About the Author Dan Fylstra is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a second year student in the MBA program of Harvard Business School, cpn­ centrating in marketing. His background includes ext~nsive work with high . level languages including authorship of the. ,PLMI6800! compiler for Inter­ metrics Inc, and consulting on the HA LIS language and compilers for NASA and the European Space Agency. His equipment now includes a KIM-7, (In OSI system, PET 20()J and Radio Shack TRS-,80. User's Report: The PET 2001 Dan Fylstra About a year ago Commodore Business Now the first PETs have been del ivered, 22 Weitz St #3 Machines Inc, a well-known maker of pocket and a few computer stores have begun Boston MA 02134 calculators, startled everyone in the personal advertising their availability. The PET's computer industry by announcing its PET price has risen to $595, and in the meantime computer, a self-contained unit with key­ other personal computers with comparable Photography by Dan Comly board, display, cassette drive and built-in price and performance characteristics have BASIC for $495 . The announcement was come on the market. Many people are greeted with considerable enthusiasm and wondering which computer represents the skepticism, for Commodore obviously was best buy in terms of hardware and software stretching the state of the art in technology, capabilities, expandability, availability and manufacturing and mass distribution. delivery, warranty and service, and software support. If you are considering purchase of such an "appliance" computer, this review should help you make your own informed judgments on these issues. I ordered a PET a few days after the finished product was shown at the National Computer Conference in Dallas TX last June, and hence I received one of the early units (apparently number 17 off the production line) without a complete user manual describing everything the PET can do. By the time this is printed a better user manual should have been published; so bear in mind that this is a preliminary review, written in late October 1977, and based on experience with my PET, conversations with Commodore engi­ neers at trade shows, and precious little documentation. I have not been able to test some of the PET's many features, in particular the expansion options, due to the dearth of information from Commodore. For a more complete picture, talk to your computer dealer and, if possible, to other PET owners before you make a purchase decision. Photo 7,' A view of the Commodore PET, Model 200 7. This personal com­ puter sells for $595 and includes a keyboard, video display, cassette drive, General Specifications 4 K bytes of programmable memory, and a BASIC interpreter and operating Photo 1 illustrates the attractive overall system in 74 K bytes of read only memory. appearance of the Personal Electronic 114 BYTE Marc h 1978 - PET per-sorral c:.-- ~;.Il Jl J 1 ~ ;>orlt UCl C:OrTJput:;er ,. r P ',I .. .. .. , i 'to , , ) \E:3 ~ ~\8 .' ~ .. " , - 0" 1 1 r , r n - P I i ; B ;; \ ; III• w .. R T V U I 0 1 , J L -l i I I I 1 •5 G • • - - G H K L , . A B 0 F .. \ " x I / . .- .. ~ - 1 2 • • C v a N M , I ? " \, - Z x " ,. -- I "l T JI , ( ~ L \ _ II I!! • ( I 1:11 . 8i9 a Photo 2: A close-up of the PET keyboard and cassette Transactor, Mode l 2001 (as it is fancifu lly ca lculator chi ps and other sil icon require­ drive. The keyboard is a ca ll ed). Overall it measures 16.5 inches (4l.9 ments, the PET is based on the MOS Tec h­ flat, calculator style unit cm) wide, 18.5 inches (47 cm) deep and 14 nology 6502 microprocessor. This may not with 73 keys. The upper inch es (35 .6 cm) high , and weighs 44 pounds be of much significance to the casual user case shift positions on 64 (20 kg). The PET is a lot more portable than since the machine is primarily designed to of the keys are occupied most computers, but you wo n't have to be programmed in BAS IC, but it may make by graphic characters. At carry it very far before you'll appreciate how a difference to the experienced hobby ist the right are the cursor heavy an oddly shaped 44 pound package who intends to write machine or assemb ly control and insert/delete can be. On the other hand, all the essential language programs as well. keys and a numeric peripherals are integrated into the unit, and keypad. al l you need is a wall socket to power up Disp lay Screen and start typing in BAS IC programs. A powerful BAS IC interpreter and an The PET includ es a 9 inch (22.9 cm) en­ operating system presently supporting mu lti­ closed , black and white, high resolution CRT ple external peripherals are bui lt into the disp lay which presents 1000 characters, ar­ PET's 14 K bytes of read only memory. The ranged in 25 Iines of 40 characters each. The basic PET for $595 includes an additional 4 display is memory mapped (ie: continuously K bytes of progl'ammab le memol'y, which read out of a section of programmable mem­ ho lds your currently running BASIC pro­ ory separate from the BAS IC program and gra m and data. An ex pand ed model for $795 data memory), and is easi ly controlled from includes 8 1< bytes of user memory (the BAS IC using PRINT and POKE statements, maximum amount of memory inside the (PET owners who have not already done so standard cabinet). Thanks to the efficient may want to experiment with dil'ect access, encoding of BAS IC statements (see below), via POKE statements, to the display eve n th e basic 4 K unit ca n hold up to a few memory, wh ich starts at location 32768.) hundred lines of program text. Bui lt-in software provides a winking cur­ Since Commodore had acquired MOS sor and automatic scroll ing from the bottom Technology Inc as a captive source of its of the disp lay. The cursor can also be moved 116 BYTE Maceh 1978 in any direction using the cursor control keys (see the keyboard layout shown in photo 2), and the insert/delete key can be used to "push apart" characters on a line to make room for changes or to delete characters and "close up" the space which they formerly occupied. These features provide a conven ­ ient way to modify a BASIC program without having to retype entire lines: just list the lines on the display, use the cursor control and insert/ delete keys to make changes directly on the display, and press the return key after each line is satisfactorily modified. A key is also provided to clear the screen or to send the cursor to the "home" position (upper left-hand corner). Character Set The PET's stand ard character set includes Photo 3: A simple example of the PET's graphic capabilities. This display was 64 upper case alphabetic, numeric and special created with a series of 23 BASIC PRINT statements. The graphics characters characters, and 64 graphic characters, which in each character position run together to form the figures. Th e playing card are generated by pressing the shift key and illustrates the use of the reverse field option. one of the regular character keys (see photo 2). Each character is formed on the screen in an 8 by 8 dot matrix, and each character position on the screen is contiguous to those commodore Radio Shack around it, so that graphic characters can be run together to form lines, solid areas and PET TRB-BD other shapes and figures. Furthermore, EITHER WA Y . .. We've got software for you! a "reverse field" feature, applicable on a character by character basis, changes each Show your friends what your computer can do. Learn programming white dot to black and each black dot to techniques the enjoyable way-by playing and modifying these game white. This in effect gives 64 additional programs. Just drop in the cassette and save hours of typing time. All graphic characters. Any of these characters, programs run on 8K PETs and 4K TRS-80s (slightly simplified). including the reverse field and cursor control INTRODUCTORY SPECIAL: Play POKER against your computer. characters, can be inserted into a BASIC Match wits to corner ONE QUEEN on a graphic chessboard. Enrich language PRINT statement, so that inter­ your KINGDOM amid wars, famine, earthquakes, assassinations, etc. esting graphics effects can be created quite Test your bravery as a MATADOR in a bullring. Nearly 1000 lines of easily . A simple example of the PET's BASIC. 33% discount price until March 31 for all four . .... $9.95 graphics capabilities is shown in photo 3. STIMULATING SIMULATIONS by Dr. C. W. Engel: Ten original In general, the PET's graphics capabilities simulation games such as Diamond Thief, Monster Chase, Lost are better adapted for drawing pictures of Treasure and Space Flight, complete with a 64 page illustrated book this sort than for plotting mathematical giving flowcharts, listings and suggested modifications .. $14.95 functions. 6502 ASSEMBLER IN BASIC (for PET only): Accepts all standard For the person who is more interested in 6502 instruction mnemonics, pseudo-ops, and addressing modes alphabetic text than in graphics capabilities, plus new TEXT pseudo-op. Evaluates binary, octal, hex, decimal, and the PET provides an upper and lower cas e character constants, symbols and expressions.