Remember the good ol’ Commodore 64? Between 1982 and 1994 more than 30 million of them were sold. And while they offered excellent programming capabilities and the ability to hook to a TV and run productivity applications, where the C64 found its biggest niche was in gaming. It offered great capabilities for a very reasonable price. And now it is BACK!
What?
Well, not the same one, but the concept of ‘the keyboard is the computer’ has returned, with Commodore teasing the release of an all new C64.
Here are the very modern specs:
Technology
MODEL: Commodore 64x
PROCESSOR: Intel® Atom D525 1.80GHz (Formerly Pineview-D)
CHIPSET: Intel NM10 (Formerly Tiger Point)
Next-Generation NVIDIA ION Graphics (ION2)
MEMORY: 2 x DDR2 667/800 Single Channel DIMM slots (up to 4 GB)
GRAPHICS: Next-Generation NVIDIA ION Graphics Processor
AUDIO: Realtek ALC662 6-CH HD Audio
Nvidia L-PCM digital audio (HDMI 1.3) can support 7.1 output with external decoder
LAN: Realtek RTL8111DL PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet
STORAGE: Intel NM10
2 SATA2 3Gb/s ports
JMicron® JMB362 SATA controller
2 Internal SATA2 3.0Gb/s port with RAID 0, 1, JBOD.
FEATURES: – ACPI S3 Compliant
– ECO-design for EuP Standard
– 12 VDC jack on back panel for external power supply
– Dedicated DDR3 512MB Graphics Memory Onboard
– Premium DirectX 10 graphics with advanced digital display connectivity
– PureVideo™ Full 1080p HD video and Blu-ray playback
– NVIDIA® CUDA™ technology to accelerate the most demanding applications
– Premium Windows experience with Windows Vista and Windows 7
ONBOARD I/O
CONNECTORS: 1 mini PCI Express x1 Slot
1 Serial header (RS232)
4 SATA2 3Gb/s Connectors with RAID 0, 1, JBOD functions (SATA#3,#4)
2 USB Pin Headers for up to 3 additional USB 2.0 Ports
1 8 bit GPIO header
1 CIR header
1 9-pin Audio Connector
1 Front Panel Connector
3 Fan Headers
1 4-pin Power Connector
The new C64x is touting HDMI, Blu-Ray, second-generation ION graphics, and up to 4GB of RAM to accompany the solid dual-core Atom processor. This sounds like a decent performing machine based on the specs.
Commodore is also talking up the ability to directly run an emulated C64 directly on the system:
Play all your favorite 8-bit era games within seconds of turning the Commodore 64 on, by either selecting the C64 icon from the boot menu to run a C64 emulator directly, or from a media center program within our own Commodore Operating System, Workbench 5, which includes screenshots, descriptions and ratings.
As of now there is no known pricing or release date. But as both a nostalgia piece and a decent little computer this looks quite nice!
And for reference, here is a cool looking ad from the original run of the C64. And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that kid turned around and had an alligator on his shirt as well. We all did … and we liked it that way!
Source: Wired