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u A Chronological History of Commodore Computers Part II by Ian Matthews 1984 Jack Tramiel leaves Commodore. [January] The 1984 Consumer Electronics Show showcased Commodore's next computer, the 264, based on the "TED chip" (acronym for Tramiel Editing Device). [January] According to a statement released in January of 1984, Tramiel said, "Personal reasons prevent my continuing on a full-time basis with Commodore." Irving Gould recruited Marshall F. Smith from Thyssen- Bornemisza NV, a conglomerate based in the Netherlands Antilles, to replace Tramiel. [April] Commodore International launches the Commodore PC at the Hanover Fair in Germany. [April] Commodore International launches the Commodore Z8000 at the Hanover Fair in Germany. [Spring] Commodore stops manufacturing the VIC-20. [June] Commodore announces the Commodore 16 at the Consumer Electronics Show. The machine looks like the VIC-20 and Commodore 64, but has 16KB of RAM, and is expected to sell for around $100, to be marketed as "The Learning Machine". [June] Commodore announces the renamed Commodore 264 as the Plus/4. It will now feature four built-in programs, not just one. Price will be around US$300. [June] Commodore announces the DSP 1101 letter-quality daisy wheel printer (designed for the Plus/4), the MPS 802 dot matrix printer (Re-named 1526), the MCS 801 color dot matrix printer (re-named Okimate-10) and the cost reduced MPS 803 dot matrix printer (which replaced the MPS-801). [July] Jack Tramiel, former president of Commodore International, buys a controlling interest in the Atari home computer and video game divisions from Warner Communications, for $240 million in long-term notes. Warner retains Atari's coin-operated game division and home communications venture Ataritel. The Amiga Inc. team was trying to find a company to buy their technology and to employ them, since they ran out of money. Many companies were interested in the custom chips of the Amiga, such as Sony, Apple, Philips, HP, etc. Atari's president, Jack Tramiel, who had just left C= after purchasing Atari secretly, tried to get his revenge by buying Amiga Inc. He lent Amiga Inc. $1,000,000, to be payed back one month later. When the month was almost up, it became apparent that Amiga Inc. would not be able to pay him back, so he offered 98 cents per share for the company. Amiga Inc. thought this was unacceptable, so they looked for someone else to buy them. Just 2 days before the deadline, C= came in and began to talk to Amiga Inc. They managed to get C= to raise its bid to $4.25 a share, and just before the deadline ended, C= gave them $1,000,000 to pay back Atari, on the condition that C= would get to buy Amiga Inc. 1985 A pretty new "Amiga" gets all the attention [January] Commodore unveils the Commodore 128 Personal Computer. It functions as three computers in one: a complete Commodore 64, a CP/M mode, and a new 128KB mode. [July] Commodore unveils the new Amiga 1000 at a star-studded gala held at Lincoln Center in New York. It features a multitasking, windowing operating system, using a Motorola 68000 CPU, with 256KB RAM, and 880KB 3.5-inch disk drive, for $1300. [?] Mimic Systems announces the Spartan, a hardware upgrade for the Commodore 64 that turns it into an Apple IIe. (It would take several months before the actual units are available to the public.) (By the time this famous "vapor ware" made it to the market, one could buy a used Apple IIe for less. DMM) In an effort to make Commodore profitable, Smith took to downsizing, cutting the payroll by more than 45%. Though the company had an impressive $339 million in 1985 holiday revenues, it made only $1 million for the quarter after paying off about 1/4 of its bank debt. Commodore suffered through Fiscal Year 1985, losing $237 million, and getting into trouble with its creditors. The banks granted a much needed one-month extension on Commodore's loans, and, with the success of the company's second-best Christmas sales ever behind them, Commodore defied the Gods of Bankruptcy yet again. 1986 In March 1986, Thomas J. Rattigan replaced Smith as Commodore's CEO. Rattigan was hired in April of 1985 with the understanding that he would replace Smith, who remained on as a director. Rattigan's objective during the first few months of his leadership was clear - cut costs in order to stabilize Commodore's position, allowing it to rebuild. Once again, the payroll was trimmed from top to bottom, and three plants were closed in five months. New controls were added in the finance department to prevent the sloppy reporting that had undermined Smith's leadership. Commodore continued to sell respectable numbers of its $150 C-64 throughout 1986. The Commodore 128, a successor to and more powerful machine than the C64, was selling for $300 at the time, which also helped to keep the company afloat. 1987 Rattigan's policies worked. By March of 1987, Commodore had caught up on its loans and posted a $22 million earning in the quarter ending December 1986. It also had $46 million in the bank, the most cash since 1983, its most profitable year. [February] Commodore announces the Amiga 500. It features a 68000 processor, 512KB RAM, floppy disk drive, and custom chips for animation, video, and audio. [February] Commodore announces the Amiga 2000. [March] On April 22, 1987, Rattigan was replaced by Chairman Irving Gould, the venture capitalist who had been involved with Commodore for over 20 years. It is unclear as to why Rattigan was replaced after turning the company around and posting $28 million in profits over the four quarters ending in March 1987. Rattigan himself claimed that he was forced out by Chairman Gould due to personality conflicts and that Gould was upset about Rattigan getting credit for the company's turnaround. Gould argued that the comeback in the U.S. was insufficient compared to its rebound in overseas markets, which accounted for 70% of its sales. (There are reports of the famous board meeting showdown between Gould and Rattigan where Rattigan was physically removed from the premesis, later to win a $9M suit against the company.) In fact, despite its profitability, Commodore's U.S. revenues had declined by 54% in the same four quarters. According to Gould's ideology, the North American operation was to be a sales and marketing extension of the company, rather than the unwieldy, semi-independent entity it had become. For the third time in Commodore history, a new leader began his term at the helm by drastically downsizing. Under Gould's reign, the payroll was cut from 4,700 to 3,100, including half the North American headquarters' corporate staff, and five plants were closed. [October] Industry veteran Max Toy, generally credited with engineering the expansion of ITT Corp.'s Xtra Business Systems Division's PC product line and strengthening its distribution channels, was named president and chief operating officer of Commodore Business Machines Inc. Toy said he resigned his post at Xtra Business Systems "for a greater opportunity." "Commodore is a significant company that has solid foundation stones to build from," he said, indicating that he intends to "solidify Commodore's relationships not just with distribution channels but also in establishing strategic alliances." In his new post, Toy reported directly to Commodore International Ltd. chairman and chief executive Irving Gould. [?] Commodore launches its first IBM PC-compatible machines, the PC10-1 and PC10-2. Both use a 4.77 MHz Siemens 8088. 1989 [January] Commodore announced that 1 million Amiga computers had been sold. [February] Irving Gould announced that Mehdi Ali was appointed as President of the Company. Mr. Ali, then a managing director of Dillon, Read & Co., Inc., New York, was a special advisor to Commodore for the previous three years. Mr. Gould commented: "Having worked closely with Mr. Ali for the past three years, I believe we are fortunate that he has agreed to expand the role he has been playing in the restucturing of Commodore into a major comeptitor in the microcomputer industry." Mr. Ali added: "Commodore now has considerable momentum and I hope to help capitalize on the significant opportunities that lie ahead." [April] Harold D. Copperman is appointed as President and Chief Operating Officer of Commodore's US Operations, Commodore Business Machines, Inc. He replaces Max Toy, who resigned to pursue other interests. Mr. Copperman was formerly Vice President and General Manager, Eastern Operations, Apple Computer, Inc. [November] Commodore announces the Amiga 2500/30. It is essentially an Amiga 2000 with a 2630 Accelerator Board (25-MHz 68030 and 68882 math coprocessor). 1990 [March] Commodore offers Amiga 1000 owners $1000 to trade in their Amiga on a new Amiga 2000. [?] NewTek releases the Video Toaster, a professional quality hardware/ software video effects tool for the Commodore Amiga 2000, priced at $1600. [?] Commodore announces the Amiga 3000, at the Palladium in New York City. The system features a Motorola 16 MHz 68030, 68881 math coprocessor, new Enhanced Chip Set, Zorro III bus, 2MB RAM, 40- or 100-MB hard drive, AmigaDOS v2.0, and AmigaVision authoring system. Prices start at $4100 with monitor. [?] Commodore releases the CDTV (Commodore Dynamic Total Vision) package. It features a CD-ROM player integrated with a 7.16-MHz 68000-based Amiga 500. List price is US$1000. [?] Commodore International Stockholder Meetings are moved to Commodore International Headquarters at Nassau in the Bahamas (home also to Board Chairman Irving Gould). 1991 [January] Commodore International Limited (NYSE: CBU) announced the appointment of James Dionne as general manager of its U.S. sales company, succeeding Harold Copperman, who has been appointed vice president of Commodore International Limited, with new responsibilities including Amiga multimedia strategies. (Dionne, from reports, had been 'groomed' for the new role ahead of time.) [?] Commodore unveils the Amiga 3000UX, with a Motorola MC68030 25-MHz processor, 68882 math coprocessor, UNIX System V Release 4, Open Look, and Ethernet support. Cost is $5000, without a monitor. 1992 [?] Commodore introduces the Amiga 600: 4096 colors, stereo sound, full pre-emptive multitasking operating system (Workbench 2.05), PCMCIA slot, integrated IDE controller, Motorola 68000 CPU, for a base price of $500 (a version with an internal hard disk sortly followed). [September] Commodore introduced the first machine with the AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture) chipset, the Amiga 4000. The A4000/040 sported a 68040 / 25Mhz processor, six custom chips -- Super Gary, Super Ramsey, Super Amber, Lisa, Alice, and Paula. With 6mb Ram (2mb Chip/ 4mb Fast), IDE controller (including a Seagate ST3144A 3.5" 120mb HD). The floppy drive was dual speed high density. They also used the SIMM technology for the memory upgrades. Also announced: AmigaDOS Release 3 Operating System. [December] The AMIGA 1200 was introduced. The AMIGA 1200, was one of the most successful AMIGA computers. It also had the IDE controller and the PCMCIA slot of the A600, plus a 32-bit trapdoor expansion. It included Amiga Dos v3.0. Processor: Motorola 68EC020/14Mhz RAM: 2mb Chip RAM , expandable to 10mb total RAM. (The early announcement of the Amiga 1200 made the Amiga 500/600 sales flatten and availability of parts for the 1200 left Commodore with little profit for that quarter). 1993 [September] Sometime at or after the World of Commodore/Amiga Show in Anahiem,California, James Dionne resigned as President of Commodore US (details here are fuzzy and I cannot find any more mention of presidents of US operations). [?] Commodore Business Machines stops producing Intel-based PC computers. The very last Commodore machine was the CD32, a games machine and the world's first 32bit console. With a 14Mhz 68020 processor, it had a double speed CD ROM Drive, 2mb Chip memory, AGA chipset and the option of a FMV (Full Motion Video/MPEG) module. But once again the machine didnt make it. It had many sales but not as many as they were needed to save the financial problems of Commodore. Most of the games released were just CD conversions of the original A1200/4000 ones, with no extra CD music, or FMV. The Commodore situation was awful... CD32 was the first (and the last?) machine using Kickstart 3.1 as standard. (Released later as an upgrade for all Amiga machines.) 1994 Commodore had a financial damage of $107 million dollars by the end of 1993. But the Amiga was still a very popular machine. In 1992, Commodore sold about 800,000 Amigas (17% more than 1991) and in 1993, it sold 20% less. Big problems made Commodore lose all that money: * Fall of Amiga periherals sales (Monitors,Printers etc.), * The US Dollar and its price fall on the major economic markets, and ... Irving Gould (Chariman) & Mehdi Ali (president of the Commodore). [March] Commodore announced they were having financial difficulties which might result in bankrupty or liquidation. Commodore had lost $8.2 million. The stock fell to $0.75 per share. The New York stock exchange halted trading of Commodore stock! [April] Until the middle of April, Commodore was still producing A4000s, A1200s, and CD32s, and the engineers continued development of the new AAA chipset. AAA was meant to be a big improvement over AGA: 24bit Graphics (resolutions up to 1280x1024), 16bit CD quality audio and other interesting things. AAA was never truly finished. During the second half of April the production of Amigas stopped. The Philippines factory closed, but left behind a big stock of Amigas. The Scotland factory also stopped production. Many employees were told by the management to hunt for new jobs... [April,22] 15 people were dismissed from West Chester (PA), and the Commodore Semiconductor Group was closed. 15 people were also dismissed from the Morristown factory. [April,26] Engineering closed. The site in West Chester, once supported by 1000 employees, now had only 22 people left. [April 29th, 1994] - almost an end to an Era Commodore International announced that was unable to renegotiate terms of its outstanding loans and was closing down the business. The liquidation process lasted for months, owing largely to the far-reaching size of the corporation. In addition, the fact that the company was incorporated in the Bahamas while a large share of the creditors were from the United States made legal proceeding tense and drawn out. On April 20, 1995, almost a full year later, Commodore was sold to the German company ESCOM for approximately 10 to 12.5 million dollars. During the summer of 1996, however, ESCOM also fell into recievership. [June] Jay Miner a key creator of the Amiga custom chips dies of kidney problems. Eventually Gateway 2000 Computers Purchased the Technologies of Commodore/Amiga and Tulip of Holland purchased the Commodore Trademark. The Amiga is still being produced and supported by several companies, though without the support or notice it had in previous years. The Commodore 64 also has been kept alive by the support of customers and third party hardware and software developers. Recently the Commodore 64 was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records for "The most units sold of a single model of computer." Over the 10 years the Commodore 64 sold over 17 million units (some estimate 27 million) all sporting the same features it originally had back in 1982. Where's Jack Now? According to one recent magazine interview... "Today Tramiel is basically retired and now lives in a house atop a foothill in Monte Sereno, Calif." Second tidbit - "Retired in Simi Valley, California. Supervising his sons running the company called: Jugi Tandon Systems." [2003] The CommodoreOne is unvieled at the Easter VISION Party in Germany. And the Beat Goes On... IM