Commodore Plus4 Personal Computer

Commodore Plus/4 Personal Computer

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Description
Commodore International announced the Commodore Plus/4 in January 1984 as the Commodore 264. It was a more powerful sequel to the highly successful Commodore 64. The original concept was to sell the 264 in one of several different configurations. The consumer would select the type of application software they wanted to build in their computer, and the dealer would install the appropriate ROM chip. By the summer of 1984 this concept was abandoned. The name was changed to Plus/4, the computer was sold at the cost of $299, and all applications were added at the factory.
The Plus/4 was billed as the: "productivity computer with software built in." The Plus/4 has a MOS processor which ran at 1.76 MHz. It contained 64 KB of RAM and 64 KB of ROM. The Plus/4 had a built in MOS Technology 6551 UART chip which allowed the Plus/4 to use high speed modems without additional software. The computer included Commodore BASIC 3.5 and such software applications as a word processor, spreadsheet, database, and graphing. Inclusion of these four applications led to the computer being called the "Plus/4."
The machine was discontinued in 1985 when it failed to achieve the company's sales goals.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
microcomputer
Date made
1984-1985
maker
Commodore Business Machines, Inc.
Physical Description
metal (overall material)
plastic (overall material)
rubber (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 33.5 cm x 20.5 cm x 7 cm; 13 3/16 in x 8 1/16 in x 2 3/4 in
ID Number
2000.0232.01
catalog number
2000.0232.01
accession number
2000.0232
Credit Line
John B. Lyons
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Computers
Family & Social Life
Computers & Business Machines
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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