Commodore PET

Commodore PET Specifications

The Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) was one of the first personal computers. It was released in 1977 by Commodore International and was designed to compete with other popular microcomputers of the time, such as the Apple II and the TRS-80.

The PET had a built-in keyboard, monochrome monitor, and cassette tape storage for data. It ran on a MOS Technology 6502 CPU at a clock speed of 1 MHz, and had 4 kilobytes of RAM (expandable up to 96KB) and 14 kilobytes of ROM.

One of the most distinctive features of the PET was its all-in-one design, which made it easy to transport and set up. It was also one of the first computers to come with BASIC programming language built-in.

The Commodore PET was popular in both homes and schools, and played a significant role in the early days of personal computing.

Development of the system began in 1976, and it was demonstrated and sold as the first personal computer for the masses at the January 1977 Consumer Electronics Show. The name "PET" was suggested by Andre Souson after he saw the Pet Rock in Los Gatos, and stated they were going to make the "pet computer". It was backronymed to Personal Electronic Transactor. Byte referred to the PET, Apple II and Tandy TRS-80 collectively as the "1977 trinity".

Following the initial PET 2001, the design was updated through a series of models with more memory, better keyboard, larger screen, and other modifications. The systems were a top seller in the Canadian and United States education markets, as well as for business use in Europe.

The PET line was discontinued in 1982 after approximately 219,000 machines were sold.