Welcome to Commodore PET Alive!

The release in 1977 of the first PET model (the 2001) by Commodore Business Machines propelled the company to the forefront of the then new personal computer market.

The first PET was a fully integrated computer with the monitor, motherboard, keyboard and cassette drive all in one package. The PET's main competitors at the time (TRS-80 and Apple ][) offered all these individually thus making the PET an attractive package for the first time computer buyer.

The first model had a tiny 4k of RAM and a very average (some would say very bad) chiclet keyboard. Commodore were caught unaware of just how popular the machine would be and struggled to fill pre-orders.

Over the lifetime of the PET several new models would be released and a second range (the CBM II's) would follow on. The PET laid the ground for Commodore's dominance of the eight bit market which would see the introduction of the VIC 20 (probably the world's first truly affordable colour home computer), the best selling Commodore 64 and the hybrid Commodore 128.

Our site contains information on all the PET computers and their peripherals as well as documentation, manuals, advertising from magazines and downloads.

Selected PET Models

PET/CBM 2001 The first PET - 4k of RAM, monochrome green screen (40 characters), no sound, datasette and chiclet keyboard.

PET 4032 An expanded PET witha proper keyboard, working IEEE 488 port (disk drives could finally be connected) and 32k of RAM.

PET 8096 The 8096 came with an 80 column disply on a tilt and swivel base, 96k or RAM, a beeper for sound and option (internal) floppy direves.

SP9000 SuperPET The penultimate PET designed for universities and scientists. Came with both a 6502 and an M6809 , three octave voice, 96k of RAM and an 80 column display.

B256/720 Final PET iteration, the  B256 (or P256) came with 256k of RAM, 80 column monitor and the sexiest Commodore case ever designed. It wasn't a success however.