[net.micro.cbm] C64 models

drz@utcsri.UUCP (Jerry Zarycky) (09/09/86)

A previous message to this newsgroup indicated that there have been
several models of the C64 put out.  He specifically mentioned the
3rd and 4th models.
How many models (not counting the new 64C) have actually been put out?
What are the differences between the models?
Is it possible to tell which model a given machine is, either by looking
at it, or by PEEKing some ROM memory location?

Any information would be, ...well..., informative.


Jerry Zarycky

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daveh@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (Dave Haynie) (09/10/86)

> 
> A previous message to this newsgroup indicated that there have been
> several models of the C64 put out.  He specifically mentioned the
> 3rd and 4th models.
> How many models (not counting the new 64C) have actually been put out?
> What are the differences between the models?
> Is it possible to tell which model a given machine is, either by looking
> at it, or by PEEKing some ROM memory location?
> 
> Any information would be, ...well..., informative.
> 
> 
> Jerry Zarycky
> 

There really weren't 3 or 4 distinct models of the C64.  He's probably
confused with C64 ROM releases.  There were 3 or 4 ROM releases, each 
correcting bugs found in the previous.  This has nothing to do with the
Z-80 card.  The VIC chip was released as REV 5, and now its up to about
REV 8; these, like the ROM releases, were added as they became available.
There's also been a circuit board revision since the initial C64, though
this revision was both cost reducing and quality improving, most of the
changes being in the clock circuitry, none of them being noticable at all
from software.

-- 
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Dave Haynie    {caip,ihnp4,allegra,seismo}!cbmvax!daveh

	"I gained nothing at all from Supreme Enlightenment, and
	 for that very reason it is called Supreme Enlightenment."
							-Gotama Buddha

	These opinions are my own, though for a small fee they be yours too.
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gjs@mtgzy.UUCP (g.j.shevchuk) (09/15/86)

Some time I had gotten some info on how to tell the ROM revisions apart:
type:
?peek(65408)
The expected responses are 0 (oldest), 170 (next), or 3 (newest, unless there
have been some more in the last year and a half).