Commodore PET

The Commodore PET is a line of personal computers produced starting in 1977 by Commodore International. A single all-in-one case combines a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, Commodore BASIC in read-only memory, keyboard, monochrome monitor, and, in early models, a cassette deck. 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. In the 1970s, Commodore was one of many electronics companies selling calculators designed around Texas Instruments (TI) chips. TI faced increasing competition from Japanese vertically-integrated companies who were using new CMOS-based processors and had a lower total cost of production. These companies began to undercut TI business, so TI responded by entering the calculator market directly in 1975. As a result, TI was selling complete calculators at lower price points than they sold just the chipset to their former customers, and the industry that had built up around it was frozen out of the market. Commodore initially responded by beginning their own attempt to form a vertically-integrated calculator line as well, purchasing a vendor in California that was working on a competitive CMOS calculator chip and an LED production line. They also went looking for a company with an existing calculator chip line, something to tide them over in the immediate term, and this led them to MOS Technology.