Commodore Advert - May 1982

Here's another straightforward advert from Commodore, which was by far the most prolific of all computer companies if measured by the variety of adverts generated.

Shown in this advert is the range of PET machines available at the time - the 40-column 4016 and 4032, with 16K and 32K respectively, the 80-column 8032 and 8096, right up to the SuperPET 9000.

Known also as the SP9000 - or the MicroMainframe in Europe - the SuperPET was produced as a collaboration with the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

It was aimed at the programming community as well as university use and featured a genuine RS232 port, meaning it could be easily connected to remote machines for uploading work.

As well as the original 6502 of the other PETs in the range, it also featured a Motorola 6809^[1].

And unlike regular PETs, which booted up into Commodore BASIC, the SuperPET started into a Waterloo MicroSystems menu which allowed various programming languages - including APL, BASIC, Fortran and Pascal - to be selected.

It was this combination of programming-language support and terminal connectivity that enabled the University to effectively replace multiple machines with a single SuperPET.

Officialy, the SP9000 was the last of the PET line, with Commodore intending the B-Series micros as replacement.

However, these didn't sell well and so the 8000-series was updated and re-launched with a new case, which became - incorrectly - referred to as the "Porsche PETs".

The cheapest PET available, the 4016, was actually quite cheap at £550 plus VAT, or about £3,120 in 2026, whilst the SuperPET retailed for £1,495 plus VAT, which is around £8,430 now.

Adding a 22MB Winchester disk drive cost just over £4,000 - or about £19,800 now.