141-511: The DOS Wedge is a piece of Commodore 64 system software that was popular in its time. It was written by Bob Fairbairn, and was included by Commodore (CBM) on the 1541 disk drive Test/Demo Disk (filename: " DOS 5.1 ") and also packaged with the C64 Macro Assembler (filename: " DOS WEDGE64 "). The DOS Wedge was referred to in the 1541 drive manual as DOS Support and on the software startup screen as DOS MANAGER . The original design
282-575: A Timex Sinclair 1000 (TS1000) for as little as $ 10 with the purchase of a C64. This deal meant that the consumer could send the TS1000 to Commodore, collect the rebate, and pocket the difference; Timex Corporation departed the computer market within a year. Commodore's tactics soon led to a price war with the major home computer manufacturers. The success of the VIC-20 and C64 contributed significantly to Texas Instruments and other smaller competitors exiting
423-554: A radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator , which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture and, therefore, mobile telephones are called cellular telephones or cell phones in North America. In addition to telephony , digital mobile phones ( 2G ) support
564-803: A communications protocol is a system of digital rules for data exchange within or between computers. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) trade show has taken place yearly in Las Vegas , Nevada since its foundation in 1973. The event, which grew from having 100 exhibitors in its inaugural year to more than 4,500 exhibiting companies in its 2020 edition, features the latest in consumer electronics, speeches by industry experts and innovation awards. The IFA Berlin trade show has taken place in Berlin , Germany since its foundation in 1924. The event features new consumer electronics and speeches by industry pioneers. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE),
705-414: A compatible video game console , to run these programs today. The C64 is also credited with popularizing the computer demoscene and is still used today by some computer hobbyists . In 2011, 17 years after it was taken off the market, research showed that brand recognition for the model was still at 87%. In January 1981, MOS Technology, Inc., Commodore's integrated circuit design subsidiary, initiated
846-527: A consistent group that's not growing... it's going to shrink as part of our business." One computer gaming executive stated that the Nintendo Entertainment System 's enormous popularity – seven million sold in 1988, almost as many as the number of C64s sold in its first five years – had stopped the C64's growth. Trip Hawkins reinforced that sentiment, stating that Nintendo
987-607: A custom chip for waveform generation, the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware. The C64 dominated the low-end computer market (except in the UK, France and Japan, lasting only about six months in Japan ) for most of the later years of the 1980s. For a substantial period (1983–1986), the C64 had between 30% and 40% share of the US market and two million units sold per year, outselling IBM PC compatibles ,
1128-437: A disk drive, and using BASIC 2.0 simplified VIC-20 owners' transition to the 64. "The choice of BASIC 2.0 instead of 4.0 was made with some soul-searching, not just at random. The typical user of a C64 is not expected to need the direct disk commands as much as other extensions, and the amount of memory to be committed to BASIC were to be limited. We chose to leave expansion space for color and sound extensions instead of
1269-423: A given price, semiconductor functionality doubles every two years. While consumer electronics continues in its trend of convergence , combining elements of many products, consumers face different purchasing decisions. There is an ever-increasing need to keep product information updated and comparable for the consumer to make an informed choice. Style, price, specification, and performance are all relevant. There are
1410-490: A gradual shift towards e-commerce web-storefronts. Many products include Internet access using technologies such as Wi-Fi , Bluetooth , EDGE , or Ethernet . Products not traditionally associated with computer use (such as TVs or hi-fi equipment) now provide options to connect to the Internet or to a computer using a home network to provide access to digital content. The desire for high-definition (HD) content has led
1551-475: A keyboard, so any software that required a keyboard could not be used. In 1990, an advanced successor to the C64, the Commodore 65 (also known as the "C64DX"), was prototyped, but the project was canceled by Commodore's chairman Irving Gould in 1991. The C65's specifications were impressive for an 8-bit computer, bringing specs comparable to the 16-bit Apple IIGS . For example, it could display 256 colors on
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#17328583768941692-460: A lack of software; although most commercial CP/M software can run on these systems, software media is incompatible between platforms. The low usage of CP/M on Commodores means that software houses saw no need to invest in mastering versions for the Commodore disk format. The C64 CP/M cartridge is also not compatible with anything except the early 326298 motherboards. During the 1980s, the Commodore 64
1833-412: A large spike in 1984 when 2.6 million were sold. After that, sales held steady at between 1.3 and 1.6 million a year for the remainder of the decade and then dropped off after 1989. North American sales peaked between 1983 and 1985 and gradually tapered off afterward, while European sales remained quite strong into the early 1990s. Commodore itself reported a robust sales figure of over 800,000 units during
1974-469: A leftover feature of the unsuccessful MAX Machine. These cartridges map into $ F000 and displace the KERNAL ;ROM. If Ultimax mode is used, the programmer will have to provide code for handling system interrupts. The cartridge port has 16 address lines , which grants access to the computer's entire address space if needed. Disk and tape software normally load at the start of BASIC memory ($ 0801), and use
2115-637: A lower price and more flexible hardware, it quickly outsold many of its competitors. In the United States, the greatest competitors were the Atari 8-bit computers and the Apple II. The Atari 400 and 800 had been designed to accommodate previously stringent FCC emissions requirements and so were expensive to manufacture. Though similar in specifications, the C64 and Apple II represented differing design philosophies; as an open architecture system, upgrade capability for
2256-492: A mid-1984 conference of game developers and experts at Origins Game Fair , Dan Bunten , Sid Meier , and a representative of Avalon Hill said that they were developing games for the C64 first as the most promising market. By 1985, games were an estimated 60 to 70% of Commodore 64 software. Computer Gaming World stated in January 1985 that companies such as Epyx that survived the video game crash did so because they "jumped on
2397-549: A new production process, and a shortage of 1541 disk drives, which also suffered rather severe reliability issues. During 1983, however, a trickle of software turned into a flood and sales began rapidly climbing. Commodore sold the C64 not only through its network of authorized dealers but also through department stores, discount stores, toy stores and college bookstores. The C64 had a built-in RF modulator and thus could be plugged into any television set. This allowed it (like its predecessor,
2538-407: A number of MOSFET integrated circuit (IC) chips, include various sensors that can be leveraged by pre-included and third-party software (such as a magnetometer , proximity sensors , barometer , gyroscope , accelerometer and more ), and support wireless communications protocols (such as Bluetooth , Wi-Fi , or satellite navigation ). In 2017, Greenpeace USA published a study of 17 of
2679-529: A potential shift in attitudes to reuse and repair. With turnover of small household appliances high and costs relatively low, many consumers will throw unwanted electric goods in the normal dustbin, meaning that items of potentially high reuse or recycling value go to landfills. While more oversized items such as washing machines are usually collected, it has been estimated that the 160,000 tonnes of EEE in regular waste collections were worth £220 million. And 23% of EEE taken to Household Waste Recycling Centres
2820-615: A project to design the graphic and audio chips for a next-generation video game console . Design work for the chips, named MOS Technology VIC-II (Video Integrated Circuit for graphics) and MOS Technology SID (Sound Interface Device for audio), was completed in November 1981. Commodore then began a game console project that would use the new chips—called the Ultimax or the MAX Machine , engineered by Yash Terakura from Commodore Japan. This project
2961-446: A result, the big players rely on global markets to achieve economies of scale. Even these companies sometimes have to cooperate with each other, for instance on standards, to reduce the risk of their investments. In supply chain management , there is much discussion on risks related to such aspects of supply chains as short product life cycles, high competition combined with cooperation, and globalization. The consumer electronics industry
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#17328583768943102-443: A series of television commercials after the C64's launch in late 1982. The company also published detailed documentation to help developers, while Atari initially kept technical information secret. Although many early C64 games were inferior Atari 8-bit ports , by late 1983, the growing installed base caused developers to create new software with better graphics and sound. Rumors spread in late 1983 that Commodore would discontinue
3243-441: A single substrate using electrical connections between circuits within the chip itself. IC technology led to more advanced and cheaper consumer electronics, such as transistorized televisions, pocket calculators , and by the 1980s, affordable video game consoles and personal computers that regular middle-class families could buy. Starting in the 1980s with the compact disc and the introduction of personal computers, and until
3384-513: A small BASIC stub (such as 10 SYS(2064) ) to jump to the start of the program. Although no Commodore 8-bit machine except the C128 can automatically boot from a floppy disk, some software intentionally overwrites certain BASIC vectors in the process of loading so execution begins automatically (instead of requiring the user to type RUN at the BASIC prompt after loading). About 300 cartridges were released for
3525-474: A system lockup or other undesirable side effects if the restore key is accidentally pressed (which activates the NMI thread). The C64 retained the VIC-20's DE-9 Atari joystick port and added another; any Atari-specification game controller can be used on a C64. The joysticks are read from the registers at $ DC00 and $ DC01 , and most software is designed to use a joystick in port 2 for control rather than port 1;
3666-546: A tiny fraction of disposable income , rising from 0.5 percent in the US in 1920, to about 2 percent in 1980. Yet the sequence of electrical and mechanical durables have altered the activities and experiences of households in America and Britain in the twentieth century. With the expansion of cookers, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, washing machines, radios, televisions, air conditioning, and microwave ovens, households have gained an escalating number of appliances. Despite
3807-413: A variety of other services , such as text messaging , MMS , email , Internet access , short-range wireless communications ( infrared , Bluetooth ), business applications, video games and digital photography . Mobile phones offering only those capabilities are known as feature phones ; mobile phones which offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones . A smartphone
3948-763: A videocassette recorders (VCRs) consume more electricity during the course of a year in standby mode than when they are used to record or playback videos. Similar findings were obtained concerning satellite boxes , which consume almost the same amount of energy in "on" and "off" modes. A 2012 study in the United Kingdom, carried out by the Energy Saving Trust , found that the devices using the most power on standby mode included televisions, satellite boxes, and other video and audio equipment. The study concluded that UK households could save up to £86 per year by switching devices off instead of using standby mode. A report from
4089-419: Is Club Caribe . First released as Habitat in 1988, Club Caribe was introduced by LucasArts for Q-Link customers on their Commodore 64 computers. Users could interact with one another, chat and exchange items. Although the game's open world was very basic, its use of online avatars and the combination of chat and graphics was revolutionary. Online graphics in the late 1980s were severely restricted by
4230-760: Is 20 KB of ROM, made up of the BASIC interpreter, the KERNAL , and the character ROM. Because the processor can only address 64 KB at a time, the ROM was mapped into memory and only 38 911 bytes of RAM (plus 4 KB between the ROMs) were available at startup. Most " breadbin " Commodore 64s used 4164 DRAM with eight chips totaling 64K of system RAM. Later models, featuring Assy 250466 and Assy 250469 motherboards , used 41464 DRAM (64K×4) chips which stored 32 KB per chip (so only two were required). Because 4164 DRAMs are 64K×1, eight chips are needed to make an entire byte;
4371-510: Is a portable device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems , which facilitate wider software , internet (including web navigation over mobile broadband ), and multimedia functionality (including music, video, cameras , and gaming ), alongside core phone functions such as voice calls and text messaging . Smartphones typically contain
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4512-605: Is a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics contributing $ 1.2 billion in revenues. Samsung Electronics has one of the highest R&D expenditure as a proportion of revenues in the industry and spent about $ 2.9 billion in 2003. Along with its competitors, Samsung Electronics is global and employs 88,000 people in 89 offices in 46 countries. Not including facilities in Korea, it has 24 manufacturing complexes, 40 distribution bases and 15 branches spread over all continents except Antarctica. Countries with manufacturing facilities include
4653-488: Is commercially available today and under active development. It features a full GUI in character mode, and many other modern features. A version of CP/M was released, but this requires the addition of an external Z80 processor to the expansion bus. Furthermore, the Z80 processor is underclocked to be compatible with the C64's memory bus, so performance is poor compared to other CP/M implementations. C64 CP/M and C128 CP/M both suffer
4794-603: Is comparable across countries affects the extent of the gains from international integration. In addition, consumer preferences change over time to disturb existing patterns of behavior. A feature of some industries is that demand for variety increases as the market moves from first-time buying to replacement demand. A resource to further understand this idea of consumer preferences can be observed through Lizabeth Cohen's book titled, "A Consumers' Republic", "Only if we have large demands can we expect large production". The electronics industry, especially consumer electronics, emerged in
4935-402: Is in its 35th year. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society also have initiated a conference to research on next generation consumer electronics as Smart Electronics. The conference named IEEE Symposium on Smart Electronics Systems ( IEEE-iSES ) is on its 9th year. Electronics retailing is a significant part of the retail industry in many countries. In
5076-626: Is limited and energy intensive. Electronic waste describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. Many consumer electronics may contain toxic minerals and elements, and many electronic scrap components, such as CRTs , may contain contaminants such as lead , cadmium , beryllium , mercury , dioxins , or brominated flame retardants . Electronic waste recycling may involve significant risk to workers and communities and great care must be taken to avoid unsafe exposure in recycling operations and leaking of materials such as heavy metals from landfills and incinerator ashes. However, large amounts of
5217-486: Is part of the wider electronics industry . In turn, the driving force behind the electronics industry is the semiconductor industry . For its first fifty years, the phonograph turntable did not use electronics; the needle and sound horn were purely mechanical technologies. However, in the 1920s, radio broadcasting became the basis of mass production of radio receivers . The vacuum tubes that had made radios practical were used with record players as well, to amplify
5358-500: Is present. The second revision is found on all C64s made from late 1982 through 1985. The final KERNAL ROM revision was introduced on the 250466 motherboard (late breadbin models with 41464 RAM), and is found in all C64Cs. The 6510 CPU is clocked at 1.023 MHz (NTSC) and 0.985 MHz (PAL), lower than some competing systems; the Atari 800, for example, is clocked at 1.79 MHz ). Performance can be boosted slightly by disabling
5499-620: Is the very embodiment of these aspects of supply chain management and related risks. While some of the supply and demand related risks are similar to such industries as the toy industry, the consumer electronics industry faces additional risks due to its vertically integrated supply chains. There are also numerous supply-chain-wide contextual risks that cut across the supply chain especially impacting companies with global supply chains. These include cultural differences in multinational operations, environmental risk, regulations risk, and exchange rate risk across multiple countries. Whether or not demand
5640-422: Is used to distinguish them from " white goods ", which are meant for housekeeping tasks, such as washing machines and refrigerators . In British English, they are often called brown goods by producers and sellers. In the 2010s, this distinction is absent in large big box consumer electronics stores , which sell entertainment, communication and home office devices, light fixtures and appliances, including
5781-513: Is used within some consumer electronics, such as mobile phones . This type of software may be embedded within the hardware of electronic devices. Some consumer electronics include software that is used on a personal computer in conjunction with electronic devices, such as camcorders and digital cameras , and third-party software for such devices also exists. Some consumer electronics adhere to protocols, such as connection protocols "to high speed bi-directional signals". In telecommunications ,
DOS Wedge - Misplaced Pages Continue
5922-617: The Apple II , and Atari 8-bit computers . Sam Tramiel, a later Atari president and the son of Commodore's founder, said in a 1989 interview, "When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years." In the UK market, the C64 faced competition from the BBC Micro , the ZX Spectrum , and later the Amstrad CPC 464 , but the C64 was still the second-most-popular computer in
6063-444: The Commodore 1702 monitor, providing even better video quality than a composite signal. Aggressive pricing of the C64 is considered to have been a major catalyst in the video game crash of 1983 . In January 1983, Commodore offered a $ 100 rebate in the United States on the purchase of a C64 to anyone that traded in another video game console or computer. To take advantage of this rebate, some mail-order dealers and retailers offered
6204-609: The Guinness World Records as the highest-selling single computer model of all time, with independent estimates placing the number sold between 12.5 and 17 million units. Volume production started in early 1982, marketing in August for US$ 595 (equivalent to $ 1,880 in 2023). Preceded by the VIC-20 and Commodore PET , the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes ) of RAM. With support for multicolor sprites and
6345-553: The International Energy Agency in 2014 found that $ 80 billion of power is wasted globally per year due to inefficiency of electronic devices. Consumers can reduce unwanted use of standby power by unplugging their devices, using power strips with switches, or by buying devices that are standardized for better energy management, particularly Energy Star -marked products. A high number of different metals and low concentration rates in electronics means that recycling
6486-469: The KERNAL went from two separate chips into one 16 KB ROM chip. The PLA chip and some TTL chips were integrated into a DIL 64-pin chip. The "252535-01" PLA integrated the color RAM as well into the same chip. The smaller physical space made it impossible to put in some internal expansions like a floppy-speeder. In the United States, the 64C was often bundled with the third-party GEOS graphical user interface (GUI)-based operating system, as well as
6627-453: The Telnet protocol. There were major commercial online services , such as Compunet (UK), CompuServe (US – later bought by America Online ), The Source (US), and Minitel (France) among many others. These services usually required custom software which was often bundled with a modem and included free online time as they were billed by the minute. Quantum Link (or Q-Link)
6768-441: The ubiquity of these goods, their diffusion is not well understood. Some types of appliances diffuse more frequently than others. In particular, home entertainment appliances such as radio and television have diffused much faster than household and kitchen machines." Consumer electronics devices include those used for Increasingly consumer electronics products such as digital distribution of video games have become based on
6909-404: The 1980s and 1990s, followed by DVD players and Blu-ray players). Stores also sell smart light fixtures and appliances , digital cameras , camcorders , mobile phones , and smartphones . Some of the newer products sold include virtual reality head-mounted display goggles, smart home devices that connect home devices to the Internet , streaming devices, and wearable technology . In
7050-622: The 1991 fiscal year, but sales during the 1993 fiscal year had declined to fewer than 200,000 units. Throughout the early 1990s, European sales had accounted for more than 80% of Commodore's total sales revenue. In 1982, Commodore released the MAX Machine in Japan . It was called the Ultimax in the United States and VC-10 in Germany. The MAX was intended to be a game console with limited computing capability and
7191-520: The 2010s, most consumer electronics have become based on digital technologies. They have essentially merged with the computer industry in what is increasingly referred to as the consumerization of information technology . Some consumer electronics stores have also begun selling office and baby furniture . Consumer electronics stores may be " brick and mortar " physical retail stores, online stores, or combinations of both. Annual consumer electronics sales are expected to reach $ 2.9 trillion by 2020. It
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#17328583768947332-504: The 20th century and has become a global industry worth billions of dollars. Contemporary society uses all manner of electronic devices built-in automated or semi-automated factories operated by the industry. Most consumer electronics are built in China, due to maintenance cost, availability of materials, quality, and speed as opposed to other countries such as the United States. Cities such as Shenzhen have become important production centres for
7473-556: The 40-pin IC package. These are used for two purposes in the C64: to bank-switch the machine's read-only memory (ROM) in and out of the processor's address space, and to operate the datasette tape recorder. The C64 has 64 KB of 8-bit-wide dynamic RAM , 1 KB of 4-bit-wide static color RAM for text mode, and 38 KB are available to built-in Commodore BASIC 2.0 on startup. There
7614-553: The 64C computer, which is functionally identical to the original. The exterior design was remodeled in the sleeker style of the Commodore 128 . The 64C uses new versions of the SID, VIC-II, and I/O chips being deployed. Models with the C64E board had the graphic symbols printed on the top of the keys, instead of the normal location on the front. The sound chip (SID) was changed to use the MOS 8580 chip, with
7755-475: The 64C, a redesigned 64, which Compute! saw as evidence that—contrary to C64 owners' fears that the company would abandon them in favor of the Amiga and 128—"the 64 refuses to die". Its introduction also meant that Commodore raised the price of the C64 for the first time, which the magazine cited as the end of the home-computer price war . Software sales also remained strong; MicroProse , for example, in 1987 cited
7896-415: The Apple II was granted by internal expansion slots, whereas the C64's comparatively closed architecture had only a single external ROM cartridge port for bus expansion. However, the Apple II used its expansion slots for interfacing with common peripherals like disk drives, printers, and modems; the C64 had a variety of ports integrated into its motherboard, which were used for these purposes, usually leaving
8037-564: The Apple II+ (upgraded within months of C64's release to 64 KB with the Apple IIe) and 48 KB for the Atari 800. At upwards of $ 1,200 , the Apple ;II was about twice as expensive, while the Atari 800 cost $ 899. One key to the C64's success was Commodore's aggressive marketing tactics, and they were quick to exploit the relative price/performance divisions between its competitors with
8178-439: The Atari or Apple, like the ability to change color of the character basis across the screen. That gave us a lot of color capability that had not been exploited. With sales booming and the early reliability issues with the hardware addressed, software for the C64 began to grow in size and ambition during 1984. This growth shifted to the primary focus of most US game developers. The two holdouts were Sierra , who largely skipped over
8319-418: The C128 would be 100% compatible with the C64, thereby raising the bar for C64 support. In a case of malicious compliance , the 128 design was altered to include a separate "64 mode" using a complete C64 environment to try to ensure total compatibility. The C64's designers intended the computer to have a new, wedge-shaped case within a year of release, but the change did not occur. In 1986, Commodore released
8460-750: The C64 and C128: the 1350 and 1351 . The 1350 is a digital device read from the joystick registers, and can be used with any program supporting joystick input. The 1351 is an analog potentiometer -based mouse, read with the SID's analog-to-digital converter . Consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital ) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment , communications and recreation . These products are usually referred to as black goods in American English, due to many products being housed in black or dark casings. This term
8601-472: The C64 because "it will sell the most on that system". In Europe, the primary competitors to the C64 were British-built computers: the Sinclair ZX Spectrum , the BBC Micro , and the Amstrad CPC 464 . In the UK, the 48K Spectrum had not only been released a few months ahead of the C64's early 1983 debut, but it was also selling for £175, less than half the C64's £399 price. The Spectrum quickly became
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#17328583768948742-459: The C64 in favor of Apple and PC-compatible machines, and Broderbund , who were heavily invested in educational software and developed primarily around the Apple II. In the North American market, the disk format had become nearly universal while cassette and cartridge-based software all but disappeared. Most US-developed games by this point grew large enough to require multi-loading from disk. At
8883-629: The C64 include Pascal , C , Logo , Forth , and FORTRAN . Compilers for BASIC 2.0 such as Petspeed 2 (from Commodore), Blitz (from Jason Ranheim), and Turbo Lightning (from Ocean Software ) were produced. Most commercial C64 software was written in assembly language, either cross-developed on a larger computer, or directly on the C64 using a machine code monitor or an assembler. This maximized speed and minimized memory use. Some games, particularly adventures, used high-level scripting languages and sometimes mixed BASIC and machine language. Many third-party operating systems have been developed for
9024-533: The C64's 11 + 1 ⁄ 2 -year production. Claims of sales of 17, 22 and 30 million of C64 units sold worldwide have been made. Company sales records, however, indicate that the total number was about 12.5 million. Based on that figure, the Commodore 64 was still the third most popular computing platform into the 21st century until 2017 when the Raspberry Pi family replaced it. While 360,000 C64s were sold in 1982, about 1.3 million were sold in 1983, followed by
9165-450: The C64's price was $ 149 ; with an estimated production cost of $ 35–50 , its profitability was still within the industry-standard markup of two to three times. Commodore sold about one million C64s in 1985 and a total of 3.5 million by mid-1986. Although the company reportedly attempted to discontinue the C64 more than once in favor of more expensive computers such as the Commodore 128 , demand remained strong. In 1986, Commodore introduced
9306-479: The C64, but it was the only non-discontinued, widely available home computer in the US by then, with more than 500,000 sold during the Christmas season; because of production problems in Atari's supply chain, by the start of 1984 "the Commodore 64 largely has [the low-end] market to itself right now", The Washington Post reported. Some of the graphics modes on the 64 are really strange, and they have no analogs to
9447-453: The C64, avoiding the Plus/4's flaws. The successors had many improvements such as a BASIC with graphics and sound commands (like almost all home computers not made by Commodore ), 80-column display ability, and full CP/M compatibility. The decision to make the Commodore 128 plug compatible with the C64 was made quietly by Bowen and Herd, software and hardware designers respectively, without
9588-488: The C64, most arcade conversions were produced by UK developers and converted to NTSC and disk format for the US market, American developers instead focusing on more computer-centered game genres such as RPGs and simulations. In the European market, disk software was rarer and cassettes were the most common distribution method; this led to a higher prevalence of arcade titles and smaller, lower-budget games that could fit entirely in
9729-400: The C64, primarily during the machine's first 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 years on the market, after which most software outgrew the 16 KB cartridge limit. Larger software companies, such as Ocean Software , began releasing games on bank-switched cartridges to overcome the 16 KB cartridge limit during the C64's final years. Commodore did not include a reset button on its computers until
9870-509: The C64. As well as the original GEOS , two third-party GEOS-compatible systems have been written: Wheels and GEOS megapatch. Both of these require hardware upgrades to the original C64. Several other operating systems are or have been available, including WiNGS OS, the Unix-like LUnix, operated from a command-line, and the embedded systems OS Contiki , with full GUI. Other less well-known OSes include ACE, Asterix, DOS/65, and GeckOS . C64 OS
10011-551: The CBM-II line, but third-party cartridges had a reset button. A soft reset can be triggered by jumping to the CPU reset routine at $ FCE2 (64738). A few programs use this as an exit feature, although it does not clear memory. The KERNAL ROM underwent three revisions, mainly designed to fix bugs. The initial version is only found on 326298 motherboards (used in the first production models), and cannot detect whether an NTSC or PAL VIC-II
10152-522: The CPU. Because doing so necessitates swapping out the I/O registers, interrupts must first be disabled. By removing I/O from the memory map, $ D000 – $ DFFF becomes free RAM. C64 cartridges map into assigned ranges in the CPU's address space. The most common cartridge auto-starting requires a string at $ 8000 which contains " CBM80 " followed by the address where program execution begins. A few C64 cartridges released in 1982 use Ultimax mode (or MAX mode),
10293-626: The Commodore and IBM PC markets as its top priorities. By 1988, PC compatibles were the largest and fastest-growing home and entertainment software markets, displacing former leader Commodore. Commodore 64 software sales were almost unchanged in the third quarter of 1988 year over year while the overall market grew 42%, but the company was still selling 1 to 1.5 million units worldwide each year of what Computer Chronicles that year called "the Model T of personal computers". Epyx CEO Dave Morse cautioned that "there are no new 64 buyers, or very few. It's
10434-580: The Commodore bandwagon early". Over 35% of SSI 's 1986 sales were for the C64, ten points higher than for the Apple II. The C64 was even more important for other companies, which often found that more than half the sales for a title ported to six platforms came from the C64 version. That year, Computer Gaming World published a survey of ten game publishers that found that they planned to release forty-three Commodore 64 games that year, compared to nineteen for Atari and forty-eight for Apple II, and Alan Miller stated that Accolade developed first for
10575-546: The DOS Wedge, including a C128 version in its February 1987 issue (see External links, below). The original Commodore DOS Wedge was a 1- KB program written in MOS 6502 assembly language . It resided in the otherwise unused memory block $ CC00–$ CFFF (52224–53247) and worked by altering BASIC's "CHRGET" subroutine at $ 0073 (115) so that each character passing by the BASIC interpreter would be checked for wedge commands, and
10716-549: The January 1982 Consumer Electronics Show , as recalled by Production Engineer David A. Ziembicki: "All we saw at our booth were Atari people with their mouths dropping open, saying, 'How can you do that for $ 595? ' " The answer was vertical integration ; due to Commodore's ownership of MOS Technology's semiconductor fabrication facilities, each C64 had an estimated production cost of US$ 135 (equivalent to $ 350 in 2022). In July 1983, BYTE magazine stated that "the 64 retails for $ 595 . At that price it promises to be one of
10857-479: The NES. Because of lower incomes and the domination of the ZX Spectrum in the UK, almost all British C64 software used cassette tapes. Few cassette C64 programs were released in the US after 1983 and, in North America, the diskette was the principal method of software distribution. The cartridge slot on the C64 was also mainly a feature used in the computer's first two years on the US market and became rapidly obsolete once
10998-431: The NMI and exits. Run/stop-restore is normally a soft reset in BASIC which restores all I/O registers to their power-on default state, but does not clear memory or reset pointers; any BASIC programs in memory will be left untouched. Machine-language software usually disables run/stop-restore by remapping the NMI vector to a dummy RTI instruction. The NMI can also be used for an extra interrupt thread by programs, but risks
11139-595: The PET over the standard C64's separate components, which could be easily damaged, vandalized, or stolen. Schools did not prefer the Educator 64 to the wide range of software and hardware options the Apple ;IIe was able to offer, and it was produced in limited quantities. Also in 1983, Commodore released the SX-64 , a portable version of the C64. The SX-64 has the distinction of being
11280-744: The UK after the ZX Spectrum. The Commodore 64 failed to make any impact in Japan, as their market was dominated by Japanese computers, such as the NEC PC-8801 , Sharp X1 , Fujitsu FM-7 and MSX , and in France, where the ZX Spectrum, Thomson MO5 and TO7 , and Amstrad CPC 464 dominated the market. Part of the Commodore 64's success was its sale in regular retail stores instead of only electronics or computer hobbyist specialty stores. Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control costs , including custom integrated circuit chips from MOS Technology . In
11421-472: The US, Malaysia, China, India, and Hungary. The increase in popularity of such domestic appliances as ' white goods ' is a characteristic element of consumption patterns during the golden age of the Western economy. Europe's White Goods industry has evolved over the past 40 years, first by changing tariff barriers, and later by technical and demand shifts. The spending on domestic appliances has claimed only
11562-590: The United States, dedicated consumer electronics stores have mostly given way to big-box stores such as Best Buy , the largest consumer electronics retailer in the country, although smaller dedicated stores include Apple Stores , and specialist stores that serve, for example, audiophiles and exceptions, such as the single-branch B&H Photo store in New York City. Broad-based retailers, such as Walmart and Target , also sell consumer electronics in many of their stores. In April 2014, retail e-commerce sales were
11703-527: The United States, it has been compared to the Ford Model T automobile for its role in bringing a new technology to middle-class households via creative and affordable mass-production. Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles have been made for the Commodore ;64, including development tools, office productivity applications, and video games . C64 emulators allow anyone with a modern computer, or
11844-655: The VIC-20) to compete directly against video game consoles such as the Atari 2600 . Like the Apple IIe, the C64 could also output a composite video signal, avoiding the RF modulator altogether. This allowed the C64 to be plugged into a specialized monitor for a sharper picture. Unlike the IIe, the C64's NTSC output capability also included separate luminance/chroma signal output equivalent to (and electrically compatible with) S-Video , for connection to
11985-505: The VIC-II's video output via a register write. This feature is often used by tape and disk fast loaders and the KERNAL cassette routine to keep a standard CPU cycle timing not modified by the VIC-II's sharing of the bus. The restore key is gated directly to the CPU's NMI line, and will generate an NMI if pressed. The KERNAL handler for the NMI checks if run/stop is also pressed; if not, it ignores
12126-511: The VIC-II) and Charles Winterble (manager of MOS Technology), they proposed to Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel a low-cost sequel to the VIC-20. Tramiel dictated that the machine should have 64 KB of random-access memory (RAM). Although 64- Kbit dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips cost over US$ 100 (equivalent to $ 283.29 in 2023) at the time, he knew that 64K DRAM prices were falling and would drop to an acceptable level before full production
12267-516: The associated "wedged-in" routines run if needed. Any command that contains an @ symbol may substitute > instead, if desired. Commodore 64 The Commodore 64 , also known as the C64 , is an 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
12408-592: The bathroom type. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver . Later products included telephones , televisions , and calculators , then audio and video recorders and players, video game consoles , mobile phones , personal computers and MP3 players . In the 2010s, consumer electronics stores often sell GPS , automotive electronics ( vehicle audio ), video game consoles , electronic musical instruments (e.g., synthesizer keyboards), karaoke machines, digital cameras , and video players ( VCRs in
12549-509: The cartridge port free. Commodore's was not a completely closed system, however, the company had published detailed specifications for most of their models since the Commodore PET and VIC-20 days, and the C64 was no exception. C64 sales were nonetheless relatively slow due to a lack of software, reliability issues with early production models, particularly high failure rates of the PLA chip , which used
12690-420: The category of home computers under $ 500 . Despite criticizing its "slow disk drive, only two cursor directional keys, zero manufacturer support, non-standard interfaces, etc.", the magazine said that at the C64's price of less than $ 200 "you can't get another system with the same features: 64K, color, sprite graphics, and barrels of available software". The Tandy Color Computer was the runner up. The Apple II
12831-403: The computer will not function without all of them present. The first chip contains Bit 0 for the memory space, the second chip contains Bit 1, and so forth. The C64 performs a RAM test on power-up and if a RAM error is detected, the amount of free BASIC memory will be lower than the normal 38,911. If the faulty chip is in lower memory, then an ?OUT OF MEMORY IN 0 error is displayed rather than
12972-445: The computer's memory without requiring multiloads. European programmers also tended to exploit advanced features of the C64's hardware more than their US counterparts. The Commodore 64 Light Fantastic pack was release in time for the 1989 Christmas holiday season. The package included a C64C, a Cheetah Defender 64 Light gun and 3D-glasses. This pack included several games compatible with the light gun, including some developed purely for
13113-419: The core voltage reduced from 12V to 9V. The most significant changes include different behavior in the filters and in the volume control, which result in some music/sound effects sounding differently than intended, and in digitally-sampled audio being almost inaudible, respectively (though both of these can mostly be corrected-for in software). The 64 KB RAM memory went from eight chips to two chips. BASIC and
13254-519: The cost of producing the disk drive. In March 1994, at CeBIT in Hanover , Germany , Commodore announced that the C64 would be finally discontinued in 1995, noting that the Commodore 1541 cost more than the C64 itself. However, only one month later in April 1994, the company filed for bankruptcy . When Commodore went bankrupt, all production on their inventory, including the C64, was discontinued, thus ending
13395-581: The disk features. As a result, you will have to handle the disk in the more cumbersome manner of the 'old days'." The version of Microsoft BASIC is not very comprehensive and does not include specific commands for sound or graphics manipulation, instead requiring users to use the " PEEK and POKE " commands to access the graphics and sound chip registers directly. To provide extended commands, including graphics and sound, Commodore produced two different cartridge-based extensions to BASIC 2.0: Simons' BASIC and Super Expander 64 . Other languages available for
13536-446: The earlier CBM/PET systems and the Atari 400 and Atari 800. This means that no memory space is dedicated to running a disk operating system , as was the case with earlier systems such as the Apple II and TRS-80 . Commodore BASIC 2.0 is used instead of the more advanced BASIC 4.0 from the PET series, since C64 users were not expected to need the disk-oriented enhancements of BASIC 4.0. The company did not expect many to buy
13677-537: The earliest transistors at Bell led to transistor radios . This led to the emergence of the home entertainment consumer electronics industry starting in the 1950s, largely due to the efforts of Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (now Sony ) in successfully commercializing transistor technology for a mass market, with affordable transistor radios and then transistorized television sets . Integrated circuits (ICs) followed when manufacturers built circuits (usually for military purposes) on
13818-426: The early 2000s, many consumer electronics devices such as televisions and stereo systems, were digitized: digital computer technology, and thus digital signals, were integrated into the operation of consumer electronics devices, drastically changing their operation but with improved results such as improved image quality in televisions. This was made possible by Moore's law . In 2004, the consumer electronics industry
13959-407: The field. The price war with Texas Instruments was seen as a personal battle for Commodore president Jack Tramiel. Commodore dropped the C64's list price by $ 200 within two months of its release. In June 1983 the company lowered the price to $ 300 (equivalent to $ 900 in 2023), and some stores sold the computer for $ 199 . At one point, the company was selling as many C64s as all computers sold by
14100-455: The first commercial full-color portable computer . While earlier computers using this form factor only incorporate monochrome ("green screen") displays, the base SX-64 unit features a 5 in (130 mm) color cathode-ray tube (CRT) and one integrated 1541 floppy disk drive. Even though Commodore claimed in advertisements that it would have dual 1541 drives, when the SX-64 was released there
14241-554: The highest in the consumer electronic and computer categories as well. Some consumer electronics retailers offer extended warranties on products with programs such as SquareTrade . An electronics district is an area of commerce with a high density of retail stores that sell consumer electronics. Consumer electronic service can refer to the maintenance of said products. When consumer electronics have malfunctions, they may sometimes be repaired. In 2013, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
14382-482: The hottest contenders in the under- $ 1,000 personal computer market." It described the SID as "a true music synthesizer ... the quality of the sound has to be heard to be believed", while criticizing the use of Commodore BASIC 2.0, the floppy disk performance which is "even slower than the Atari 810 drive", and Commodore's quality control. BYTE gave more details, saying the C64 had "inadequate Commodore BASIC 2.0. An 8K-byte interpreted BASIC" which they assumed
14523-424: The increased popularity in listening to sound from analog audio devices, such as phonographs , as opposed to digital sound, has sparked a noticeable increase of business for the electronic repair industry there. A mobile phone , cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, or hand phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over
14664-523: The industry to develop a number of technologies, such as WirelessHD or ITU-T G.hn , which are optimized for distribution of HD content between consumer electronic devices in a home. The consumer electronics industry faces consumers with unpredictable tastes on the demand side, supplier-related delays or disruptions on the supply side, and production challenges occurring in the process. The high rate of technology evolution or revolution requires large investments without any guarantee of profitable returns. As
14805-548: The industry, attracting many consumer electronics companies such as Apple Inc. An electronic component is any essential discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form, and are not to be confused with electrical elements , conceptual abstractions representing idealized electronic components. Consumer electronics such as personal computers use various types of software. Embedded software
14946-598: The internet and digital technologies. The consumer electronics industry has primarily merged with the software industry in what is increasingly referred to as the consumerization of information technology . One overriding characteristic of consumer electronic products is the trend of ever-falling prices. This is driven by gains in manufacturing efficiency and automation , lower labor costs as manufacturing has moved to lower-wage countries, and improvements in semiconductor design. Semiconductor components benefit from Moore's law , an observed principle which states that, for
15087-457: The knowledge or approval by the management in the post Jack Tramiel era. The designers were careful not to reveal their decision until the project was too far along to be challenged or changed and still make the impending Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Upon learning that the C128 was designed to be compatible with the C64, Commodore's marketing department independently announced that
15228-608: The market leader and Commodore had an uphill struggle against it in the marketplace. The C64 did however go on to rival the Spectrum in popularity in the latter half of the 1980s. Adjusted to the population size, the popularity of Commodore 64 was the highest in Finland at roughly 3 units per 100 inhabitants, where it was subsequently marketed as "the Computer of the Republic". By early 1985
15369-467: The need to support modem data transfer rates as low as 300 bits per second . Habitat's graphics were stored locally on floppy disk, eliminating the need for network transfer. The C64 uses an 8-bit MOS Technology 6510 microprocessor that is almost identical to the 6502 but has three-state buses , a different pinout , slightly different clock signals and other minor changes for this application. It also has six I/O lines on otherwise-unused legs on
15510-478: The new computer; the latter set a final deadline for the first weekend of January, to coincide with the 1982 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The product was code named the VIC-40 as the successor to the popular VIC-20 . The team that constructed it consisted of Yash Terakura, Shiraz Shivji , Bob Russell, Bob Yannes, and David A. Ziembicki. The design, prototypes, and some sample software were finished in time for
15651-434: The packs release (Mindscape.) In the United States, demand for 8-bit computers all but ceased as the 1990s began and PC compatibles completely dominated the computer market. However, the C64 continued to be popular in the UK and other European countries. The machine's eventual demise was not due to lack of demand or the cost of the C64 itself (still profitable at a retail price point between £44 and £50), but rather because of
15792-673: The popular Apple II . The C64 is often credited with starting the demoscene subculture (see Commodore 64 demos ). It is still being actively used in the demoscene, especially for music (its SID sound chip even being used in special sound cards for PCs, and the Elektron SidStation synthesizer). Even though other computers quickly caught up with it, the C64 remained a strong competitor to the later video game consoles Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Master System , thanks in part to its by-then established software base, especially outside North America, where it comprehensively outsold
15933-447: The price and reliability of 1541 drives improved. A handful of PAL region games used bank switched cartridges to get around the 16 KB memory limit. As is common for home computers of the early 1980s, the C64 comes with a BASIC interpreter, in ROM. KERNAL, I/O, and tape/disk drive operations are accessed via custom BASIC language commands. The disk drive has its own interfacing microprocessor and ROM (firmware) I/O routines, much like
16074-403: The produced electronic waste from developed countries is exported, and handled by the informal sector in countries like India, despite the fact that exporting electronic waste to them is illegal. Strong informal sector can be a problem for the safe and clean recycling. E-waste policy has gone through various incarnations since the 1970s, with emphases changing as the decades passed. More weight
16215-573: The raw materials. The energy consumption of consumer electronics and their environmental impact, either from their production processes or the disposal of the devices, is increasing steadily. EIA estimates that electronic devices and gadgets account for about 10%–15% of the energy use in American homes – largely because of their number; the average house has dozens of electronic devices. The energy consumption of consumer electronics increases – in America and Europe – to about 50% of household consumption if
16356-507: The rest of the industry combined. Meanwhile, TI lost money by selling the TI-99/4A for $ 99 . TI's subsequent demise in the home computer industry in October 1983 was seen as revenge for TI's tactics in the electronic calculator market in the mid-1970s, when Commodore was almost bankrupted by TI. All four machines had similar memory configurations which were standard in 1982–83: 48 KB for
16497-590: The screen, while OCS based Amigas could only display 64 in HalfBrite mode (32 colors and half-bright transformations). Although no specific reason was given for the C65's cancellation, it would have competed in the marketplace with Commodore's lower-end Amigas and the Commodore CDTV . In 1982, the C64's graphics and sound capabilities were rivaled only by the Atari 8-bit computers and appeared exceptional when compared with
16638-524: The show, after the team had worked tirelessly over both Thanksgiving and Christmas weekends. The machine used the same case, same-sized motherboard, and same Commodore BASIC 2.0 in ROM as the VIC-20. BASIC also served as the user interface shell and was available immediately on startup at the READY prompt. When the product was to be presented, the VIC-40 product was renamed C64. The C64 made an impressive debut at
16779-478: The software needed to access Quantum Link . The 1541 drive received a matching face-lift, resulting in the 1541C. Later, a smaller, sleeker 1541-II model was introduced, along with the 800 KB 3.5-inch microfloppy 1581 . In 1990, the C64 was repackaged in the form of a game console, called the C64 Games System (C64GS), with most external connectivity removed. A simple modification to the 64C's motherboard
16920-442: The sound so that it could be played through a loudspeaker . Television was soon invented but remained insignificant in the consumer market until the 1950s. The first working transistor , a point-contact transistor , was invented by John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain at Bell Labs in 1947, which led to significant research in the field of solid-state semiconductors in the early-1950s. The invention and development of
17061-881: The stigma for some of owning second-hand goods. But the benefits of reuse could allow lower-income households access to previously unaffordable technology while helping the environment at the same time. Desktop monitors and laptops produce major physical health concerns for humans when bodies are forced into unhealthy and uncomfortable positions to see the screen better. From this, neck and back pains and problems increase, commonly referred to as repetitive strain injuries . Using electronics before going to bed makes it difficult for people to fall asleep, hurting human health. Sleeping less prevents people from performing to their full potential physically and mentally and can also "increase rates of obesity and diabetes", which are "long-term health consequences". Obesity and diabetes are more commonly seen in students and in youth because they tend to be
17202-453: The system ROMs and the I/O area at $ D000 . If the KERNAL ROM is swapped out, BASIC will be removed at the same time. BASIC is not active without the KERNAL; BASIC often calls KERNAL routines, and part of the ROM code for BASIC is in the KERNAL ROM. The character ROM is normally invisible to the CPU. The character ROM may be mapped into $ D000 – $ DFFF , where it is then visible to
17343-418: The term is redefined to include home appliances such as refrigerators , dryers , clothes washers and dishwashers . Standby power – used by consumer electronics and appliances while they are turned off – accounts for 5–10% of total household energy consumption, costing $ 100 annually to the average household in the United States. A study by United States Department of Energy 's Berkeley Lab found that
17484-486: The upper bits of $ DC00 are used by the keyboard, and an I/O conflict can result. Although it is possible to use Sega gamepads on a C64, it is not recommended; their slightly different signal can damage the CIA chip. The SID chip 's register $ D419 , used to control paddles, is an analog input. A handful of games, primarily released early in the computer's life cycle, can use paddles. In 1986, Commodore released two mice for
17625-502: The usual BASIC startup banner. The C64 uses a complicated memory-banking scheme; the normal power-on default is the BASIC ROM mapped in at $ A000 - $ BFFF , and the screen editor (KERNAL) ROM at $ E000 – $ FFFF . RAM under the system ROMs can be written to, but not read back, without swapping out the ROMs. Memory location $ 01 contains a register with control bits for enabling or disabling
17766-596: The world's largest professional society, has many initiatives to advance the state of the art of consumer electronics. IEEE has a dedicated society of thousands of professionals to promote CE, called the Consumer Electronics Society (CESoc). IEEE has multiple periodicals and international conferences to promote CE and encourage collaborative research and development in CE. The flagship conference of CESoc, called IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE),
17907-438: The world's leading consumer electronics companies about their energy and resource consumption and the use of chemicals. Electronic devices use thousands rare metals and rare earth elements (40 on average for a smartphone ), these material are extracted and refined using water and energy-intensive processes. These metals are also used in the renewable energy industry meaning that consumer electronics are directly competing for
18048-400: Was "the last hurrah of the 8-bit world". SSI exited the Commodore 64 market in 1991, after most competitors. Ultima VI , released in 1991, was the last major C64 game release from a North American developer, and The Simpsons , published by Ultra Games , was the last arcade conversion. The latter was a somewhat uncommon example of a US-developed arcade port as after the early years of
18189-666: Was a US and Canadian online service for Commodore 64 and 128 personal computers that operated from November 5, 1985, to November 1, 1994. It was operated by Quantum Computer Services of Vienna , Virginia, which in October 1991 changed its name to America Online and continued to operate its AOL service for the IBM PC compatible and Apple Macintosh . Q-Link was a modified version of the PlayNET system, which Control Video Corporation (CVC, later renamed Quantum Computer Services) licensed. The first graphical character-based interactive environment
18330-453: Was based on a cut-down version of the hardware family later used in the C64. The MAX was discontinued months after its introduction because of poor sales in Japan. 1983 saw Commodore attempt to compete with the Apple II 's hold on the US education market with the Educator 64 , essentially a C64 and "green" monochrome monitor in a PET case. Schools preferred the all-in-one metal construction of
18471-460: Was because "Obviously, Commodore feels that most home users will be running prepackaged software - there is no provision for using graphics (or sound as mentioned above) from within a BASIC program except by means of POKE commands." This was one of very few warnings about C64 BASIC published in any computer magazines. Creative Computing said in December 1984 that the C64 was "the overwhelming winner" in
18612-460: Was developed by Bill Seiler. The Wedge made disk operations in BASIC 2.0 significantly easier by introducing several keyword shortcuts. The DOS Wedge became somewhat of a de facto standard, with third-party vendors such as Epyx often incorporating identical commands into fastloader cartridges and other Commodore 64 expansion devices. COMPUTE!'s Gazette published several type-in variations on
18753-568: Was eventually cancelled after just a few machines were manufactured for the Japanese market. At the same time, Robert "Bob" Russell (system programmer and architect on the VIC-20 ) and Robert "Bob" Yannes (engineer of the SID) were critical of the current product line-up at Commodore, which was a continuation of the Commodore PET line aimed at business users. With the support of Al Charpentier (engineer of
18894-417: Was gradually placed on the need to dispose of e-waste more carefully due to the toxic materials it may contain. There has also been recognition that various valuable metals and plastics from waste electrical equipment can be recycled for other uses. More recently, the desirability of reusing whole appliances has been foregrounded in the 'preparation for reuse' guidelines. The policy focus is slowly moving towards
19035-445: Was immediately resaleable – or would be with minor repairs or refurbishment. This indicates a lack of awareness among consumers about where and how to dispose of EEE and the potential value of things that are going in the bin. For the reuse and repair of electrical goods to increase substantially in the UK, some barriers must be overcome. These include people's mistrust of used equipment in terms of whether it will be functional, safe and
19176-431: Was made to allow cartridges to be inserted from above. A modified ROM replaced the BASIC interpreter with a boot screen to inform the user to insert a cartridge. Designed to compete with the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega's Master System , it suffered from very low sales compared to its rivals. It was another commercial failure for Commodore, and it was never released outside Europe. The Commodore game system lacked
19317-522: Was only one and the other became a floppy disk storage slot. Also, unlike most other C64s, the SX-64 does not have a datasette connector so an external cassette was not an option. Two designers at Commodore, Fred Bowen and Bil Herd , were determined to rectify the problems of the Plus/4 . They intended that the eventual successors to the C64—the Commodore 128 and 128D computers (1985)—were to build upon
19458-403: Was reached. The team was able to quickly design the computer because, unlike most other home-computer companies, Commodore had its own semiconductor fab to produce test chips; because the fab was not running at full capacity, development costs were part of existing corporate overhead. The chips were complete by November, by which time Charpentier, Winterble, and Tramiel had decided to proceed with
19599-417: Was the winner in the category of home computer over $ 500 , which was the category the Commodore 64 was in when it was first released at the price of $ 595 . Commodore had a reputation for announcing products that never appeared , so sought to quickly ship the C64. Production began in the spring of 1982, and volume shipments began in August. The C64 faced a wide range of competing home computers , but with
19740-474: Was used to run bulletin board systems using software packages such as Punter BBS, Bizarre 64, Blue Board , C-Net, Color 64 , CMBBS, C-Base, DMBBS, Image BBS, EBBS, and The Deadlock Deluxe BBS Construction Kit, often with sysop -made modifications. These boards sometimes were used to distribute cracked software . As late as December 2013, there were 25 such Bulletin Board Systems in operation, reachable via
19881-508: Was worth US$ 240 billion annually worldwide comprising visual equipment, audio equipment , and games consoles . It was truly global with Asia Pacific having 35% market share, Europe having 31.5%, the US having 23%, and the rest of the world having the rest. Major players in this industry are household names like Sony, Samsung, Philips, Sanyo, and Sharp. Samsung Electronics is part of Samsung . In 2003, combined revenues for Samsung Electronics were $ 55 billion. Samsung Electronics UK
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