Commodore 64 Microcomputer
date: label: Date made
content: 1982
name: label: maker
content: Commodore Business Machines
notes: label: Description
content: Introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 1982, the Commodore 64 was an inexpensive and popular home computer. It used an MOS 6510, 1 mHz processor, and had 64 kilobytes of random access memory -- hence its name. The initial retail price was $595, but by May 1983 it dropped to $250. The computer, which could use a television set as a display terminal, had a sound system, an expansion port, and could support a keyboard, joystick, cassette tape, floppy disk drives, a 2400 baud modem, and a printer. It was more powerful and cheaper than any of its competitors (the Apple II, IBM-PC, or the TRS-80). The success of the Commodore 64 was due in part to marketing – it was not only sold by authorized dealers but in department stores, discount stores, toy stores, and college bookstores as well.
label: Description
content: The Commodore 64 was manufactured until 1993. In the eleven years of production between 17 and 30 million were sold worldwide, making it the most popular early home computer. Benj Edwards writing for PCWorld in 2008 said, “This pioneering PC made instant geeks out of millions of people back in the 80s.”
label: Description
content: The donor, Deborah D. Hilke, was a staff member of the NMAH Education Department. This computer was one her family purchased in 1983. Her son taught himself how to program in BASIC on this computer—he now works for Microsoft Corporation.
label: Description
content: See related objects 1989.0544.01.1-.8, 1989.0544.02-.05
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: https://www.pcworld.com/article/152528/comm64.html
label: Description
content: https://www.commodore.ca/commodore-products/commodore-64-the-best-selling-computer-in-history/
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
label: Exhibition
content: My Computing Device (keyboard/processor)
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of D. D. Hilke
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1989.0544.01.1
label: catalog number
content: 1989.0544.01.1
label: accession number
content: 1989.0544
label: serial number
content: P01045454
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Microcomputer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 in x 16 in x 8 in; 7.62 cm x 40.64 cm x 20.32 cm
label: Measurements
content: carton: 5 1/4 in x 18 in x 13 in; 13.335 cm x 45.72 cm x 33.02 cm