1541 Archives - The Silicon Underground

Commodore RAM expansion units

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 11:00:57 +0000

The 6502-family CPUs in Commodore 8-bit computers famously used 64K of RAM at a time. But in 1985, Commodore introduced a cartridge that added up to 512K of RAM to the 128. Commodore followed up soon after with a 256K cartridge for

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Commodore 64 Z80 cartridge

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:00:32 +0000

One of the most popular add-ons for an Apple II added CP/M compatibility. So I guess it should be no surprise that Commodore tried the same thing. But the Commodore 64 CP/M operating system and the associate Commodore 64 Z80

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Where to buy vintage computers

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 11:00:13 +0000

Collecting vintage computers can be fun. I also personally think it’s great that people are interested in preserving that history. Where to buy vintage computers hasn’t changed much over the years. It just may take a bit more work than

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Commodore 64 models

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 11:00:43 +0000

Over the course of its 12 years on the market, Commodore released a number of Commodore 64 models. The computer’s capability changed very little over time, but the technology did. The world changed a lot between 1982 and 1994, and

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Epyx Fast Load cartridge

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 12 May 2017 11:00:34 +0000

The Epyx Fast Load cartridge, released in 1984, was the first commercially successful Commodore 64 fast load product. Commodore’s 1541 disk drive was much slower than competing disk drives, so fast load cartridges became popular. While the Epyx product was

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Commodore 64 common questions and answers

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 11:00:23 +0000

I hear a lot of questions about the Commodore 64 over and over again. Many of them don’t warrant a single blog post. So here’s a list of Commodore 64 common questions and their answers. If you want to know

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1541 vs 1541C

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 11:00:03 +0000

The dark beige/tan Commodore 1541 disk drive is rather well known. The lighter beige, almost white 1541c is more of a curiosity. The drives are closely related, but the difference is more than just the color. Let’s take a look

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Commodore 1541 vs clones

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 12:00:38 +0000

The battle of the Commodore 1541 vs clones existed because Commodore’s early track record was rather imperfect. Commodore’s 1541 floppy disk drive was the first consumer disk drive that cost less than $300, so it has an important place in

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Commodore 1541-II DIP switches

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 11:00:44 +0000

Commodore’s 1541-II disk drive has a pair of DIP switches on the back to let you change its device number. DOS and Windows computers use drive letters to address its disk drives (usually A: and B:). Commodore used the numbers

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Commodore 1540 vs 1541 disk drive

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 11:00:55 +0000

The dark tan 1541 is the most common C-64 peripheral in existence. Its counterpart for the VIC-20, which looks exactly like it at first glance, is pretty rare. The 1540 vs 1541 is a fairly common topic among Commodore enthusiasts.

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