Specifications

Commander X16 Features & Specs
Updated by PERI FRACTIC·MONDAY, JULY 22, 2019·

This document will be kept updated with the latest specifications of the product:

CPU RAM ROM Expansion Input Devices Storage Audio “Vera” Video chip specifications Text Modes: Two Independent graphics layers, each capable of:
 * WDC 65x02 @ 8 Mhz
 * 40-pin DIP package
 * (Protoype board currently running stable at 2 Mhz. Steps are being taken to stabilize it at 8 Mhz.  Worst case if all issues are not solved, the final board could be 4 mhz, but still planning for 8)
 * 40K of "Low RAM"
 * 512K of "High RAM" standard
 * Expandable to 1 MB, 1.5 MB, or 2 MB by adding additional RAM chips to 3 empty sockets.
 * 128K of Flash ROM
 * Standard Commodore Kernal
 * Microsoft BASIC version 2.0
 * Machine Language Monitor
 * Can be reflashed from the computer
 * Four expansion slots with access to CPU databus
 * Each slot has its own 32-bytes of mapped RAM
 * 8 general-purpose I/O lines available (user port)
 * PS/2 Keyboard
 * PS/2 Mouse
 * Two NES or SNES style game ports (dev board just has pin headers)
 * IEC compatible disk drive port
 * Internal SD-2-IEC with SD card slot (on final board only, not dev board)
 * Audio is still being determined. There are 3 designs being considered and tested at the moment including a Yamaha YM2151, a SAA1099, and a SID-like implementation in the video chip’s FPGA.  Which will ultimate work best is yet to be determined.
 * 128K of internal video RAM
 * 640x480 @ 60 Hz analog VGA output
 * 640x240 Composite video and/or S-Video output.
 * Option to disable color signal for sharper grayscale text/graphics on composite monitors.
 * 80x60, 40x30, and 20x15 character modes
 * 8x8 pixels characters with PETSCII font
 * 16-colors with independent fore/background colors for each character
 * 256-color text mode with global background color.
 * pixel scaling: 1x/2x/3x/4x for width and height
 * tile size: width 8/16 pixel, height 8/16 pixels
 * tile map size: width 32/64/128/256 tiles, height 32/64/128/256 tiles
 * tile modes:
 * 1 bpp (bits per pixel) with per-tile 16-color foreground/background color, 8 bit tile index (16 color text mode)
 * 1 bpp with per-tile 256-color foreground color, background color is always index 0 (transparent), 8 bit tile index   (256-color text mode)
 * 2/4/8 bpp with per-tile h-flip, v-flip, 4-bit palette offset, 10 bit tile index
 * all these modes support smooth scrolling
 * bitmap modes:
 * 1/2/4/8 bpp
 * 4-bit palette offset
 * these modes don't support scrolling to save on memory
 * the 1 bpp tile modes in combination with 8x16 tile size will also allow for a standard VGA font to be used