Commodore 65
<computer> (Or Commodore 64DX, C65, C64DX) The last 8-bit computer
designed by Commodore Business Machines, about 1989-1991. The C65 boasts an ugly
collection of custom integrated circuits which makes even the Amiga hardware
look standard.
The core of the C65 chipset is the CSG 4510 and CSG 4569. The 4510 is a 65CE02
with two 6526 CIAs. The 4569 is equivalent to a combination of the 6569 VIC-II
and the MMU of the Commodore 64. The C65 also has a DMA controller (Commodore's
purpose built DMAgic) which also functions as a simple blitter, and a floppy
controller for the internal Commodore 1581-like disk drive. The floppy
controller, known as the F011, supports seven drives (though the DOS only
supports 2). The 4510 supports all the C64 video modes, plus an 80 column text
mode, and bitplane modes. The bitplane modes can use up to eight bitplanes, and
resolutions of up to 1280 x 400. The palette is 12-bit like the Amiga 500. It
also has two SID's (MOS 8580/6581) for stereo audio.
The C65 has two busses, D and E, with 64 kilobytes of RAM on each. The VIC-III
can access the D-bus while the CPU accesses the E-bus, and then they can swap
around. This effectively makes the whole 8MB address space both chip ram and
fast ram. RAM expansion is accomplished through a trap door slot in the bottom
which uses a grock of a connector. The C65 has a C128-like native mode, where
all of the new features are enabled, and the CPU runs at 3.5 megahertz with its
pipeline enabled. It also has a C64 incompatibility mode which offers approx
50-80% compatibility with C64 software by turning off all its bells and
whistles. The bells and whistles can still be accessed from the C64 mode, which
is dissimilar to the C128's inescapable C64 mode.
Production of the C65 was dropped only a few weeks before it moved from the
Alpha stage, possibly due to Commodore's cash shortage. Commodore estimate that
"between 50 and 10000" exist. There are at least three in Australia, about 30 in
Germany and "some" in the USA and Canada.
(1996-04-07)
Nearby terms:
Commodore 1581 « Commodore 64 « Commodore 64DX «
Commodore 65 » Commodore Business Machines »
Commodore SX64 » COMmon Algorithmic Language
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