The PET was one of the biggest sellers in the 1979 / 1980 period, when computers were aimed at both the home and business market.

This was a revised model of the first machine, with new keyboard launched in 1977 and was used for education, hobbyists, and some business users. The first machines had either 4K or 8K of RAM, but this was very limiting so several third-party memory expansion boards were available to take the memory up to 32K. It has a built in system ROM (6K) and BASIC (8K), and with additional memory could run 6502 assemblers and even compilers. The screen could display upper and lower case letters, and a large range of graphics symbols, a large library of software was produced for the machine.

The 2001 model was found to be slow in updating its display, until someone discovered a way of speeding up the graphics routines with a POKE to memory. This was fine, but on later machines the graphics hardware was improved and the same POKE caused the screen to go blank and was known as 'the killer POKE'.

This version now included 32K of RAM, hence the name, and also had an updated Kernel ROM to support Commodore's new range of disk drives.

This PET was donated by the son of an economic consultant who purchased the PET in the late 1970s for his work, in particular to process shopping surveys. The son also used the computer to learn BASIC with a self-teaching course from Strathclyde University, and would enter and edit games programs from Creative Computing magazine, and similar books on Saturday afternoons in his office with his father. The PET was eventually replaced as the father's work computer by a Sirius Apricot machine, then by a succession of PCs.

Manufacturer: Commodore
Date: June 1978

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH55611. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.