Commodore Innovations and Firsts

Reproduced April 7  2002 with permission from Burt of the Commodore 64 Dungeon – Graphics and a few items appended by Commodore.ca Sept 7 2021

The following is a list of Commodore innovations:

• 1st single board microcomputer – MOS KIM-1 (Commodore bought MOS tech within 6 months of KIM being released) and not the Apple 1 Kit!
• Best selling computer in History (even today in 2003)- The Commodore 64 sold 30 million records and is in the Guinness Book of Records

  Complete Line of Commodore Canada Products from 1981st 1 million plus unit selling computer, the VIC-20

• 1st computer company to make $1 Billion dollars in Sales
• 1st computer company to have more than 50% of the global home computer market
• 1st multimedia computer (Amiga)
• 1st computer to have co-processors (SuperPET)
• 1st true-multitasking system was Commodore Amiga not Apple!
• 1st multitasking OS (Amiga)
• 1st portable (“laptop”) color computer – SX64
• 1st company to develop the DMA bus
• 1st portable hand-held calculator
• 1st LCD Display
• 1st Modem to sell 1,000,000 units
• 1st company to define the word “multimedia”
• 1st Digital Sine-Cosine generator
• 1st and only computer (Amiga) that can display multiple screens at different resolutions on a single monitor.
• 1st Computer used by average people (non-computer people) (Commodore 64)1st Fluorescent Light Dimming Switch
• 1st Fluidtight doors opening/closing device  
  
• 1st CD-ROM Video Game Machine
• 1st I/O to storage addressing and architecture scheme
• 1st CD-ROM Error Control scheme (cirs)  
• 1st Joystick controller
• 1st Sitdown style video-game controller
• 1st multiple linked video game controllers  
• 1st Raster Monitor for video graphic displays
• 1st and only computer graphic subsystem that allows multiple bitplanes and bitdepths available on the screen at the same time
• 1st Sound Interface Chip – SID6581
• 1st company to develop the video/digital to/from analog converter
• 1st company to develop “plug and play”  
• 1st Object Oriented OS (Amiga)
• 1st hardware blitter objects (Amiga)
• 1st computer to have “genlock graphics” and overscan

SOURCES: Delphion Homepage  The  patent place/intelectual property page listing