”. This removed most of the bugs of “BASIC1”. These machines power on alongside the message:
### COMMODORE BASIC ###
xxxxx BYTES FREE
At the identical period the peripherals which had been promised for so long finally arrived. These were the 2000 sequence printers and the 2040 disk drive (DOS 1).

1979 Fall

Commodore releases the upgraded PET 2001 sequence sporting a larger keyboard, expandability to 32k and an improved (bug fixed) BASIC 1.2 which includes disk support.
The PET was stated a new name for transaction in Europe, CBM 3000. This was purely a cosmetic alter and the machines are as described complete for 2001-16 and -32. The dual disk run 2040 was additionally rebranded becoming the 3040 for Europe. The new DOS 1.2 had some, but not all, of the bugs removed.

1980 Summer

Commodore PET 4000 Series is delivered in North America. In the summer of 1980 Commodore introduced a new range of machines, alongside a additional revision of the Operating System, containing built-in Disk Commands. This Operating System is known, from its power-on communication as “BASIC4”. Two chief sizes of recollection were available, 16K and 32K.
Like their predecessors, these machines had 40 pillar screens and Graphics keyboards. Originally these machines were fitted alongside 9″ screens

1981 Summer

Following the introduction of the 8032, 12″ screens were fixed as standard. These later 4000 sequence machines are commonly referred to as “FAT-40” machines. These machines power on alongside the message:
*** COMMODORE BASIC 4.0 ***
xxxxx BYTES FREE
The peripherals were again upgraded, the disk run became the 4040, operating DOS 2.1 which allowed true related files. The printers were replaced alongside the 4022, a unit according to the prosperous Epson MX-70. 8000 Series. Shortly after the introduction of the BASIC4 machines, COMMODORE released their archetypal 80 column device (the 8032). The PET had eventually arrive of age!
This had a 12″ display and a built-in ‘beeper’. It was fitted alongside a norm 32K of recollection and the  BUSINESS keyboard (often criticized by those who grew up alongside the 40   column machines). These machines power up, in lesser case, alongside the  message:
*** commodore basic  4.0 ***
31743 bytes free
With the new device came a additional range of peripherals. The 8050, a elevated density disk run was introduced alongside 500K-bytes of retention on a disk and a 132 pillar printer (the 8023) additionally appeared.
Commodore introduces the University of Waterloo engineered SuperPET, a 96k 8000 sequence PET sporting both a 6502 or 6809 processor. The 6809 manner offers the use of loading in disk based languages and interfacing via a true RS-232 harbor to larger mini and mainframe computers for programming and tongue development
It was about this time that a collection of workers at Commodore in Japan are alleged to have put together a device for their children. The device was designed to plug into a tv set and had color output. There is a rumor that the machine was stated BASIC 2, since those were the chips which were lying around the office. I doubt this, since the functioning scheme is not the same BASIC 2 as in the PET, but is a derivative, having distinct input/output routines and, of course, the color features. It may be that the lone origin code accessible was BASIC 2! Whatever the truth, that device went on to rotate into the VIC 20 and set the form for a range of cheaper residence computers foremost to the C44. It was their concentration on the expanding residence device market which led, in my opinion, to Commodore’s defeat of their guide in the endeavor market.
In 1981 came the archetypal of a figure of variants on the 8032; a machine, known as the 8096, having an additional 64K of memory, not immediately accessible from BASIC. A additional variant, introduced at the identical time, was the SuperPET (CBM 9000) (Micro Main-Frame in Europe) alongside the two 6502 and 6809 processors. This supported a number of another languages, including FORTRAN.

1983 – Early

Commodore announced three new ranges of machines (64, 500 and 700). I attended a ‘Commodore Show’ hosted by my dealer and my notes disclose that the 500 and 700 machines were not really on display. At the period I described the machines as follows:
Commodore 64 – This machine is the cheapest of the new CBM machines. It is an expansion of the popular VIC device and is aimed at the advanced hobbyist.
Commodore 500 – The 500 series is described by CBM as the “Professional/Scientific” computer. The machine features a 40 pillar color display, although as alongside the 64, no display is provided alongside the essential machine.
Commodore 700 – This series of device is described by CBM as the “Business” computer. The machines in this range cater for an 80 pillar monochrome screen, which can either be supplied alongside the machine, or in the form of a separate monitor. The device can run most of the application which is accessible for our 8032/8096 machines, although several of the additional advanced techniques (such as display addressing) may not activity without modification. The 700 series volition have BASIC as their norm tongue but volition be capable to obtain PASCAL, FORTH, LOGO and another “soft-loaded” languages. Additionally, the two the 500 and 700 sequence machines can obtain a “second processor” choice of either a Z-80 or 8088 microprocessor. These will allow the device to run under either of the “Industry Standard” systems of CP/M-86 or MS-DOS, allowing a huge range of programs to be used.
Of these machines, the 64 has, of course, been an amazing success; the 500 was still-born and the 700 was re-launched at smallest twice, before being eventually ditched in favour of a revamped type of the 8000 series.
At the period the 700 was announced, the final floppy disk variant, the twice aligned 8250 was introduced, giving 1 megabyte of retention on norm 5.25 floppies.
In Jan ’83 the 8000 sequence was stated a facelift by acceptance of the Porsche inspired scheme case of the 700 (which was really penned by Commodore’s own Ira Velinsky). A famous rumour at the period suggested that the suffix “-SK” did in fact remain for “Smoove Kase”!
Although the new packaging made a few differences to the connections – border connectors were replaced alongside IEEE ‘D’ connectors, the Operating System was the identical as on before 8000 sequence machines.

1984 – 1985

Over the next two years Commodore produced a few additional variants of the 8000. The 8296 featured 96K of additional RAM. At the period Tom Cranstoun was reported as saying that 32K of this could lone be got at by the person beginning the device and changing the links. The final versions of the 8296 were the 8296D alongside a built in 8250 run and the 8296GD alongside a elevated resolution graphics commission and drive. The functioning scheme was motionless BASIC 4.

February 1986

In America, the 700 (or B) sequence is currently enjoying far greater assistance than it always did when it was available. Commodore gave distant most of the entitlements of the B’s to the Chicago B128 Users Group (CBUG) who have taken ‘the orphan’ to their breast and a really amazing amount of betterment activity has been carried out by their members.
A 1M-byte enlargement is available and the 8088 Second processor which never appeared for transaction has been rescued from the depths of Commodore’s investigation labs and CP/M-86 is now available for the ‘B’.
On the application front, having been stated a publish by CBM to get all matter for the ‘B’, their group have managed to set up several fine deals alongside the software houses. Superoffice is accessible alongside Superbase V2! Oh, Precision, how we would affection that for the 8096. Precision have additionally produced Superscript 3 for the ‘B’. Version 3 is the list driven one seen on the 64 and 128. JCL’s 700 studio was accessible under licence to CBUG members for concerning $30, and the Petspeed compiler (my favourite) was accessible for $99.
CBUG have additionally obtained a lot of first Commodore records (much of it rescued in the nick of period as Corby was closing) including the 8088 schematics & CP/M-86 info (40pp), application dev’t info (302pp) and the first Programmers Reference (798pp).

1986

Commodore abandons the Business market whenever it dropped the 8296 and ended the ‘PET’ range

How to Identify Your Commodore PET Hardware:

Reprinted alongside approval of the author, Joe Griffen of the ICPUG Feb 22, 2003

At all introduction of a new device CBM have provided the users alongside the chance to upgrade their machines and third parties akin Mick Bignall and Supersoft have been in the fore alongside conversions. Thus the tag on the forefront of the device may have small direction on what lies within. Tom Cranstoun has what appears from its labels to be a 2032, ample keyboard device (or is it a 2016!). When switched on, the 9″ display powers up in lesser case alongside the BASIC 4 legend. Even then, the fact that the device is an 8096 is hidden.

Switching on a ‘PET’ will reveal what functioning scheme lurks within. For those alongside BASIC 2 machines, an upgrade to BASIC 4 (while motionless maintaining the choice to toggle to BASIC 2) is accessible from Supersoft. This board, ‘The BASIC 2+4’ normally sold for £65+VAT. The upgrade to BASIC 4 is fine worthwhile for the improvements to the functioning scheme (better cord handling and disk commands).

Disk drives may be harder to identify. One method which sorts most out is to format a disk in the drive:

OPEN 1,8,15:PRINT#1,”N0:TEST DISK,TD”:CLOSE 1 plant alongside all drives. Follow this alongside LOAD “$0”,8 afterward LIST to see the disk directory. The figure of blocks liberated volition inform you the run type:

670 blocks – 2040 or 3040 664 blocks – 4040 2052 blocks – 8050 4133 blocks – 8250

The ‘single density’ drive x040 cannot be upgraded to twice density 8050 norm but an upgrade (again from Supersoft) volition change the 2040 or 3040 into a 4040. The normal cost was £55+VAT. In supplement to providing Relative files, the upgrade removes a figure of bugs and gives automatic recognition of the disk without the need for ‘initialization’.

My final direction to all PET owners is to prosecute my example of 1982; buy Rae West’s publish ‘Programming the PET/CBM’ West published by Level Ltd.

Commodore PET Image Gallery:

Click to enlarge any picture

Commodore PET 2001 Factory – This is the Commodore PET factory, apt in Palo Alto California in 1978.

Commodore PET B700 Factory – This Commodore PET B700 “High Boy” factory was apt in Pennsylvania in 1984.

commodore-pet-vic-20-superpet-education_experience_2

Commodore Education Brochure – PET, SuperPET, 2041 Disk, VIC-20, Printers

Commodore PET affirmative 2041 Floppy Disk Drive

Commodore PET 2021 Printer 1978/79 – I do not accept this electrostatic printer was always produced

Commodore PET 2020 Printer 1978/79 I do not accept this dot matrix printer for the PET was always produced. Look at the SIZE of that thing

Prototype PET 2001 Advert Notice that the rounded edges on PET pictures to the left. This was a prototype machine. The chief image to the correct is the norm UK manufacturing example 2001

UK-commodore_pet_200_software_practical_computing_december_1979

Commodore PET British Advert – Britain’s Number 1 microcomputer

Commodore PET 4008 Keyboard – This is my archetypal PET , I motionless own it, and it motionless works

Very rare PET 200S The Commodore PET 200 is rebaged PET 8096 SK. This particular component is the S example which designates a Swedish keyboard to allow characters akin Å, Ä and Ö. According to Anders G. who is the arrogant owner of this component (and provided these pictures, appreciate you) the S was lone sold by two stores in Sweden for a extremely abbreviated period (i.e. it is among the most rare manufacturing models around)

Swedish Commodore PET Manual This manual was included alongside Commodore PET 200S’ Courtesy of Anders G.

Commodore PET 8296SK From another angles

Commodore PET 8296SK This was the end of row for the Commodore PET. Clearly the finest looking device always made, its circular chassis was designed by Porche! The circular chassis was introduced on several 8032 models and was contined on in the B and P Series Commodore PET II lines.The SK heading indicates Separate Keyboard.The end of this row signified the end of Commodore’s activity in the endeavor market, which many reviewers accept was one of many grave errors in scheme which eventually guide to the companies demise.

CBM II – B128 – The Commodore B128 was the lone 6509 based scheme to accomplish any serious, albeit humble manufacturing in the United States. This particular component is serial figure #5553! Sporting 128k of recollection and the advanced 6509 microprocessor, this example was a part of the CBM-II sequence which were Commodore’s planned replacement row for the aging PET line. This particular example was the lone example in the row to see grave manufacturing and it did not fair fine in the endeavor community. After a comparatively abbreviated run, the row was ended and the remaining B-128’s were liquidated at ‘rock bottom’ prices through companies akin Protecto Industries. (see our OTHER ADVERTS exhibition for pricing). Courtesy of Dan Benson… again

Commodore PET 510 Also extremely rare PET using MOS 6509 CPU, 6581 SID and 128K RAM. The 510’s used the VIC-II 40 pillar Hi-Resolution color graphics video chip.

CBM II – Commodore 610 – The Commodore 610 – the lone 6509 based scheme to accomplish any serious, albeit humble manufacturing in Europe. See the B128 item for additional details. Courtesy of Dan Benson

Commodore C700 British Advert – The finest looking device all made!

Commodore C710 – The rare 710 was part of the CBM-II row C= developed in the mid 1980’s as a successor to the first Commodore PET. This device was province of the art. It contains a 6509 processor, which allows for admission of up to 1mb of ram in a distinctive ‘banking’ method – much additional advantageous than the 6502 banking schemes. It additionally it contains a SID audio part – extremely unusually for what was billed as a endeavor machine! The CBM-II models were Commodore’s final attempt to grasp the endeavor market alongside it’s better proprietary technology. It contains Commodore BASIC 4.0 IEEE-488 peripheral compatibility, an RS232-C port, and 80 pillar content video capability. This particular example has a whopping 128k, and according to Commodore literature, is expandable to complete 700k. The CBM 710, alongside alongside its likewise rare stablemate the CBM 720, portray the top of the CBM-II line. The stylishly curved synthetic case alongside detachable keyboard and and built in detect are a difference to the remainder of the line

Commodore Germany – Commodore advert showing a copy laptop/portable PC produced lone for Europe and a PET/CBM 8096 Rough Translation is: The New & The Successful From Commodore – A new 16-Bit MS-DOS Computer for the Enterprise alongside Commodores elevated standards… I have no date, but I anticipate it is from concerning 1986

The Amazing Commodore SFD 1001 What is so different concerning this drive, you ask? Well merely put, this run allows you to shop a complete meg of data on regular sole density disks!! Pretty amazing whenever you regard whenever these drives were made!!(The first 80s.) There were difficult drives at this period alongside 1 meg capacities and this run manages to do it on cheap sole density disks!! We can lone put 1.44MB on High Density floppies equal today (2003). There are likely lone a few hundred of these remaining in the world. Courtesy of Paul Gable. The SFD-1001 which was sold mostly through liquidators was an IEEE-488 based drive. Back in the days whenever these were being sold I heard it stated that SFD stood for ‘Super Fast Drive’ since it was parallel. At the period whenever 1541’s reigned, run speed was incredibly slow. Courtesy of Daniel Bingamon The Single Floppy Disk 1001 plant alongside PET or C64/128 hardware. It was basically fractional an 8250 run and had a parallel IEEE input connection. As such, it needed an I an IEEE cartridge on the C64/128. Joe Griffen.

Ultra Rare Commodore 8280 8″ Dual Drive – This is the 35 lb Commodore 8280 8″ disk drive. Commodore briefly put out these 8″, 1 meg drives at the end of the 1970’s to compliment the PET device line. Courtesy Dan Benson

Computhink PET Floppy Drive & RAM BoardThe CompuThink ‘ExpandaPET’ scheme required the commission you see current to be installed in the PET chassis. In supplement to allowing a PET 2001 to use the drive, it added 32K of RAM to the system.This run is historically crucial since it was the extremely archetypal PET run beating Commodore to market by nearly a year. It uses a proprietary DOS so the disk format and commands are incompatible alongside Commodore tagged drives. However, it was substantially faster the Commodore units.Richard Tobey designed the ExpandaPET and disk run interface hardware and Mike Korns wrote the DOS for the run system.Compu/Think went on to create their own merchandise that was additionally 6502 based called The MiniMax. This was a 2mhz 6502 alongside a 12″ 80×25 screen, complete keyboard and numeric pad, affirmative 2 8″ or 5.25 floppy drives.. It was introduced in 1979. LAter they changed their name to Momentum ComputerCommodore.ca owned one of these earlier but fair never had the period to instal it. It looks fairly complex

Softbox by SSE for Commodore PET / CBMThere were multiple products akin these in the first 80’s. They were the center essential construction obstacle of what today would be called a LAN. Allowing users (typically to a maximum of 8 machines) to portion a floppy run and in the improbable event a person could oversee a harddrive (typically 5MB to 10MB – not GB!) they could portion that to.Compute August 1982

Diskshare 9000 This equipment was used to authorize Commodore PETs to portion a floppy run between systems. My elevated academy bought a MUPET scheme to do the identical item and following a twelvemonth or so gave up since of reliability problems.

Commodore Educator 64

Commodore PET 64 – A Commodore PET Chassis from Warrenty returns refurbished, new holes cut in the chassis for C64 ports, alongside a new Commodore 64 motherboard inside. Sold as a new merchandise to schools for instructor use

Commodore Educator 64

Commodore SuperPET Brochure Cover – 5 Languages, two Processors – $2795 ($6000 in 2018 dollars)

Commodore SuperPET Manuals – Waterloo 6809 Assembler, microBASIC, microCOBAL, microPASCAL, microFORTRAN

Commodore Japan for PET CBM 4016 and 8000 Series – The advert shows the VIC 1000 sequence (i.e. VIC20) and the CBM 4000 8000 PET. It makes citation to PET 2001 as fine as VisiCalc and WordCraft80.

Italian Advert for Commodore PET 2001 – Translated to English says “Commodore To Work With Satisfaction” from Harden in Cremona Italy / Italia

Commodore PET alongside William Shatner – Captain James T Kirk of the USS Commodore

William Shatner Commodore PET Cardboard StandupIn shop promo. An 8000 sequence PET was used in the archetypal Star Trek movie and apparently multiple others. It was painted aureate and could be seen in Captian Kirk’s living quarters.Same clothes, identical hair, identical PET… this appears to have been taken at the identical period as the ad next to this one.

SuperPET CMS-2001 Factory Control System – Process Control SystemTORPET Nov 1983

commodore_pet_want_whats_best_kit_spencer_england_practicle_computing_july_1980

British PET 3008 Advert – Kit SpencerThe man himself, Kit Spencer!

WordPro For PET Creative Computing October 1980

Davidson – Richards Ltd Commodore PET Eprom Burner

Commodore PET Cassette Interface – This was an following market item that you could use to nexus any cassette participant to your PET

CBM 2023 PET Dot Matrix Printer – It’s definately a rare one. Made for the PET 2001-8

Commodore PET Acoustic Coupler Modem 8010 – Yes… This is how is was done in the old days. Jam your phone handset into two rubber holders to authorize the audio from the ‘modem’ to transfer to your phone line. WOW this was bad technology… but there were no options for most group and companies in the final 1970’s and first 1980’s since most phones did not have ‘jacks’; phones were hardwired into the partition fair akin a ray switch.

Commodore PET 64K Upgrade Board – Yes… you peruse it correctly… fair 64K required all this equipment and space. I have not seen a cost catalog for this component but I anticipate that whenever it was new (likely about 1980) it apt would have sold for US$750.I own this commission alongside alongside an 8K 2001 which has a akin enlargement commission which for 24K (bringing the total to 32K). This was a HUGE amount of recollection for 1980