Commodore 8-bit Home Computers

Commodore 8-bit Home Computers gathers the successive lines of home microcomputers built around the MOS 6502 family processor that Commodore International sold from the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. Commodore International released its first home computer, the Commodore PET, in 1977, aimed at hobbyists, schools and small businesses with an integrated keyboard, monitor and cassette drive in one case. It followed the PET with the VIC-20 in 1980, the first computer of any kind to sell one million units, priced low enough to reach a mass consumer market through ordinary retail stores rather than specialist dealers. In 1982 Commodore developed and marketed the Commodore 64, which became the best selling computer model of all time, prized for its sound and graphics chips that made it a strong platform for games as well as home productivity software. Across the PET, VIC-20 and 64, Commodore kept the same basic 6502-based architecture and BASIC-in-ROM approach while lowering price and raising capability at each step, a strategy that let the company dominate the early home computer market before software and hardware competition from IBM PC compatibles eroded its position later in the 1980s.