website/content/museum/commodore-cbm-80xx.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Commodore CBM 80xx	Computers	Professional Computer	U.S.A.	1981	6502	name image company company_name specs tabs photos hardware emulators links docs comments related oc_id source CBM 80xx /media/museum/photos/commodore_cbm-8032_1.jpg /companies/commodore Commodore label value NAME CBM 80xx label value MANUFACTURER Commodore label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1981 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE Commodore Basic (v4.0) label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke keyboard (''business keyboard'') label value CPU 6502 label value SPEED 1 MHz label value RAM 32, 64 or 96 KB label value ROM 16 KB label value TEXT MODES 80 columns x 25 lines label value GRAPHIC MODES none label value COLORS monochrome label value SIZE / WEIGHT Heavy ! label value I/O PORTS IEEE 488, Cassette label value BUILT IN MEDIA None label value OS ROM Based (ROM v4.0) label value POWER SUPPLY PSU built-in label value PRICE Unknown photos hardware emulators links docs title subtitle text image CBM 8032 /media/museum/photos/commodore_cbm8032_2.jpg title subtitle text image 8032 SK The CBM 8032-SK was also sold in a European version called **PET 200**. Character generator ROM and keyboard were modified to fit the system to various European languages. /media/museum/photos/commodore_8032sk_1.jpg title subtitle text image CBM 8296 This version holds 128 KB of RAM Thanks to **Roman von Wartburg** from Germany /media/museum/photos/commodore_8296_system_1.jpg title subtitle text image THE BOX /media/museum/photos/commodore_8296_box.jpg title subtitle text image HAMSTER CAGE This monitor found a new job as a hamster cage in the department's mechanical workshop of the University of Amsterdam! Thanks to the [University of Amsterdam](http://www.science.uva.nl/faculteit/museum/) for this picture. /media/museum/photos/commodore_pet_hamsters.jpg title subtitle text image CLOCK/CALENDAR MODULE Could be connected to any PET/CBM user port. Clock and calendar were battery backed up. /media/museum/hardware/commodore_pet_clockmodule_1.jpg title subtitle text image EPROM PROGRAMMER Could burn 2716 and 2732 Eprom chips. /media/museum/hardware/commodore_pet_epromprog_1.jpg title subtitle text image TNW-2000 IEEE-488 to Serial converter Thanks to **Pascal Rollin** /media/museum/hardware/commodore_pet_tnw2000_1.jpg title subtitle text image DUAL DISK-DRIVES Model 2040 This dual 5.25" floppy disk is single sided, double density and has a storage capacity of 170 Kb per disk, or 360k total. It's connected to the computer through an IEEE-488 interface and uses CBM DOS 1.0. /media/museum/hardware/commodore_cbm2040-dualdisks_1.jpg title subtitle text image 8050 DUAL DISK-DRIVE CBM PET Model 8050 Dual disk drive. It uses a 100 TPI single headed drive with a storage capacity of 533,248 bytes per drive. Each 8050 disk has 77 tracks, and is read/write compatible with the model 8250 disk. This compatibility is limited to one side of the diskette. It can be used with Commodore Series 2001, Series 3000, Series 4000 and Series 8000. It uses an IEEE-488 interface. /media/museum/hardware/commodore_cbm_8050_diskdrives.jpg title subtitle text image 8250-LP DUAL DRIVE UNIT The 8250-LP (for Low Profile) uses dual half-size double-side, double-density 1 MB capacity floppy drives. The main logic board is entirely different from the full-size 8250. It uses two 6502 processors! /media/museum/hardware/commodore_700_8250fddunit_1.jpg title subtitle text image 9090 HARD-DISK This is a single drive non-removeable Winchester technology storage device. It features 3 platters with recording surfaces on both sides and provides 7.5 million characters of storage. A single random access file may occupy the entire capacity. It has an IEEE interface connector and a "slow blow" fuse on the back. /media/museum/hardware/commodore_cbm_9090_harddisk.jpg title subtitle text image 8023P COMMODORE TRACTOR PRINTER /media/museum/hardware/commodore_printer_8032p.jpg title url platform text Versatile Commodore 8-bit Emulator (VICE) http://www.6502.org/users/andre/index.html Windows title url text Larry's PET/CBM Pages http://www.portcommodore.com/petindex.php?path=main-cbmidx Excellent source of information for PET/CBM computers title url text PET index http://www.6502.org/users/andre/petindex/index.html Some useful info here about PET computers title url text The Commodore CBM-II page http://ca.geocities.com/SJGRAY@ROGERS.COM/CBM/ All things CBM-II title url text THE Independent Commodore Library http://freespace.virgin.net/ken.ross1/ All sorts of programs here, text files covering a wide range of subjects title url text TPUG - Toronto PET Users Group Inc. http://www.tpug.ca/ The Commodore PET Users Group, founded in 1979 ! (seems offline, mail us their new address if you find it) title url text www.commodore.ca http://www.commodore.ca/products/pet/commodore_pet.htm Excellent site with a lot of info about Commodore computers including dedicated PET pages title url text Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com Discussion about Commodore micros title url cover text COMMODORE BASIC VERSION 4.0 - USER'S REFERENCE MANUAL http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/default.htm /media/museum/docs/couvs/commodore_basic_4_users_reference%20manual.jpg [**COMMODORE BASIC VERSION 4.0 - USER'S REFERENCE MANUAL**](http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/default.htm)written by Commodore  compiled/archived by www.commodore.ca\  type of document : PDF\  source : [www.commodore.ca](http://www.commodore.ca) title url cover text COMMODORE PET MACHINE LANGUAGE MONITOR http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/default.htm /media/museum/docs/couvs/pet_machine_language_monitor.jpg [**COMMODORE PET MACHINE LANGUAGE MONITOR**](http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/default.htm)written by Commodore  compiled/archived by www.commodore.ca\  type of document : PDF\  source : [www.commodore.ca](http://www.commodore.ca) author date text Peter Singleton (UK) Saturday 17th December 2016 We used these very seriously at a insurance company, Albany Life, where we had these as standard for word-processing (using WordCraft) across the company at about 20 different branches around the UK. Used BASIC programs as well as Visicalc to do a lot of finanical modelling, so much so that we got Wordcraft to develop a micro-mainframe link so that we could transfer data from mainframe into our financial modelling systems. Was much quicker $ more cost-effective than trying to get things done through mainframe systems. Eventually moved to PCs, but loved teh simplicity and flexibility of the Commodore PETs author date text Jim Amos (Denver, CO USA) Tuesday 5th May 2015 Granville Kirkup in England created a camera repair shop application on the 8032, using the dual 500K floppy drive unit for storage. I bought a system from him and used it for many years to run my shop. It would hold data for about 2,000 repairs. There was nothing like it at the time. He also did a simple payroll tax program. The Leica camera company in Germany developed a camera shutter speed tester using an 80XX as the output device. author date text Jonno (Yorkshire, England) Friday 22nd October 2010 I learned to program on one of these in school when I was 15 and I loved it. Only had a tape deck though so very slow. My friend had a BIG program he wrote and it would take most of a lesson to load it! Because of this lots of people preferred the timeshare teleprinter terminal linked to our local council''s mainframe as it had instant save/load times. author date text Ernie Jacob, Jr. (Switzerland) Thursday 7th October 2010 I used a CBM 8032 combined with 2 px. 8296 FDD Floppy Disk Stations to manage my 20''000+ Customer Database and it worked, at least, most of the time, quite well. From my point of view, the 8032 was the first real Consumer Computer packed into a very strong case and looking like a real Computer... Ernie author date text Dave Lea (UK) Wednesday 1st September 2010 These were an absolute nightmare to work on, when spares started to dry up, you could only tackle on with an ociliscope, an avo meter and soldering iron along with your box of bits! Good memories though, but it might frighten todays techies a bit author date text Wulf Monday 27th April 2009 In contrast to Ben''s experience, I think to remember that it actually was possible to read C64 tapes on a Pet. Our school had a room full of Pets, and a friend and me used to write BASIC programs at home with a C64 and then load them into the Pet the next day. You needed a series of Pokes for the tape to load properly though. author date text Peter Husrt (UK) Friday 21st March 2008 I used Commodore PET's at college in the early eighties. I remeber how fast they seemed compared to my ZX81 at home and the robustness, no more gentle typing in case the rampack wobbled! I was always impressed at the design and the way the case opened like a car bonnet to gain access to the motherboard. author date text Skel (Oakville, Ontario, Canada) Tuesday 17th October 2006 Take a close look at the C-64's User Manual for the 1541 disk drive. As was mentioned in the PET profile, the Tapes from the 80xx could be read by the C-64. Likewise, the 1541 disk drive used the Pet 40xx & 80xx disk format system allowing it to read the old PET formatted diskettes BUT NOT WRITE to them. It wasn't just tapes that could be read, but diskettes as well. Indeed, several diskette programming instructions in the Commodore 64 Basic V2 such as the save procedure "s0:" and "Duplicate" (completely useless on the 1541's single disk system) were hold-overs from as far back as the first PET disk drive systems. author date text Rich (Salt Lake City, UT, USA) Sunday 12th December 2004 I have one of these, but it doesn't power up. Any suggestions on how to diagnose/repair the problem? The fuse is fine, so it seems like it must be the power supply. Thanks! author date text stefan (sweden) Monday 14th October 2002 I have one of these.Buyer mail me.\ stefan /museum/commodore-cbm-500-600-series /museum/commodore-cbm-700-series /museum/commodore-pet-200 /museum/commodore-pet-2001 /museum/commodore-pet-30xx /museum/commodore-pet-cbm-40xx /museum/commodore-superpet 105 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230225141147/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=105 2023-02-25

The main improvement over the other PET / CBM computers is the 80-column display. The screen is 12'' large and the ROM version is 4.0.

The CBM-80xx was often sold as a "bundle". It was made up of the computer (most often the CBM 8032, though other models were made), the 5.25" double disk drive CBM 8050 (500 KB, 77 tracks) and the bi-directional 132-columns, 160 CPS printer. The 8050 has a 6502 CPU, 4 KB of RAM and 12 KB of ROM (which contains the DOS). It was sold with Ozz, a Database, and a version of the spreadsheet "Visicalc".

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Dave Ridley reports to us:
CBM & PET 4000/8000 series - Brings back the memories! I used to fix these things, and boy did they have some classics. Regular problems were caused by the chip sockets going intermittant together with the molex power connectors burning out! Fix - remove chip squirt with RS Solvent Cleaner and stick them back. The external Disk units were connected by IEEE connectors. These disk drive units would fail, many a time I would open a unit up onsite(rather like opening the bonnet of a car) to find a pair of rectifier diodes that had got so hot they had actually melted themselves out of the board and fallen into the base.

Ben Pony adds:
I experimented with the compatibility of this computer and the C-64. Any software stored on cassette by the CBM could be loaded into the C-64, but C-64 tapes wouldn't work on the CBM.

About the 8296 FDD unit, by Michael Huth:
The 8296DS double disk drive unit uses 2x 6502. They work as multi-processor system. One cpu manages the data transfer and the other the drives hardware. So in fact the floppy has the double computing power than the computer itself.