| Name | Commodore 16 |
| Made by | Commodore Business Machines (CBM) |
| Released | - June 1984 (Summer-CES), introduced as 'The world's learning machine'
- this particular machine was made in 1986, according to TED's production date. Interesting to see is that all other chips, although HMOS-2 (see below) were already produced in 1984
- 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 110502
- according to its box it was produced in the UK, although the serial number's prefix ('DA4') indicates that the machine itself was built in Germany
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| Board-info | |
| CPU | MOS 8501- 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 is a PAL-version; NTSC-versions of the C16 exist and were sold e.g. in the US
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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)
C318004-05 CBM 264 KERNAL Rev.5 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 C116, the C16 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 | 66 keys/ US (QWERTY) layout- compared to the small C116, the C16 has a far better keyboard, identical to that of VC-20 and C64. Some say it's even better than the Plus/4's, which feels much 'softer'
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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
- 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')- 2x 8 pin mini-DIN joystick /mouse/ paddles (e.g. for CBM T-1341)
- 50 pin female edge conn. cartridge interface (programmable I/O, with disk-I/O functions for
CBM 1551 and/ or for cartridges)
- 8 pin DIN-41524 audio/video
- 6 pin DIN CBM serial IEC-bus (printer or up to 5 diskdrives)
- 8 pin mini-DIN CBM264 cassetteport (for CBM VC 1531 datasette)
- RF TV-out
- 9V DC in for power supply (P/NO. 251539-03)
- machine has a reset-button
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| Miscellaneous | - The 264-series also included the Plus/4 and the C116, and the prototypes C232, C264 and CV364 (see the Plus/4 page for additional infos)
- The C16 was built as successor to the VC-20, being a cheap entry-level 'Volkscomputer' (in the US marketed as 'The world's learning machine'). Therefore, it is sometimes referred to as VIC-16 or VC-16. However, it seems that there was no real market for such a machine, or the even cheaper C116, so they were finally sold-out at discount chains and supermarkets (like 'Aldi' in Germany). What's more, both C16 and C116 were not part of the original 264-series concept (which was more or less abandoned when the production machines were launched),
so it seems that Commodore just wanted to clear their stock of already produced 264 parts
- Unlike the Plus/4, both C16 and C116 lack the userport (which was used for centronics-adaptors or modems), reducing the overall production cost
- The C16's board is not as highly integrated as the C116's, and has a cheaper shielding. But what's really interesting about all 264-series mainboards is their uniqueness - each machine has its own, individual board-design (only Plus/4 and C264 share the same board).
This is unusal, because the first point to start cost-reduction would've been the use of one standardized board for the whole series
- Some people believe that the C16 was just the 'US-counterpart' to the 'european' C116, which was never sold there. Unlikely, since C16 and C116 were sold simultaneously in Germany and some other european countries (the C16 with much bigger success, by the way). Additionally, the C116 doesn't seem to have a real purpose or market position, apart from testing Commodore Japan's capability of shrinking an existing design to the max...
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