Commodore 64
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The ASSY 250407 C64 (made in West-Germany) with a classical brown CBM 1541 and CBM 1530 datasette in the background
(picture copyright by M.A.Grundke) |
Specifications
| Name | - Commodore 64
- aka 'C64-I', 'breadbin', 'bullnose'
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| Codenames | VIC-30 (while in development), VIC-40 (shortly before release)- as it seems, there has been some confusion about the C64 codenames. Rumour mill has it that 'VIC-40' was initially a 40-column VIC-I, which would result in an enhanced VIC-20 (and indeed, VIC-40 was also announced as an upgrade for VIC-20 owners). However, since the 40-column VIC-I was obsolete with introduction of the C64, the codename VIC-40 seems to have been 'recycled' for the C64
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| Made by | Commodore Business Machines (CBM) |
| Released | - 1983
- this particular machine was produced in 1984, as indicated on its chips
- first prototypes were shown on Winter CES, Las Vegas, in January 1982, and the first production machines hit the stores around August/ September 1982
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| Serial-No. | WG A408473 |
| Board-info | |
| CPU | MOS 6510- 6502 code-compatible with additional
- 8 bit bi-directional I/O port and
- 256 bytes SRAM integrated
- produced in NMOS-process
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| Speed | 985.248 KHz (PAL)/ 1.0227 MHz (NTSC) |
| RAM | - 64 KBytes:
- up to 16 KBytes can be addressed as video-RAM by VIC-II
- expandable to 576 KB/ bankswitched (CBM 1750 RAM-expansion)
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| ROM/ Native OS | C901226-01 Commodore BASIC V2 (8 KBytes)
C901227-03 CBM C64 KERNAL Revision 3 (8 KBytes)
C901225-01 character generator ROM (4 KBytes)- In this early C64 board-layout, BASIC and KERNAL were stored in two separate ROMs
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| Keyboard/ Layout | 66 keys/ US (QWERTY) |
| Graphics | MOS 6569R3 'VIC-II' ('Video Interface Controller')- Max.Resolution: 320x200 pixels ('high-res')
- 40x25 attribute cells, each 8x8 pixel in size
- 2 colors per cell (background, foreground)
- Max.Colors: 16 ('multi-color' @ 160x200 pixels)
- 40x25 attribute cells, each 4x8 pixel in size
- 4 colors per cell (3 foreground + background)
- most common mode for games
- with tricks (such as combining two multi-color modes with interlace, or forcing BAD SCAN LINE at each raster line), it is possible to use up to 16 colors per attribute cell,
or to increase the palette to 128 colors. However, since these modes all have major drawbacks (such as interlace flicker, extensive CPU- and VIC-cycle usage), they're mostly used for demos
- furthermore, VIC-II can create up to 256 movable display objects ('sprites'), 8 per line, and max. 21x24 pixels each
- Text: 40x25 characters with graphical charset
- this is a PAL-B version; the NTSC-M version of VIC-II was the 6567. Additionally, there were 6572 (for PAL-N) and 6573 (PAL-M)
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| Sound | MOS 6581 'SID' ('Sound Interface Device')- 3 independant voices, each with 9 octave range (0.1Hz-4KHz in 0.059Hz steps)
- 4 waveforms (sawtooth, triangle, variable pulse & noise)
- programmable ADSR (attack, delay, sustain, release) envelope generator
- programmable filter, independantly selectable for each voice (low pass, high pass, Band pass, notch outputs)
- master volume control
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| Media | - standard Audio-cassettes (via CBM VC-1530 'Datasette')
- 5.25" disks, 170 KBytes/ disk (serial drives; CBM VC-1540, CBM 1541, CBM 1570 and so on)
- later: other CBM-drives via IEE488-interface
- later: 3.5" disks (CBM 1581), 800 KBytes/disk
- later still: harddisks up to 30 MBytes
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| Input/ Output | 2x MOS 6526 'CIA' ('Complex Interface Adaptor')
MOS 906114-01 'PLA' ('Programmable Logic Array')- 2x 9 pin joystick/ mouse/ paddles/ lightpen
- 44 pin female edge conn. cartridge interface
- 8 pin DIN-41524 audio/video (older boards had 5 pin-video)
- 6 pin round-DIN CBM serial IEC-bus (printer or up to five diskdrives)
- 12 pin male edge conn. CBM cassetteport
- 24 pin male edge conn. 'user-port' (8 bit, programmable I/O, e.g for modems, centronics-adaptors)
- RF TV-out
- 7 pin round-DIN power supply-conn. (9V)
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| Miscellaneous | - First Commodore 64 prototypes were shown on Winter CES, Las Vegas in January 1982. First production units were shipped around August/ September 1982
- In the development-process it went under the name 'VIC-30' (to show that it would be the VC-20's successor), or later 'VIC-40' (apparently because of VIC-II's 40 column text ability). However, VIC-40 was also the codename of a 40 column VIC-I (probably VIC-II's direct predecessor), which was announced as VIC-20 upgrade. Also planned, furthermore, was the entry-level VIC-10,
a cut-down VIC-30 (later renamed to MAX machine and only sold in Japan)
- It was the first Commodore computer to make use of hardware sprites (or 'movable display objects', as they were also called) to smoothen games or animations. VIC-II can display 256 of these at once, 8 per line
- The C64's soundchip, SID, probably was the best of its time, and unrivaled for many years. It was even used in the C65 prototype (i.e. two SIDs for stereo)
- The C64 is the best-selling computer of all time - sources report between 17 mio. (a 1993 Commodore sales report) and 30 mio. (Guiness Book) machines to have been sold, exact figures unknown
- When the 1.000.000st C64 was built in Germany in 1986,
there was even a 'Golden Edition' (aka 'Jubilee 64', about 350 pcs. are reported to exist). What's more, there has also been a golden 64 in the USA (in 1984), although I don't know the occasion (most probably the millionth C64 sold there)
- This C64 is a 'Model-I', with the popular so-called 'breadbin'-design and the second C64 motherboard revision ('version A board'). See the board overview for details
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| Two popular applications on the Commodore 64: text processing with 'Vizawrite 64' (1983, left screenshot), and Origin's 'Ultima - The First Age of Darkness', which started the popular Ultima RPG-series (right screenshot, 1986). The C64-version of Ultima was launched together with the IBM PC version, six years after the game appeared for the Apple ][ in 1980 |
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