The 264er-Serie was a home computer line, which was meant from Commodore as successors for the C64, but never one carried out in the planned form. Instead the computers C16, C116 and Plus/4 came on the market. Since these were based in the original models, they were summarized under the name 264er.

History

Into the early 1980er years came it to a price fight in the home computer industry. Companies such as Texas Instruments and Timex undercut the price of the Commodore PET line. The C64, which cost first computers, which possessed 64 KB RAM, but less than 600 US$, was due to its many specialized chips in the production. Commodores managing director Jack Tramiel instructed therefore the development of a computer line, which gets along at the same time with much less chips and C64 and VC owner of 20 transferred to animate should.

Originally three models were planned: 232, 264 and 364. The 264 the basis model represented. It should have 64 KB RAM and 32 KB ROM. As characteristic was planned to also equip the computers in the ROM of inserted software. The customer should be allowed to select thereby from four different packages. Remained of it 'the "“3 plus 1"” - package of the Plus/4. The 364 should become the "“large brother"” 264. Beside a keyboard with number block and a larger ROM (48 instead of 32 KB), it should have particularly an inserted Sprachsynthesizer with 250 words (further reloadable). The 232 finally 264 only 32 KB RAM and no additional software should possess as savings version.

After the continuation of Jack Tramiel the introduction on the market of the original models one rejected. Instead one brought the models C16, C116 and Plus/4 to 1984 on the market. They were technically similar, but without the special features as acoustic output. In addition the variants C16 and C116 had only 16 KB RAM. All three computers used MOS 7501-CPU and a MOS 7360 "“TED"”. The "“TED"” was a universe in One chip with I/O abilities, video and sound. The Design of the computers corresponded thereby more to the VC20 than the C64; the number of chips and the complexity of the plate were however as planned far smaller than with both predecessor models.

1984 went the trend in the computer market already away from cheap to more efficient computers. Also the 16-Bitter already was in coming. Beyond that the entire line was perfectly incompatible to the C64. Commodore had regarded, was this not as a problem nevertheless also the C64 of the VC20 completely different. One had however surveyed that already 1984 were available a large software library for the C64 and were substantially more efficient the C64 than the VC20. On the other hand even the Plus/4 was partly underlaid for the C64. Therefore the entire line became due to the modest hardware equipment, the incompatibility as well as the software lacking a flop.

The technical characteristics

The TED represented a pallet of 121 colors, impressing at that time. The dissolution of 320 200 pixels was suitable for the connection to a television. It could not represent however contrary to VIC the II of the C64 Sprites. The quality of the tone generator corresponded to more that VIC than the SID. Software for the C64 could be converted for these and other reasons only very heavily or not at all.

The connections were incompatible to the C64. Thus for Datasette and Joysticks DIN sockets were used. On cartridge stored data could not be exchanged due to different formats with the C64. The allocation of the user haven differed likewise. Only the serial IEC-bus (CBM bus) had remained alike.

The store management made a better utilization possible of the RAM as with the C64. The Commodore BASIC version 3.5 was improved strong and offered instructions for structuring (loop instructions), for expenditure for sound as well as diagram. The floppy disk drive VC1551 was about four times faster than a VC1541. A disadvantage was that the VC1551 was only partial compatible to the VC1541.

Articles in category "Commodore 264-Serie"

We found here 15 articles.

Related Websites

We found here 5 related websites.

• Commodore PLUS/4 & C16 PLA Inputs I0 F7 XX - X 1 1 1 X 1 I1 phi 0 ...
  Commodore PLUS/4 & C16 PLA Inputs I0 F7 XX - X 1 1 1 X 1 I1 phi 0 1 1 - X 1 1 1 X 1 I2 A15 1 1 ... Commodore PLUS/4 & C16 MEMORY ------ CPU & Screen Read ...


• Commodore plus/4 and ; Commodore 16 Memory Map ; ; V1.1 9 Dec 1994 ...
  Commodore plus/4 and ; Commodore 16 Memory Map ; ; V1.1 9 Dec 1994 ; Label Hex Addr. Decimal Loc. Description PDIR $0000 0 7501 on-chip data-direction ...


• Eschmeyer References by Family More info Plus d'info Mais info ...
  Eschmeyer's References Used for Fishes of Blenniidae (Combtooth blennies). n = 587 Author RefNo Year. RefNo, Description ...


• Eschmeyer References by Family More info Plus d'info Mais info ...
  Reise der


• Eschmeyer References by Family More info Plus d'info Mais info ...
  Reise der