Commodore PET 2001-16 N

Name/Title

Commodore PET 2001-16 N

Entry/Object ID

CI-CS-0024

Tags

Commodore, Microcomputer, computer

Description

Commodore PET 2001-16 N

Category

Computers

Made/Created

Manufacturer

Commodore Business Machines

Date made

circa 1979 - circa 1982

Other Names and Numbers

Other Names

Name Type

Brand/Product Line Name

Other Name

Commodore

Name Type

Model

Other Name

PET 2001-16 N

Other Numbers

Number Type

Serial Number

Other Number

702254

General Notes

Note Type

General Notes

Note

In 1979, Commodore replaced the original PET 2001 with an improved model known as the 2001-N (the N was short for "New"). The new machine used a standard green-phosphor monitor in place of the white in the original 2001. It now had a conventional, full-sized keyboard and no longer sported the built-in cassette recorder. The kernel ROM was upgraded to add support for Commodore's newly introduced disk drive line. It was offered in 8 KB, 16 KB, or 32 KB models as the 2001-N8, 2001-N16, and 2001-N32 (the 8 KB models were dropped soon after introduction). The 2001-N switched to using conventional DRAM instead of the 6550 (1kx4) SRAM in the original model. PET 2001-8Ns had eight 2108 (8kx1) DRAMs and 2001-16Ns used sixteen 2108s. The PET 4016 used eight 4116 (16kx1) chips. All 32K PETs used sixteen 4116 chips. Finally, Commodore added a machine-language monitor to the kernel ROM that could be accessed by jumping to any memory location with a BRK instruction. It did not include a built-in assembler and required the user to enter hexadecimal numbers for coding. Commodore contacted Microsoft to upgrade BASIC for the new machines; this resulted in the soon-to-be-familiar BASIC 2.0 which removed the 256 element array limitation and had a rearranged zero page.

Note Type

Object Specific Information

Note

This machine has a functional video display, keyboard and power supply, but the motherboard does not properly load the kernel and edit ROMs. This motherboard likely has internal damage and cannot be repaired.

Create Date

August 24, 2025

Update Date

August 24, 2025