This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations.(January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Commodore 1540
A VIC-20 with connected 1540 disk drive seen in the upper-right of the image.
Manufacturer
Commodore Business Machines, Inc.
Type
Floppy disk drive
Release date
1981 (1981)
Discontinued
1983
Media
5¼" floppy disk SS SD[1]
Operating system
CBM DOS 2.6[1]
CPU
MOS 6502 @ 1 MHz[2]
Memory
2 kB RAM, 16kB ROM[2]
Storage
170 kB[2]
Connectivity
Commodore proprietary serial IEEE-488 0.4 kB/s[2]
Power
100, 120, 220, or 240 V 50/60 Hz 25 W (30 W max)
Backward compatibility
VIC-20[2]
Successor
Commodore 1541
Related
Commodore 1570 & Commodore 1571
The Commodore 1540 (also known as the VIC-1540) is the companion floppy disk drive for the VIC-20 home computer. It was introduced in 1982.[3][4] It uses single-sided 5¼" floppy disks, on which it stores roughly 170 kB of data utilizing Commodore's GCR data encoding scheme.
Because of the low price of both the VIC-20 and the 1540, this combination was the first computer with a disk drive to be offered on the US market for less than $1000 USD, although the combination of the Commodore 64 and 1541 would prove more enduring. The 1540 is an "intelligent peripheral" in that it has its own MOS Technology 6502 CPU (just like its VIC-20 host) and the resident Commodore DOS on board in ROM – contrary to almost all other home computer systems of the time, where the DOS was loaded from a boot floppy and was executed on the computer's CPU.
Due to a timing conflict with the C64's video chip, the C64 doesn't work properly with the 1540. The better-known 1541 is mechanically and nearly electronically identical to the 1540 but has a revised ROM that permits it to work with the C64 by slowing the drive down slightly. However, it is possible to revert the 1541 into 1540 mode with a Commodore BASIC software command (OPEN 15,8,15, "UI-" : CLOSE 15) to permit better speed when used with a VIC-20.
Front of the 1540 floppy disk drive.
The 1540 is relatively rare. While cheaper than most other drives of the day, it was more expensive than the VIC-20 computer itself, and the disk media was also still relatively pricey. Also, the relatively small memory of the VIC meant that the faster program loading times of the drive did not gain more than a few seconds compared to tape media. Thirdly, almost all commercial software for the VIC-20 was sold on cartridge or cassette tape media, giving low incentive to buy a floppy drive. The C64 followed close on the heels of the VIC-20, quickly discontinuing the 1540. Most 1540s still in existence were modified with a 1541 ROM so it would work with a C64. Unmodified 1540s are now considered collector's items.
The launch price in Germany was 1898 DM (approximate 970 EUR). The American version is named VIC 1540 and the German version VC 1540.
^ ab"Commodore VIC-1540 & VC-1540". Retrieved 2020-04-18. Media: Single Sided, Single Density
^"Chronology of Personal Computers (1982)". pctimeline.info. 2013-05-18. Retrieved 2013-06-18. Commodore International releases the 1540 Single-Drive Floppy for the VIC-20. [804.17]
^"Commodore VIC-20 computer". oldcomputers.net. 2010-11-08. Retrieved 2013-06-18. 1982: Commodore releases the 1540 Single-Drive Floppy for the VIC-20.
The Commodore1540 (also known as the VIC-1540) is the companion floppy disk drive for the VIC-20 home computer. It was introduced in 1982. It uses single-sided...
single-side floppy data storage format similar to that used by the Commodore1540 & Commodore 1541 drives, but with a slightly different data marker indicating...
single-sided 170-kilobyte drive for 5¼" disks. The 1541 directly followed the Commodore1540 (meant for the VIC-20). The disk drive uses group coded recording (GCR)...
The Commodore 4040 is the replacement for the previous models 2040 (U.S.) and 3040 (Europe). It's a dual-drive 5¼" floppy disk subsystem for Commodore Business...
The Commodore PET is a line of personal computers produced starting in 1977 by Commodore International. A single all-in-one case combines a MOS Technology...
computers: the VIC-20, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Plus/4, Commodore 16, and Commodore 65. The parallel IEEE-488 interface used on the Commodore PET (1977) computer...
Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It operated as the 2,000-room Commodore Hotel between 1919 and 1976, before hotel chain Hyatt and real estate...
Commodore DOS, also known as CBM DOS, is the disk operating system used with Commodore's 8-bit computers. Unlike most other DOSes, which are loaded from...
protocol, the Commodore1540 and 1541 disk drives soon gained a reputation for extreme slowness. Only at the introduction of the Commodore 128 computer...
Commodore 64 disk/tape emulation and data transfer comprises hardware and software for Commodore 64 disk & tape emulation and for data transfer between...
based on the player's choice of characters. Initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, Maniac Mansion was Lucasfilm Games' first self-published...
refused to record it, she turned to her friend Milt Gabler, owner of the Commodore label. Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" for him a cappella, and moved him...
64 home computers, the same as the 1540 and 1541 drives used with the later two machines. The standard Commodore Group Coded Recording (GCR) scheme used...
Diary of Robert E. Peary". The Historian. 48 (3): 341–358. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1986.tb00698.x. JSTOR 24447539. Bouton, Katherine (August 13, 1989)...
handle the negotiations between Commodore Perry and the Tokugawa shogunate. Matthew C. Perry (1853, United States) A Commodore of the U.S. Navy who opened...
of. The SID emulation method is based on the sound processor from the Commodore 64 home computer (Elektron formerly offered a separate product known as...
Martial Law Administrator Admiral Ahsan, Governor of East Pakistan, and Air Commodore Zafar Masud, Air Officer Commanding of Dacca's only airbase, were the...
Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2020. "1540 Broadway". The Skyscraper Center. CTBUH. Archived from the original on June...
Royal Visit to the U.S.A., 1939", Historian, 45 (4): 461–472, doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1983.tb01576.x Rhodes, Benjamin D. (April 1978), "The British Royal...
origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy. Development and technology in Asia from 1540 to the Pacific War" Christopher Howe, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-35485-7...
Town, Aubrey meets Admiral Bertie, who confirms Aubrey's elevation to Commodore and authorises him to hoist his broad pendant ('broad pennant' in some...
1525 1536 William Fitzwilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton 1536 1540 John Russell, Lord Russell 1540 1542 John Dudley, Viscount Lisle 1542 1546 Thomas Seymour...
another Royal Dockyard further downstream in Erith at around this time). By 1540, however, the royal shipwrights had begun operating on higher ground further...