| Name | Commodore CHESSmate |
| Made by | Commodore International Limited |
| Released | 1979- indicated by the production year imprinted on the ICs
- first units are said to have been sold in Summer 1978
|
| Serial-No. | none |
| Additional info | COMMODORE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
POWER SUPPLY: AC ADAPTOR C160
POWER RATING: AC 10V 600mA
CHESS MATE 201490 01 MADE IN HONG KONG |
| Board-info | |
| CPU | MOS MPS 6504- the 6504 is a 28-pin 6502 with an address range limited to 8 KBytes, and lacking the 6502's NMI and RDY request-lines. Like most 65xx-CPUs, it was available in 1, 2, 3 and 4 MHz-versions
- also interesting is the 'MPS'-prefix, which is part of CBM's order number. The 'P' means plastic package, whereas chips with the 'MCS'-prefix came in ceramic package. However, since ceramic packages were almost completely replaced by plastic, the MPS/ MCS-prefix was omitted on later CBM-chips
|
| Speed | 1 MHz |
| RAM | 320 Bytes: |
| ROM | 5 KBytes:- MOS MPS 6332 (32Kx1 = 4KB)
- most probably, this is where MicroChess 1.5 by Peter Jennings is stored
- MicroChess was originally created on Commodore's KIM-1 and then modified for the CHESSmate's slightly different hardware. There were also versions for PET and C64
- 1024x8 ROM integrated in MOS MPS 6530 (see I/O)
- next to the 6332 is another unused ROM-socket,
or at least the soldering pads for one (an early option ROM socket?)
|
| Keyboard/ Layout | - 19 membrane keys for entering and confirming moves:
- A-H keys
- 1-8 keys
- ENTER key
- NEW GAME key
- CLEAR key
- also see the keyboard PCB overview
|
| 'Graphics' | - Four red 7-segment LED-displays used either as chess clock or for showing moves. They're labeled
- FROM/ TIME WHITE (first two) and
- TO/ TIME BLACK (last two)
- Four red indicator-LEDs labeled
- CHECK
- CHESSmate LOSES
- CHESSmate is playing WHITE
- CHESSmate is playing BLACK
|
| Sound | onboard piezo-electric speaker- according to the original box, it can do '14 electronic sounds'
|
| Input/ Output | MOS MPS 6530 'RIOT'- RIOT contains an interval timer & timer IRQ, two 8 bit bi-directional I/O ports, 64x8 SRAM and a 1024x8 ROM area
- 3 pin power connector for a C160 AC adaptor
|
| Miscellaneous | - The CHESSmate has 'eight skill-levels' and features '32 international standard openings' (taken from original box)
- It was introduced in 1978, after having been developed by Commodore and Peter Jennings, who had created MicroChess for the KIM-1 in 1977. Since the CHESSmate's hardware is somewhat similar to the KIM-1, it was no problem for the passionate programmer Jennings to port it (making use of a KIM-1, of course). However, since the CHESSmate is quite a rare and uncommon Commodore machine, there are no exact figures of how
many units where sold and where (known countries were Germany, the US and the UK)
- The empty ROM-socket near the 6332 was obviously integrated for flexibility reasons, e.g. to be able to use the board in other machines, or for upgrades/ patches of the chess program. It seems to be an early variant of the option ROMs used in CBM's later machines
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