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Hardware - Prototype P15 Name: Prototype P15 Category: Computer Introduced: 1983-08-03 Prototype P15 TED Developer Alpha unit (code P15) that was used to give early access to developers to be able to create software for the TED line of computers including the Commodore 116, C264 and V364, until Commodore’s product line changed at some point and later turned into keeping in the original Commodore 116 and point to produce the Commodore 16 and Commodore Plus/4 instead. Michael Tomczyk, the head behind the Commodore VIC20, own this prototype:“This is an original 264 prototype in a Commodore 64 housing I used during product development. No serial number, hand numbered P15. Pre production for developers at Commodore. I was working on a variety of products, including software & accessories...[...]. As you can see I always got a VERY early start on new computer products we were planning to launch. Looks like this was put together for me to work on, very early kluge (?).” These TED Developer Alpha units were designed to fit into a provisional Commodore 64 case while manufacturing was occurring. It has the original Commodore 64 compatible power adapter, AV plug, tape drive edge connector, Atari-style joystick ports neatly packaged to use the existing port cutouts. The keys have been slightly re-arranged to fit the keyboard matrix of the TED keyboard but it is using a normal Commodore 64 keyboard. While it was originally thought to be a prototype, Mr. Tomczyk used it for development purposes at Commodore and Bil Herd clarified that it is a Developer Alpha given to developers to get a jump start on development. The motherboard layout fits inside of a Commodore 64 case and has the same ports; probably so that developers could quickly get started and not have to wait for the more proprietary joysticks. The unit works and has 16K of memory, in order to allow software developing that includes even the C116, being the lower level of the whole series. There's no PLA, unneeded with a 16kB system like this; later, a PLA IC has been included into the standard C16 boards in order to allow an eventual memory expansion for it. P15 shows exactly the same checkout date printed on the board of the other known prototype, which was tagged as Prototype P19: August 03 1983. Prototype P15 Board [Larger picture] P15 C64 Case [Larger picture] P15 Left Half [Larger picture] P15 Right Half [Larger picture] P15 Bottom [Larger picture] P15 ROMs P15 TED P15 Date Stamp P15 Turn On Copyright © Plus/4 World Team, 2001-2024