The Commodore 64 was a popular personal computer in the 1980s due to its low cost and high availability. It had 64 KB of RAM, a 6510 MHz CPU, and integrated operating system and BASIC programming interpreter. Designed for low-budget personal use, it was marketed to retail stores. It had advanced graphics and sound systems but was not upgradeable. Several related models were introduced, but none were commercially successful. The original Commodore 64 remained available until 1994 when the company went out of business.
The Commodore 64 was a personal computer that was manufactured in the 1980s. Due to its low cost and high availability, the Commodore 64 eventually became the best-selling computer model of all time. The Commodore 64 came with 64 KB of RAM, as well as a 6510 MHz CPU 1 and separate audio and video chips. The operating system and a BASIC programming interpreter were integrated into ROM, allowing the Commodore 64 to be used out of the box.
The Commodore 64 was designed to be connected to a television display and did not come with a monitor, although one could be purchased separately. Commodore explicitly designed the machine for low-budget personal use, marketing it to retail stores instead of electronics vendors. The price for the Commodore 64 was originally set at US$595 in 1982, already low compared to other computers, and dropped rapidly over the next several years. The low cost of the Commodore 64 eventually drove Timex, Texas Instruments, and other competitors out of the computer market; the low profit margin forced stores to try to make a profit by selling peripherals such as printers, disk drives, and joysticks.
The Commodore 64 graphics included sixteen different colors and eight programmable sprites, which were quite advanced at the time. The sound system supported three channels and had several built-in waveforms and ring modulation. While the Commodore 64 had roughly the same amount of memory and processing power as other computers, such as the IBM PC and Apple II lines, it was not designed to be upgradeable.
Over the years, as the Commodore 64 became obsolete, several related models were introduced. The SX-64, a portable version, featured a built-in monitor and floppy disk drive; the Commodore 128, which included an 80-line display mode and 128KB of memory; and the Commodore Games System, which was a slightly tweaked version designed specifically for video games. None of these models were particularly commercially successful, and the original Commodore 64 remained available until 1994, when the Commodore went out of business.
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