Inside the Commodore Pet 2001 vintage computer

By Bill Detwiler July 14, 2006, 6:04 AM PDT billdetwiler

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Commodore Pet 2001

The Commodore PET 2001 was the first fully integrated computer from Commodore. It was based on the same architecture as the MOS/Commodore KIM-1 but provided a keyboard (“chicklet style”), tape drive and monitor all housed in a space-age case.

Erik Klein, vintage computer collector and Webmaster of Vintage-Computer.com, takes you inside the Commodore PET 2001.

Erik has graciously allowed us to republish his photos and descriptions. You can find a much more detailed description of Erik’s Commodor PET 2001 and additional photos of the machine’s in his collection on his Web site Vintage-Computer.com.

You can share your experiences with this and other classic computers using the disccussion link below this image, or on Erik’s Vintage Computer Forums.

Commodore Pet 2001 running perfectly

This is a Personal Electronic Transactor model 2001-8. It has 8K of RAM and runs great. Notice the slight modification made to the machine. The red button on the front controls a small electric fan mounted above the motherboard. These original PETs ran warm and some of the components didn’t like that much. I suspect that this was a fairly common modification.

Reprinted with permission from Vintage-Computer.com

Hood open

The majority of the PET line had a tilt-up body with the monitor and keyboard mounted in the top half and the computer in the bottom. Notice the fan at the back. It was added in the aforementioned modification.

Reprinted with permission from Vintage-Computer.com

Manuals

It’s always nice to have documentation for your classic systems. This machine came with tons. The previous owner was obviously a pack-rat (I love that type of computer owner) and kept pretty much everything, including the upper half of the warrantee document.

Reprinted with permission from Vintage-Computer.com

PET 2001 newsletters

Reprinted with permission from Vintage-Computer.com

PET 2001 programming manuals

Reprinted with permission from Vintage-Computer.com

More PET 2001 newsletters

Reprinted with permission from Vintage-Computer.com

Joystick and software on tape

The PET also came with a good collection of software on tape. Some of the tapes have suffered bit-rot, but many are fully or partially readable and much of the software was duplicated. I don’t think much has been lost.

Reprinted with permission from Vintage-Computer.com

Second (Damaged) Commodore PET 2001

Before I added the working PET to my collection I had purchased another one that was, unfortunately, damaged in transit. Since there was an outstanding claim on the machine I didn’t really work with it much and just as the claim was settled I was forced to put the machine into long-term storage.

When I finally got it back, I was faced with trying to pry open the case since the shipping damage had effectively locked it closed. Once I figured that out, I was able to assess the interior damage to the machine. As it turned out the machine was pretty tough. Blows that were capable of bending the sheet metal of the case did little but unseat some chips, connectors, and cards inside of the unit.

Realizing that the machine was salvageable I carefully put everything back where it came from and powered on the unit. I was more than surprised to see it run just fine in spite of the cosmetic damage!

Reprinted with permission from Vintage-Computer.com

Inside the damaged PET 2001

The inside of the machine actually looks pretty good. It also shows some modification. Mainly the addition of a motherboard sporting additional RAM and card slots. This is plugged into the expansion interface on the side of the Pet.

Reprinted with permission from Vintage-Computer.com

Chicklet style keyboard

The on board chicklet keyboard is pretty temperamental but the unit came with a nice matched external keyboard sporting a more traditional layout.

This PET also came with a Compu-Think external dual-5.25″ disk drive unit–not shown.

Reprinted with permission from Vintage-Computer.com

By Bill Detwiler

Bill Detwiler is the Editor for Technical Content and Ecosystem at Celonis. He is the former Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and previous host of TechRepublic's Dynamic Developer podcast and Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show.

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