The Commodore 64
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With an eye on vertical integration and the 6502 microprocessor, Jack Tramiel bought MOS Technology in September, 1976, though not exactly in the most straightforward fashion. A ruthless businessman, Tramiel withheld payments to MOS (whether because Commodore was cash-strapped or there was a problem with an order of chips, or both, is speculation), meaning MOS was in turn facing a cash shortfall, a problem compounded by a lawsuit from Motorola over possible intellectual property infringement (Bagnall 56). Tramiel was able to buy MOS Technology at a bargain basement price -- around $750,000 -- and suddenly Commodore had its own chip design and production facility. Tramiel was still intent on dominating the calculator business, however, and it took Chuck Peddle and Commodore's Vice-President of Engineering, Andre Sousan, to convince him that a personal computer would in fact be the next generation calculator, leapfrogging over Hewlett-Packard's successful programmable HP-65 calculator (Bagnall 62). Thus was born the project that would become the 8-bit Commodore PET, the first computer under a thousand dollars to include a monitor. The computer's name is a sign of the times; Sousan came up with the PET name to capitalize upon the pet rock craze of the late seventies, and only afterward did Peddle suggest '''P'''ersonal '''E'''lectronic '''T'''ransactor as a kind of "backronym" to explain the PET's name logically (Freiberger 13). | With an eye on vertical integration and the 6502 microprocessor, Jack Tramiel bought MOS Technology in September, 1976, though not exactly in the most straightforward fashion. A ruthless businessman, Tramiel withheld payments to MOS (whether because Commodore was cash-strapped or there was a problem with an order of chips, or both, is speculation), meaning MOS was in turn facing a cash shortfall, a problem compounded by a lawsuit from Motorola over possible intellectual property infringement (Bagnall 56). Tramiel was able to buy MOS Technology at a bargain basement price -- around $750,000 -- and suddenly Commodore had its own chip design and production facility. Tramiel was still intent on dominating the calculator business, however, and it took Chuck Peddle and Commodore's Vice-President of Engineering, Andre Sousan, to convince him that a personal computer would in fact be the next generation calculator, leapfrogging over Hewlett-Packard's successful programmable HP-65 calculator (Bagnall 62). Thus was born the project that would become the 8-bit Commodore PET, the first computer under a thousand dollars to include a monitor. The computer's name is a sign of the times; Sousan came up with the PET name to capitalize upon the pet rock craze of the late seventies, and only afterward did Peddle suggest '''P'''ersonal '''E'''lectronic '''T'''ransactor as a kind of "backronym" to explain the PET's name logically (Freiberger 13). | ||
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| + | The PET was the first of Commodore's computers to include BASIC in the ROM, making the PET ready for programming the moment the computer had booted up. As detailed in the BASIC chapter, Commodore computers ran a version of BASIC developed by Micro-Soft, the early form of the computer giant now known as Microsoft. Rick Wyland, an early Micro-Soft employee, developed the 6502 version of BASIC on his own, adopting it from Gates' and Allen's original Intel 8008 version without official approval from Gates. Gates' attitude was that Micro-Soft should make some money on the 6502 BASIC, and move one. (Bagnall 69). Prior to the release of the PET, Commodore bought a one-time license to Microsoft BASIC, enough to cover Micro-Soft's development costs. As Leonard Tramiel, Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel's son explains, "It was a one-time, royalty-free purchase. The ROMs went through different versions and there were changes in the operating system, but I don't think there were any changes to BASIC itself" (Bagnall 83). Jack Tramiel took full advantage of his purchase, putting the same version of BASIC on every computer Commodore ever sold, from the PET to the Commodore 64, even when that version of BASIC would be considered obsolete by any other measure. | ||
=Learning Through Play= | =Learning Through Play= | ||
