| Name | Commodore 116 |
| Made by | Commodore Business Machines (CBM) |
| Released | - June 1984 (Summer-CES). Some sources say that sales began in December 1984
- this particular machine was most likely produced in 1984, according to its chips' production dates. Only TED bears a 1986 timestamp, so I assume it was replaced later (or the machine was part of the '264 sell-out', which took place in 1986)
- the 264-series prototypes, C264 and CV364, were first presented on Winter-CES, on January 13th, 1984. The C232 was released shortly after and distributed to developers. For production, the C264 became Plus/4 (June 1984) and the others
abandoned (see the Plus/4 page for a 264-series overview)
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| Serial-No. | DA4 8142 |
| Board-info | |
| CPU | MOS 8501R1- 6502 code-compatible but with additional 7 bit bi-directional I/O port
- produced in HMOS-2 process (highspeed NMOS)
- there were also machines with MOS 7501 CPU (HMOS-1)
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| Speed | 1.69 MHz (PAL)/ 1.76 MHz (NTSC)- this machine's PAL - like almost every C116! Only one NTSC-prototype is known to exist (in contrast to C16 and Plus/4, which were officially sold as both PAL and NTSC-versions). Thus the C116 was only sold in Europe
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| RAM | - 16 KBytes:
- TED can address up to 64 KBytes as video-RAM
- expandable to 64 KBytes, but only with 3rd party expansions (when C16/ C116 were released, the 264-series was already abandoned by CBM). However,
there was only few 264 software requiring 64K RAM
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| ROM/ Native OS | C318006-01 Commodore BASIC V3.5 (16 KBytes)
C318004-04 CBM 264 KERNAL Rev.4 PAL-G (16 KBytes)- KERNAL also contains character generator and 'TEDMON' (machine language monitor)
- compared to BASIC 2.0, BASIC 3.5 adds support for TED's features (graphics and sound) and improved disk functions
- like the C16, the C116 lacks the option ROM sockets which
Plus/4, C232 and CV364 have (occupied by the TriMicro 3-plus-1 software in the Plus/4)
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| Keyboard/ Layout | 62 keys (the cursor keys are one)/ US (QWERTY) layout- 'Chiclet'-style keys (rubber)
- the C116 prototypes (well, at least the only one I've ever seen) had a keyboard layout differing from that of the production machines:
instead of Esc (top left, see portrait above for comparison) they had the POUND-symbol, Esc was found where the later production machines have left Shift. At the place where the POUND-symbol was located on production machines, the protoype had Inst Del - production machines have Del/Inst as an additional function key instead (top right)
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| Graphics | MOS 8360R2 TED ('Text Editing Device')- Max.Res.: 320x200
- Max. Colors: 121 (16 colors in 8 shades = 128, where 7 are shades of black)
- Text: 40x25 characters with graphical charset
- the MOS 8360 is both PAL-B and NTSC-M version. Note in that context, that only one C116 NTSC-prototype is known to exist (see Misc)
- since the 264-series don't have a dedicated color-RAM (like the C64),
the color information has to be stored in main memory, which is accessed by both CPU and TED (effectively slowing down the machine in some modes)
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| Sound | 2 sound-generators integrated in TED- generator #1 can produce tone only, while #2 can also create distortion effects (= three voices)
- output done via SOUND-command, volume controlled via VOL
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| Media | - standard Audio-cassettes (via CBM VC 1531 'Datasette')
- 5.25" disks, 170 KBytes/ disk via
- later: 3.5" disks (CBM 1581), 800 KBytes/ disk
- the parallel CBM 1551 was connected via the cartridge connector. Driven by TED, parallel disk-access was three times faster than serial ('TCBM bus'). TCBM was also planned as expansion for the 64 series, but the idea was abandoned upon creation of the C128's serial burst mode
- two CBM 1551 could be connected simultaneously, their interface cartridges being daisy-chained. Furthermore, if a parallel and serial drive with the same device ID are present, the parallel drive has higher priority
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| Input/ Output | MOS 6529B ('Single Port Interface')
MOS 251641-02 PLA ('Programmable Logic Array') |
| Miscellaneous | - The 264-series also included the Plus/4 and the C16, and the prototypes C232, C264 and CV364 (see the Plus/4 page for additional infos)
- The C116 seemed to be planned as an opponent for the Sinclair Spectrum - as cheap entry-level machine. But since only about 100.000 units were produced (assumption from the highest serial numbers I've seen), it wasn't very successful. One reason for that (apart from the 264-series' failure in general) was probably that the C16 with its far better keyboard (but only slightly higher price) was sold simultaneously (at least in Europe)
- Unlike the Plus/4, both C16 and C116 lack the userport (which was used for centronics-adaptors or modems), reducing the overall production cost
- Some people think that the C116 was just a C16-replacement for the German market. This cannot be true for two reasons: first is, that a C116 NTSC-prototype is confirmed to exist, implying that marketing the machine in the USA was planned. Second is that the C16 was also sold in Germany, as already mentioned. Additionally, the C116 was also reported to have been sold in other european countries, such as Hungary
- Like the MAX machine, the C116 was created by Commodore Japan Ltd. - appearantly they were specialized on cost- and size-reduction of existing designs (the MAX was a stripped-down C64). When holding this tiny machine in your hands (it's not even the size of DIN A4/ US-letter paper, and much smaller than the Plus/4), you'll agree that Commodore's decision to use DIN- and mini-DIN connectors for the 264-series was a wise one
- By the way: in BASIC 3.5, the undocumented call SYS 52651 brings up the developement team's names (see screenshot below)
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