The Commodore PC compatible systems are a range of

IBM PC compatible An IBM PC compatible is any personal computer that is hardware- and software-compatible with the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and its subsequent models. Like the original IBM PC, an IBM PC–compatible computer uses an x86-based central p ...

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

s introduced in 1984 by

home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

manufacturer

Commodore Business Machines Commodore International Corporation was a home computer and electronics manufacturer with its head office in The Bahamas and its executive office in the United States founded in 1976 by Jack Tramiel and Irving Gould. It was the successor comp ...

. Incompatible with

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

and

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

architectures, they were generally regarded as good, serviceable workhorse PCs with nothing spectacular about them, but the well-established Commodore name was seen as a competitive asset.

History

In 1984, Commodore signed a deal with Intel to

second source In the electronics industry, a second source is a company that is licensed to manufacture and sell components originally designed by another company (the first source). It is common for engineers and purchasers to seek components that are availab ...

manufacture the

Intel 8088 The Intel 8088 ("''eighty-eighty-eight''", also called iAPX 88) microprocessor is a variant of the Intel 8086. Introduced on June 1, 1979, the 8088 has an eight-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers ...

CPU used in the IBM PC, along with a license to manufacture a computer based on the Dynalogic Hyperion. It is unknown whether any of these systems were produced or sold. In 1984, the first model released, the PC-10, sold for $559 without monitor ($ in ). They were sold alongside Commodore's

and

c/ 128 lines of

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...

and

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of the data, as in design and manufa ...

computers. The PC10 was comparable in the market to the Blue Chip PC, Leading Edge Model D and

Tandy 1000 The Tandy 1000 was the first in a series of IBM PC compatible home computers produced by the Tandy Corporation, sold through its Radio Shack and Radio Shack Computer Center stores. Introduced in 1984, the Tandy 1000 line was designed to offer af ...

line of PC compatibles.

Models

The line consists of the following models: Series 1

First generationSeries I

Commodore PC 5 * Introduced in 1984, at $1395, the Commodore PC 5 is the low-budget option with a Hercules monochrome

video card A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics accelerator, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or colloquially GPU) is a computer expansion card that generates a feed of graphics output to a displa ...

. It has a Intel 8088 running at 4.77 MHz and 256 KB RAM on-board (expandable to 640 KB).

RS232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such as a compu ...

serial and

Centronics Centronics Data Computer Corporation was an American manufacturer of computer printers, now remembered primarily for the parallel interface that bears its name, the Centronics connector. History Foundations Centronics began as a divisio ...

parallel printer ports are on the motherboard rather than on separate cards thereby making more slots available. It has one 5.25-inch floppy drive and no hard disk (can be installed). The PC 5 was released with MS-DOS 2.11 and GW Basic 3.2. The PC 5 had 5× 8-bit PC BUS Slots. It has two motherboards. One contains the CPU, RAM and ROM v. 2.01, an NPU socket and some VLSI chips. The second mainboard is connected by gold pin connectors, it is an "I/O board" containing serial and parallel port, ISA slots and all I/O chips. Some tracks from ISA slots are factory cut by drilling. The early PC5 has no RTC, HDD controller or reset switch, in front it has a DIN keyboard connector. Commodore PC 10 * The Commodore PC 10 is a same as a PC 5, but with added color ATI video card and two 5.25-inch floppy drives. Commodore PC 10-1 * a 512 KB RAM and single

floppy drive A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

version. Price: $519 Commodore PC 10-2 * 640 KB RAM and dual floppy drives. Price: $619 Commodore PC 10-S * a PC 10 with a single floppy drive. (PC 10 have two floppy drives.) Commodore PC 20 * The Commodore PC 20 is a PC 10 with a 20 MB hard drive and only one floppy drive. Commodore PC 40 * PC 40 is the top model of the first generation Commodore PC’s with improved 16-bit "AT" hardware compared to 8-bit XT in the others. It had a Intel 80286 that runs at either 6 or 10 MHz choosable by the user. Standard RAM was 1 MB and the video card was the same as in the PC 10 and 20. It had one 1.2 MB HD 5.25-inch drive and a 20 MB hard drive. The cabinet had a key lock switch added Notes: The "PC AT" is a "PC 40" with a "AT" added to the name. Commodore PC AT * The "PC AT" is a "PC 40" with a "AT" added to the name. Commodore PC 40-40 * The Commodore PC 40-40 is a PC 40 with a 40 MB hard drive and two 5.25-inch floppy drives.

Second generationSeries II

Commodore PC 10-II * The Commodore PC 10-II is a minor revision of the original PC 10. It have mainly the same specifications and casing, but the main difference is that it has a new revised single motherboard opposed to the original PC 10 that have two motherboards combined. As the original PC 10, it comes with dual floppy drives and no hard drive.

Commodore PC 20-II * The Commodore PC 20-II is a PC 10-II with one floppy drive and one hard drive.

Third generationSeries III

Commodore PC I * The Commodore PC 1 is a special small form factor PC inspired by the design of the Commodore 128, meant for budget homes or office use. The PC 1 has no internal room for Harddisk, the "PC 1-20" Harddrive came with a 3.5-inch 20 MB hard drive and can be connected to the expansion port. The machine can also be expanded with the "PC 1-NET" which added a

Novell Novell, Inc. () was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as NetWare. Novell technolog ...

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

10-bit card connected to the expansion port. There is no internal sound, but an 8 ohm speaker can be added. There was also an expansion box for connection 3 ISA cards. * Expansion slots: Commodore "PCEXP1" is a special expansion cabinet made for PC1. this gives 3 additional ISA Slots plus an extra 5.25-inch drive.

Commodore PC 10-III * The Commodore PC 10-III is a complete revision of the PC 10 and 10-II machine. It has a new sleeker cabinet and better specifications. While the two generations before only went at 4.77 MHz, the new III series uses an 8088-1 CPU capable of 10 MHz speeds. The PC 10-III/Colt Faraday FE2010 chip-set allows the CPU speed to be adjustable via a SPEED.EXE utility via DOS or through keyboard commands. The default is the standard 4.77 MHz but the speed is adjustable to 7.16 MHz and 9.54 MHz. Being still a 8-bit machine, it has more standard RAM and a better video card. It came with two floppy drives. Commodore COLT * An American version of the PC 10-III with slightly different front design. The front is a white variant of the PC 30-III front with the COLT logo on. Commodore PC 10-III SD * a PC 10-III with one floppy drive. (PC 10-III have two floppy drives.) Commodore PC 20-III * Same as PC 10-III but with a 20 MB HDD added. Commodore PC30-III-7520

Commodore PC 30-III (also sold as Select Edition 286) * The commodore PC 30-III is a new generation AT machine with a EGA video card, a 3.5-inch floppy drive and a 20 MB hard disk. The PC-30-III motherboard is the same as the PC40-III MB but with the VGA hardware missing from the Motherboard (it is empty space on the motherboard for the VGA hardware). Commodore PC 35-III * PC-35-III is a PC 30-III but with VGA hardware added to the mainboard and the same 20 MB hard disk as PC 30-III. Commodore PC 40-III * PC 40-III is same as PC35-III, but with a 40 MB Hard disk. Commodore PC 45-III * Same as PC-40-III but with an AMD equipped CPU instead of Intel in the PC-40-III. Commodore PC 50-II * The Commodore budget 386 machine. it could be delivered with 40 or 100 MB Hard disk or a 3.5-inch floppy. Comes with SVGA. Commodore PC 60-III * a top-of-the-line tower PC for professional use. * Price: ? * CPU: Intel

386DX The Intel 386, originally released as the 80386 and later renamed i386, is the third-generation x86 architecture microprocessor from Intel. It was the first 32-bit processor in the line, making it a significant evolution in the x86 architec ...

25 MHz * Optional CPU: A

387 __NOTOC__ Year 387 (Roman numerals, CCCLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in Rome as the Year of the Consulship of Valentinian II, Augustus and Eutropius (historian), Eutropius (or, l ...

FPU can be added. * Standard RAM: 2 MB onboard RAM * Optional RAM: upgradeable to 18 MB RAM via two expansion cards with max 8 MB on each card. * Video Card: Paradise 88 VGA card * Floppy Drive: One Chinon FB-357 1.44 MB 3.5-inch and one Chinon FZ-506 1.2 MB 5.25-inch floppy drive. * Hard drive: Comes with different choices of hard drive from 60 MB to 200 MB hard disk. * Expansion Bays: 4× 5.25-inch bay and 2× 3.5-inch bay. * Expansion Slots: 7× 16-bit AT expansion slots + 2× Commodore Slots for memory card. 9 total.

Generation 4 "SlimLine" series

Commodore 286 SX * Price: * Description: Slimline computer case *

Motherboard A motherboard, also called a mainboard, a system board, a logic board, and informally a mobo (see #Nomenclature, "Nomenclature" section), is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It ho ...

year: 1991 * Processor:

Intel 80286 The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non- multiplexed address and data buses and also the f ...

running at 8/16 MHz. (A 80287-16 FPU can be added to an empty slot.) * ROM: 64 KB Phoenix

BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is a type of firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization d ...

* RAM: 1 MB onboard standard, expandable to 5 MB * Video Card: VGA 256 KB, expandable to 512 KB * Disk drive: 1× Chinon F-502L 360k 5.25-inch drive. (Optional 720k Commodore 1010 or 1011 can be added to the Amiga style Disk port on the right side) * Harddrive: 40 MB – (313241-02), 50 MB - (311839-01) and 100 MB – (311840-01) * Network: "PC 1-NET" came with a Novell Ethernet 10-bit card connected to the expansion port * Options: Expansion box for connection ISA cards and Harddrive. an additional 8

ohm Ohm (symbol Ω) is a unit of electrical resistance named after Georg Ohm. Ohm or OHM may also refer to: People * Georg Ohm (1789–1854), German physicist and namesake of the term ''ohm'' * Germán Ohm (born 1936), Mexican boxer * Jörg Ohm (1 ...

speaker can be added for sound. * Operating System: MS-DOS 3.20 and GW-BASIC * Ports: VGA, component video, RSR-232 serial port, Centronic parallel port. * Expansion slots: 16-bit ×1 (expandable to 16-bit ×3 + 8-bit 2 by use of riser card) * Keyboard: 84-key XT keyboard * Cabinet: Special small form factor inspired by the 128C Commodore 286-16 * A 16 MHz 286 with 1 MB RAM, VGA video card, 3.5-inch floppy drive and 2× AT 16-bit expansion slots. Commodore 386SX-16 * A 16 MHz 386 with 1 MB RAM, VGA graphics card, 3.5-inch floppy drive and 5× 16-bit ISA expansion slots. Commodore 386SX-25 * A 25 MHz 386 with a

Cyrix Cyrix Corporation was a microprocessor developer that was founded in 1988 in Richardson, Texas, as a specialist supplier of floating point units for 286 and 386 microprocessors. The company was founded by Tom Brightman and Jerry Rogers. Ter ...

387 FPU, 4 MB RAM, Cirrus Logic GD-5402 VGA (512 KB video RAM), 40 MB HDD, 3.5-inch floppy drive and 5× 16-bit ISA expansion slots. Commodore 386DX-33 * A 33 MHz 386 CPU Commodore 486SX-25 * A 25 MHz 486 with 4 MB RAM, VGA video, 1× 3.5-inch drive and a 150 MB HDD Commodore 486DX-33 * CPU: 33 MHz 486 with * RAM: 8 MB RAM, * Video Card: VGA video, * Floppy drive: 1× 3.5-inch * Harddisk: 150 MB HDD

Laptops

Commodore C286SX-LT * a 12 MHz 286 with 1 MB RAM Commodore C386SX-LT * a 386 with 2 MB RAM and a 40 MB HDD

Model table

The following table lists all Commodore PC compatible systems specifications:

References

External links

Richard Lagendijk: CIP - Commodore Info Page

OLD-COMPUTERS.COM

Brochure comparing a number of Commodore Models

Commodore History Part 6 - The PC Compatibles By The 8-Bit Guy

Brochure for the Commodore PC10-1 and PC10-2
at classic.technology {{Commodore International IBM PC compatibles Commodore computers Computer-related introductions in 1984