NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Commodore 128

The Commodore 128 (C128, CBM 128, C=128) home/personal computer was Commodore Business Machines's (CBM) last commercially released 8-bit machine. Introduced in January of 1985 at the CES in Las Vegas, it appeared three years after its predecessor, the bestselling C64. The primary hardware designer of the C128 was Bil Herd. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1450x1000, 3291 KB) A Commodore 128 computer. ... Children playing on a Amstrad CPC 464 in the 1980s. ... The abbreviation KB can refer to: Kilobyte (kB), equal to 1,000 bytes, or Kibibyte (KiB), equal to 1,024 bytes. ... Children playing on a Amstrad CPC 464 in the 1980s. ... Commodore, the commonly used name for Commodore International, was an American electronics company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania which was a vital player in the home/personal computer field in the 1980s. ... 8-bit refers to the number of bits used in the data bus of a computer. ... Year 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar). ... The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a trade show held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association. ... The Las Vegas metropolitan area, includes the Las Vegas Valley a 600 square mile (1600 kmÂ²) basin, and surrounding areas, that are part of Clark County in southern Nevada. ... The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ... Bil Herd (long hair) and chip designer Dave DiOrio circa 1983 Bil Herd was an early designer of home computers while working for Commodore Business Machines in the early 1980s. ...

Technical overview

The C128 was a significantly expanded, and compatible, successor to the earlier C64. The new machine featured 128 KB of RAM (externally expandable to 640 KB) and an 80-column RGB monitor output (driven by the 8563 VDC chip with 16 KB dedicated video RAM, although following the release of the 128D later "flat" 128s had 64 KB of VRAM), as well as a redesigned case/keyboard with a numeric keypad. Instead of the 6510 CPU of the C64, the C128 incorporated a two-CPU design. The primary CPU, the 8502, was a slightly improved version of the 6510; its main addition was the ability to run at a 2 MHz clock rate (however, this required turning off the 40-column video output). The second CPU was a Zilog Z80 which was used for ensuring CP/M compatibility and for mode-selection of the computer upon boot-up. The two processors could not run concurrently, thus the C128 was not a multiprocessing system. A kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix kilo-, meaning 1000) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to the decimal 1024 bytes (2 to the 10th power, or 1,024 bytes based in the binary system). ... Random access memory (usually known by its acronym, RAM) is a type of data storage used in computers. ... REDIRECT RGB color model ... It has been suggested that MOS Technology 8568 be merged into this article or section. ... It has been suggested that Keystroke be merged into this article or section. ... Image of the innards of a Commodore 64 showing the 6510 CPU (40-pin DIP, lower left). ... Die of an Intel 80486DX2 microprocessor (actual size: 12Ã—6. ... The MOS Technology 8502 was MOSs microprocessor used as one of the two¹ CPUs in the Commodore 128 home/personal computer. ... MegaHertz (MHz) is the name given to one million (106) Hertz, a measure of frequency. ... One of the first Z80 microprocessors manufactured; the date stamp is from June 1976. ... CP/M was an operating system originally created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. ... Multiprocessing is traditionally known as the use of multiple concurrent processes in a system as opposed to a single process at any one instant. ...

The C128 had three modes of operation: C128 Mode (native mode), which ran at 1 or 2 MHz with the 8502 CPU and had both 40- and 80-column text modes available; CP/M Mode, which used the Z80 second CPU in either 40- or 80-column text mode; and C64 Mode, which was very nearly 100% compatible with the earlier computer. None of these modes would have been possible as implemented on the C128 without the Z80 chip. The Z80 controls the bus on initial boot-up and checks to see if there is a CP/M boot disk, if there are any C64/C128 cartridges present, and if the Commodore key (C64-mode selector) is active on boot-up. Based on what it finds, it will switch to the appropriate mode of operation. In computer software, a mode is distinct method of operation within a computer program, in which the same user input can produce different results depending of the state of the computer. ... The term native mode is used in computing as follows. ... A text mode program communicates with the user by only displaying text and possibly a limited set of predefined semi-graphical characters, which allow the drawing of rudimentary boxes around portions of text, either to highlight the content or to simulate widget or control interface objects found in GUI programs. ...

Some 128s suffered from a reliability problem caused by the electromagnetic shield over the internal board. The shield had fingers that rested on the top of the major chips to conduct heat into the shield which then acted as a large heatsink. A combination of poor contact and the fact that plastic encased chips do not lose heat that way plus the shield being made from mu-metal (a poor heat conductor) saw some chips overheat and fail. The SID sound chip was particularly vulnerable in this respect as it operated from a 9 volt supply. The situation could be vastly improved by removing the shield completely. Mu-metal is a nickel-iron alloy (77% nickel, 15% iron, plus copper and molybdenum) that is very efficient for screening magnetic fields. ... MOS Technology SIDs: The right image shows a 6581 from MOS Technology, at the time they were known as the Commodore Semiconductor Group (CSG) and the left image shows an 8580 from MOS Technology. ...

C128 Mode

While the C64's graphics and sound capabilities were generally considered excellent, the popular home computer was the subject of a number of perennial criticisms. The 40-column VIC-II video display, while excellent for gaming, was often considered inadequate for productivity applications such as word processing. The lack of a numeric keypad was also an issue with some office suite software. Furthermore, the 2.0 revision of Commodore BASIC that was incorporated into the C64 was quite limited, and lacked keywords to handle the system's graphical and sound capabilities. These features had to be accessed via cumbersome PEEK and POKE commands, or by custom-written machine language routines. Also criticized was the lack of a hardware reset button, an essential device when developing assembly routines. Finally, the C64's 1541 disk drive was almost universally condemned as slow and unreliable. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 532 pixel Image in higher resolution (2406 Ã— 1600 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 532 pixel Image in higher resolution (2406 Ã— 1600 pixel, file size: 2. ... Children playing on a Amstrad CPC 464 in the 1980s. ... The VIC-II (Video Interface Chip II), specifically known as the MOS Technology 6567/8562/8564 (NTSC versions), 6569/8565/8566 (PAL), is the integrated circuit chip tasked with generating composite video graphics and DRAM refresh signals in the Commodore 64 and C128 home computers. ... Word processing, in its now-usual meaning, is the use of a word processor to create documents using computers. ... In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office application suite or productivity suite is a software suite intended to be used by typical clerical and knowledge workers. ... Commodore BASIC is the dialect of BASIC used in Commodore Internationals 8-bit home computer line, stretching from the PET of 1977 to the C128 of 1985. ... Front view of the most common version of the Commodore 1541 disk drive, with open disk slot. ...

The designers of the C128 succeeded in rectifying most of these concerns. A new chip, the VDC, provided the C128 with an 80-column color RGB display. The new 8502 CPU was completely backward-compatible with the C64's 6510, but could run at double the speed if desired. A numeric keypad was added to the keyboard, as were various other keys. The C64's rudimentary BASIC 2.0 was replaced with the far more flexible and powerful BASIC 7.0, which included keywords designed specifically to take advantage of the machine's capabilities, and also incorporated a sprite editor and machine language monitor. The screen editor was further improved. A reset button was added to the system. It has been suggested that MOS Technology 8568 be merged into this article or section. ... REDIRECT RGB color model ... The MOS Technology 8502 was MOSs microprocessor used as one of the two¹ CPUs in the Commodore 128 home/personal computer. ... Image of the innards of a Commodore 64 showing the 6510 CPU (40-pin DIP, lower left). ... In computer graphics, a sprite (also known by other names; see Synonyms below) is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene. ... A machine code monitor (aka machine language monitor) is software built-into or separately available for various computers, allowing the user to enter commands to view and change memory locations on the machine, with options to load and save memory contents from/to secondary storage. ...

Three new disk drives were introduced in conjunction with the C128, the 1570, 1571, and 3.5 inch 1581 drives promising far faster transfer speeds via a new "burst mode". With these three drives, more complex drive data arrangements were also made available to Commodore users in the nature of "track and sector" oriented subdirectories, a feature not available to PC users, who instead had to convolute their file allocation tables to do the same thing. The disk drives also had more on-board RAM than their predecessors, the 1540 and 1541 drives. Commodore 1570 external floppy drive The Commodore 1570 was a 5¼ floppy disk drive for the Commodore 128 home/personal computer. ... The Commodore 1571 was arguably Commodores finest 5¼ floppy disk drive, having the ability to use double-sided disks without the need to remove them and turn them over (flippy disk) as in the previous Commodore drives on which it was based (Commodore 1541, 1570). ... The Commodore 1581 is a 3Â½ inch double sided double density floppy disk drive made primarily for the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 home/personal computers. ...

The C128 also had far more RAM than the C64, and a far higher proportion was available for BASIC programming, due to the new MMU bankswitching chip. This feature made it possible for BASIC program code to be stored separately from variables, greatly enhancing the machine's ability to handle complex programs. This 68451 MMU could be used with the Motorola 68010 MMU, short for memory management unit or sometimes called paged memory management unit as PMMU, is a class of computer hardware components responsible for handling memory accesses requested by the CPU. Among the functions of such devices are the translation...

The C128's greater hardware capabilities, especially the increased RAM, screen display resolution, and serial bus speed, made it the preferred platform for running the GEOS graphical operating system. GEOS (Graphic Environment Operating System) was an operating system from Berkeley Softworks (later GeoWorks). ...

CP/M Mode

The second of the C128's two CPUs was the Zilog Z80, which allowed the C128 to run CP/M; the machine came with CP/M 3.0, aka CP/M Plus (backward compatible with CP/M 2.2) and ADM31/3A terminal emulation. To make a large application software library instantly available at launch, the Commodore 128 CP/M and accompanying 1571 floppy disk drive was designed to run almost all Kaypro-specific CP/M software without modification. One of the first Z80 microprocessors manufactured; the date stamp is from June 1976. ... CP/M was an operating system originally created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. ... A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system. ... The Commodore 1571 was arguably Commodores finest 5¼ floppy disk drive, having the ability to use double-sided disks without the need to remove them and turn them over (flippy disk) as in the previous Commodore drives on which it was based (Commodore 1541, 1570). ... A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible (floppy) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. ... The Kaypro Corporation Logo, circa 1982. ...

Unfortunately, the C128 ran CP/M noticeably slower than most dedicated CP/M systems, as the Z80 processor ran at an effective speed of only 2 MHz (instead of the more common 4–6 MHz) and because it used CP/M 3.0, whose complexity made it inherently slower than the earlier, more widespread, CP/M 2.2 system. From the source code of the C128 CP/M implementation, it is clear that the engineers originally planned to make it possible to run CP/M in the "fast" mode as well, with the 40-column output turned off and the Z80 running at an effective 4 MHz; however, this did not work on the released C128 hardware.

A possibly unique feature of the C128 among CP/M systems was that some of the low-level BIOS services were executed by the 8502 chip instead of the Z80. The latter transferred control to the 8502 after having placed the pertinent parameter values in designated memory locations. The Z80 then turned itself off, being awoken by the 8502 at completion of the BIOS routine, with status value(s) available in RAM for inspection. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

C64 Mode

By incorporating the original C64 BASIC and KERNAL ROMs in their entirety (16 KB total), the C128 achieves almost 100% compatibility with C64 software. The C64 mode can be accessed in one of three ways: The abbreviation KB can refer to: Kilobyte (kB), equal to 1,000 bytes, or Kibibyte (KiB), equal to 1,024 bytes. ...

Some of the few C64 programs that fail on a C128 run correctly when the CAPS LOCK key is pressed down (or the ASCII/National key on international C128 models). This has to do with the larger built-in I/O port of the C128's CPU. Whereas the SHIFT LOCK key found on both C64 and C128 is simply a mechanical latch for the left SHIFT key, the CAPS LOCK key on the C128 can be read via the 8502's built-in I/O port. A few C64 programs are confused by this extra I/O bit; keeping the CAPS LOCK key in the down position will force the I/O line low, matching the C64's configuration and resolving the issue. The caps lock on a modern Windows keyboard. ... The MOS Technology 8502 was MOSs microprocessor used as one of the two¹ CPUs in the Commodore 128 home/personal computer. ...

A handful of C64 programs wrote to $D030 (53296), often as part of a loop initializing the VIC-II chip registers. This memory-mapped register, unused in the C64, operated as a selector for 2 MHz mode in the C128. Since it was not disabled in C64 mode, an inadvertent write could blank the 40-column display by putting the CPU into fast mode. Fortunately, very few programs suffered from this flaw. In July 1986, COMPUTE!'s Gazette published a type-in program that exploited this minor incompatibility, by using a raster interrupt to enable fast mode when the bottom of the visible screen was reached, and then disable it when screen rendering began again at the top. By using fast mode during the vertical blank period, standard video display was maintained while increasing overall execution speed by about 20%. [1] [2] In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal, base-16, or simply hex, is a numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16, usually written using the symbols 0â€“9 and Aâ€“F, or aâ€“f. ... The VIC-II (Video Interface Chip II), specifically known as the MOS Technology 6567/8562/8564 (NTSC versions), 6569/8565/8566 (PAL), is the integrated circuit chip tasked with generating composite video graphics and DRAM refresh signals in the Commodore 64 and C128 home computers. ... MegaHertz (MHz) is the name given to one million (106) Hertz, a measure of frequency. ... Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). ... Compute!s Gazette was a computer magazine of the 1980s, directed at to users of Commodore home computers. ... A type-in program, or just type-in, is a computer program listing printed in a computer magazine or book, meant to be typed in by the reader in order to run the program on a computer. ... A raster interrupt is a computer interrupt signal that is utilized for display timing purposes. ... Vertical blank - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

An easy way to tell the C128's C64 mode and a real C64 apart, typically used from within a running program, is to write a value different from $FF (255) to memory address $D02F (53295), which is used to decode the extra keys of the C128 (the numerical keypad and some other keys). On the 64 this memory location will always contain the value $FF no matter what was written to it, but on a C128 in 64 mode the value of the location—a memory-mapped register—can be changed. Thus, checking the location's value after writing to it will reveal the actual hardware platform. In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal, base-16, or simply hex, is a numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16, usually written using the symbols 0â€“9 and Aâ€“F, or aâ€“f. ... In computer science, a memory address is a unique identifier for a memory location at which a CPU or other device can store a piece of data for later retrieval. ...

RAM setup

To handle the relatively large amounts of installable RAM, tenfold the 8502's 64 KB address space, an on-board MMU chip performed continuous bank switching concurrently with general operation of the machine. While the MMU was designed to handle more than 128 KB, the chips that were actually produced and used in the C128 cannot do so; thus memory expansions beyond 128 KB, the so-called RAM Expansion Units, contained their own memory controller which would move blocks of memory between the main and expansion RAM. This 68451 MMU could be used with the Motorola 68010 MMU, short for memory management unit or sometimes called paged memory management unit as PMMU, is a class of computer hardware components responsible for handling memory accesses requested by the CPU. Among the functions of such devices are the translation... Bank switching (also known as paging, but only loosely related to the ordinary meaning of paging in computing) was a technique common in 8-bit microcomputer systems, to increase the amount of addressable RAM and ROM without extending the address bus. ... Commodores RAM Expansion Unit (REU) range of external RAM add-ons for their Commodore 64/128 home computers was announced at the same time as the C128. ...

Commodore 128D

The Commodore 128D was released in the summer of 1986; it was an updated version of the C128 with a detached keyboard and a 1571 disk drive in the same box as the main system unit, providing a sleeker, more professional-looking appearance, much like that of a desktop PC. In Europe the first C128Ds came in a plastic case with a side-mounted carrying handle and were technically exactly the same as a C128 with the 1571 disk drive. Additionally these models were equipped with a somewhat noisy cooling fan, leading to the model sometimes being referred to as the "128 Diesel". Later models of the C128D came in a metal case; among these were the Commodore 128DCR (CR = cost reduced). These later models had some minor improvements. The internal design was more integrated to save production costs, but also improved the thermal design, so that a fan was supposedly not needed anymore (later experience proved that the fan was a worthwhile addition and many C128D's were so modified). Image File history File links C128d. ... Image File history File links C128d. ... Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). ...

Inside, the C128D ROMs contained several bug fixes, and the 8563 VDC chip (in the C128DCR, the 8568) was equipped with the maximum capacity 64 KB of video RAM – four times that of the original C128. This permitted the C128D to do higher-resolution graphics with more colors in RGB mode, although very little software took advantage of this. With or without the extra RAM, the VDC's high-resolution graphics modes were inaccessible from the C128's BASIC. They could only be utilized through low-level PEEK and POKE commands (or their assembly language equivalents), or via third-party BASIC language extensions. The most popular such toolkit was Free Spirit Software's "BASIC 8", which added high-resolution VDC graphics commands to CBM BASIC. BASIC 8 was available on two disks (editor disk and runtime disk) and with a ROM chip for installation in the C128's internal Function ROM socket.
A computer bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from working as intended, or produces an incorrect result. ... It has been suggested that MOS Technology 8568 be merged into this article or section. ... The MOS Tech 8568 VDU was the Visual (or Video) Display Unit controller chip responsible for the secondary (80-column or RGBI) display on the Commodore 128 personal computer. ... See the terminology section, below, regarding inconsistent use of the terms assembly and assembler. ... BASIC 8. ...

Market performance

The system architecture of the C128, which in case of a C128D with memory expansion included three CPUs, five types of RAM memory, three operating modes, two system speeds, two graphics chips and two completely different low-level floppy disk encoding schemes was positively baroque and not at all orthogonal. This high complexity was probably a factor in the limited success of the C128—but of course also much of the reason for the machine's popularity among long-time CBM users and 'hackers', who enjoyed the capability of full C64 compatibility in a computer which was also fully usable as a BBS terminal and general office application platform in 80-column mode running native or CP/M programs. Another selling point for this group of users was the full-featured business keyboard, which was the first 'real' keyboard of a CBM computer since the less flexible (and thence, less popular) CBM-II/B series. A typical vision of a computer architecture as a series of abstraction layers: hardware, firmware, assembler, kernel, operating system and applications (see also Tanenbaum 79). ... In mathematics, orthogonal is synonymous with perpendicular when used as a simple adjective that is not part of any longer phrase with a standard definition. ... Hacker, as it relates to computers, has several common meanings. ... Ward Christensen and the computer that ran one of the first public Bulletin Board Systems, CBBS from BBS: The Documentary â€œBBSâ€ redirects here. ... The Commodore CBM-II series was a short-lived range of 8-bit personal computers from Commodore Business Machines (CBM), intended as a follow-on to the Commodore PET series, released in 1982. ...

Because the C128 would run virtually all C64 software, and because the next-generation, 16-bit, home computers, primarily the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST, were gaining ground, relatively little software for the C128's native mode appeared (probably on the order of 100–200 fully commercial titles, plus the usual share of public domain and magazine type-in programs). While the C128 sold a total number of 4 million units between 1985 and 1989, its popularity paled in comparison to that of its predecessor. This has been blamed on the lack of native software and on Commodore's less-aggressive marketing. An additional explanation may be found in the fact that the C64 sold huge numbers to people primarily interested in computer games, which the more expensive C128 didn't add much value towards improving (with the exception of a few Infocom text adventures)—the C128 was certainly a better business machine than the C64, but not really a better gaming machine, and people who wanted business machines bought IBM PC clones almost exclusively by the time the C128 was released. The main reason that the C128 still sold fairly well was probably that it was also a much better machine for hobbyist programming than the C64. In computer science, 16-bit is an adjective used to describe integers that are at most two bytes wide, or to describe CPU architectures based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. ... Amiga is the name of a range of home/personal computers using the Motorola 68000 processor family, whose development started in 1982. ... The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was commercially popular from 1985 to the early 1990s. ... A type-in program, or just type-in, is a computer program listing printed in a computer magazine or book, meant to be typed in by the reader in order to run the program on a computer. ... Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Zork universe Zork games Zork Anthology Zork trilogy Zork I Zork II Zork III Beyond Zork Zork Zero Enchanter trilogy Enchanter Sorcerer Spellbreaker Other games Wishbringer Return to Zork Zork: Nemesis Zork Grand Inquisitor Zork: The Undiscovered Underground Topics in Zork Encyclopedia Frobozzica Characters Kings Creatures Timeline Magic Calendar Zorkmid... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Also, when the C128(D/DCR) was discontinued in 1989, it was reported to cost nearly as much to manufacture as the 16-bit Amiga 500, even though the C128D had to sell for several hundred dollars less to keep the Amiga's high-value marketing image intact.

Bil Herd commented on the Wikipedia C128 article, stating: "We considered the C128 to be a holding action until the next generation computers arrived, we were trying to up the game as far as expectations for new machines and buy a year, two at the max in the process. In that we exceeded our initial goals but probably due in part to Commodore's lackluster followthrough on marketing and selling the Amiga." Bil Herd (long hair) and chip designer Dave DiOrio circa 1983 Bil Herd was an early designer of home computers while working for Commodore Business Machines in the early 1980s. ... Wikipedia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

C128 trivia

This is a screenshot of copyrighted computer software. ... Bil Herd (long hair) and chip designer Dave DiOrio circa 1983 Bil Herd was an early designer of home computers while working for Commodore Business Machines in the early 1980s. ... A virtual Easter egg is a hidden message or feature in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, or video game. ... Applesoft BASIC was the second dialect of BASIC supplied on the Apple II computer, superseding Integer BASIC. Applesoft BASIC was supplied by Microsoft; Apple was looking for a new version of BASIC for the Apple II Plus computer with 48 KB of RAM, and after their success with Altair BASIC... The zero page is the memory address page at the absolute beginning of a computers address space (the lowermost page, covered by the memory address range 0 . ... CPU can stand for: in computing: Central processing unit in journalism: Commonwealth Press Union in law enforcement: Crime prevention unit in software: Critical patch update, a type of software patch distributed by Oracle Corporation in Macleans College is often known as Ash Lim. ... Simple representation of a stack In computer science, a stack is a temporary abstract data type and data structure based on the principle of Last In First Out (LIFO). ... This 68451 MMU could be used with the Motorola 68010 MMU, short for memory management unit or sometimes called paged memory management unit as PMMU, is a class of computer hardware components responsible for handling memory accesses requested by the CPU. Among the functions of such devices are the translation...

Specifications

The MOS Technology 8502 was MOSs microprocessor used as one of the two¹ CPUs in the Commodore 128 home/personal computer. ... MegaHertz (MHz) is the name given to one million (106) Hertz, a measure of frequency. ... One of the first Z80 microprocessors manufactured; the date stamp is from June 1976. ... Commodore BASIC is the dialect of BASIC used in Commodore Internationals 8-bit home computer line, stretching from the PET of 1977 to the C128 of 1985. ... The Commodore 128 included a built-in machine language monitor. ... The KERNAL is Commodores name for the ROM-resident operating system core in its 8-bit home computers; from the original PET of 1977, via the extended, but strongly related, versions used in its successors; the VIC-20, C64, Plus/4, C16, and C128. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... PETSCII (PET Standard Code of Information Interchange), also known as CBM ASCII, is the variation of the ASCII character set used in Commodore (CBM)s 8-bit home computers, starting with the PET from 1977 and including the VIC-20, C64, Plus/4, C16 and C128. ... The VIC-II (Video Interface Chip II), specifically known as the MOS Technology 6567/8562/8564 (NTSC versions), 6569/8565/8566 (PAL), is the integrated circuit chip tasked with generating composite video graphics and DRAM refresh signals in the Commodore 64 and C128 home computers. ... Composite video is the format of an analog television (picture only) signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF carrier. ... See TV (disambiguation) for other uses and Television (band) for the rock band European networks National In much of Europe television broadcasting has historically been state dominated, rather than commercially organised, although commercial stations have grown in number recently. ... It has been suggested that MOS Technology 8568 be merged into this article or section. ... The MOS Tech 8568 VDU was the Visual (or Video) Display Unit controller chip responsible for the secondary (80-column or RGBI) display on the Commodore 128 personal computer. ... REDIRECT RGB color model ... IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ... The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), introduced in 1981, was IBMs first color graphics card, and the first color computer display standard for the IBM PC. The standard IBM CGA graphics card was equipped with 16 kilobytes of video memory. ... A Blitter (acronym for BLock Image TransferrER) is a chip that specialises in bitmap data-transfer using bit blit methods. ... MOS Technology SIDs: The right image shows a 6581 from MOS Technology, at the time they were known as the Commodore Semiconductor Group (CSG) and the left image shows an 8580 from MOS Technology. ... MOS Technology SIDs: The right image shows a 6581 from MOS Technology, at the time they were known as the Commodore Semiconductor Group (CSG) and the left image shows an 8580 from MOS Technology. ... Synthesizer as used in music, is a term derived from a Greek word syntithetai < synthesis (ÏƒÏ…Î½Ï„Î¯Î¸ÎµÏ„Î±Î¹ < ÏƒÏÎ½Î¸ÎµÏƒÎ¹Ï‚) and is used to describe a device capable of generating and/or manipulating electronic signals for use in music creation, recording and performance. ... Calculated spectrum of a generated approximation of white noise White noise is a random signal (or process) with a flat power spectral density. ... The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ... It has been suggested that DE-9 be merged into this article or section. ... IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ... The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), introduced in 1981, was IBMs first color graphics card, and the first color computer display standard for the IBM PC. The standard IBM CGA graphics card was equipped with 16 kilobytes of video memory. ... A photograph of a sign in grayscale The same photograph in black and white Monochrome comes from the two Greek words mono (Î¼Ï‰Î½Î¿, meaning one), and chroma (Ï‡ÏÏ‰Î¼Î±, meaning surface or the color of the skin). A monochromatic object has a single color. ...

External links

References

Categories: Home computers | Personal computers | CBM hardware | Commodore 64 Data Becker GmbH & Co. ... Commodore, the commonly used name for Commodore International, was an American electronics company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania which was a vital player in the home/personal computer field in the 1980s. ... The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by Chuck Peddle for MOS Technology in 1975. ... 8-bit refers to the number of bits used in the data bus of a computer. ... The KIM-1, short for Keyboard Input Monitor, was a small 6502-based microcomputer kit developed and produced by MOS Technology, Inc. ... The PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) was a home-/personal computer produced by Commodore starting in the late 1970s. ... The Commodore CBM-II series was a short-lived range of 8-bit personal computers from Commodore Business Machines (CBM), intended as a follow-on to the Commodore PET series, released in 1982. ... The VIC-20 (Germany: VC-20; Japan: VIC-1001) is an 8-bit home computer. ... The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ... Commodore SX-64 The Commodore SX-64, also known as the Executive 64, was a portable, briefcase/suitcase-size luggable version of the popular Commodore 64 home computer and holds the distinction of being the first full-color portable computer. ... The Commodore 16 was a home computer made by Commodore with a 6502-compatible 7501 CPU, released in 1984. ... Commodore Plus/4. ... The Motorola 68000 is a 32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector). ... In computer science, 16-bit is an adjective used to describe integers that are at most two bytes wide, or to describe CPU architectures based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. ... 32-bit is a term applied to processors, and computer architectures which manipulate the address and data in 32-bit chunks. ... The A1000, or Commodore Amiga 1000, was Commodores initial Amiga personal computer, introduced on July 24, 1985 at the Lincoln Center in New York City. ... Missing image A500 The A500, also known as the Amiga 500, was the first low-end Commodore Amiga 16_bit multimedia home/personal computer model. ... The A2000, also known as the Commodore Amiga 2000, is the high-end Amiga personal computer that was released in 1987 at the same time as the low-end high-volume model A500. ... The Amiga 2500, also known as the A2500, was not a distinct Amiga model, but simply a marketing name for a Commodore Amiga 2000 bundled with a Motorola 68020 or 68030-based accelerator card. ... The A1500, also known as the Commodore Amiga 1500, was an 16-bit home/personal computer released in 1990. ... The Amiga CDTV (for Commodore Dynamic Total Vision) was a computer made by Commodore International and launched in March 1991. ... The Amiga 3000T, a towerized version of the A3000. ... The A3000UX is a model of the Amiga computer family that was released with Commodore Amiga Unix installed instead of AmigaOS, a full port of AT&T Unix System V Release 4. ... The Amiga 3000T is the tower version of the Commodore Amiga 3000. ... The Commodore Amiga 500 Plus, (A500+) is a enhanced version of the original Amiga 500. ... The Amiga 600, also known as the A600 (codenamed June Bug after a B-52s song), was a home computer introduced at the CeBIT show in March 1992. ... An Amiga 1200 with a standard mouse and two external floppy disk drives. ... The A4000, or Commodore Amiga 4000, was the successor of the A2000 and A3000 computers. ... Amiga 4000T The A4000T, also known as the Commodore Amiga 4000T, was a tower version of the A4000 computer. ...

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