Commodore 8050
The Commodore 8050, Commodore 8250, and Commodore SFD-1001 are 5¼-inch floppy disk drives manufactured by Commodore International, primarily for its 8-bit CBM and PET series of computers. The drives offered improved storage capacities over previous Commodore drive models.
Commodore 8050 floppy-disk drive, with CBM 2001 PC | |
| Manufacturer | Commodore Business Machines, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Type | Floppy drive |
| Release date | 1980 |
| Introductory price | US$1,695 (equivalent to $6,000 in 2022) |
| Media | 2 × 5¼" double-sided, double-density |
| Operating system | CBM DOS 2.5/2.7 |
| CPU | 2 × MOS 6502 @ 1 MHz |
| Memory | 4 KB SRAM (8 × 2114), 16 KB ROM (2 × 2364) |
| Storage | 521 KB/side, 1042 KB/disk |
| Connectivity | Parallel IEEE-488 |
| Power | 110-117 V, 220-24 0V, 50 W |
| Dimensions | 6.5 in × 15.0 in × 14.35 in (165 mm × 381 mm × 364 mm) |
| Mass | 28 lb (13 kg) |
| Backward compatibility | PET, 4000-series, 8000-series, B128; Commodore 64, VIC-20 with IEEE-488 adapter |
| Predecessor | Commodore 4040 |
They are notable for the disk drive having twice the processing power than the connected computer in having two 1MHz 6502 processors sharing operation of communication and disk operation, though only supporting 4k of main memory. The disk operating system is actually contained within the disk drive unit with commands being sent via the 8 bit GPIB interface where the system decodes the message and carries out the requested operation such as formatting a disk without further involvement from the connected computer.