I have two main units, Commodore Dual Drive Floppy Disk Model 8250 and Commodore
Tractor Printer 4022P.
type Computer
country USA
year 1980
os ROM Based Commodore Basic 4.0
cpu 6502
speed 1 MHz
ram 16 KB
graphic 80 x 25
colors monochrome
sound
ports IEEE488, casette
The Commodore PET/CBM 8032 — The Business Commodore
The Commodore PET 8032 was the premium model in Commodore’s Professional Electronic Transactor (PET) line — an 80-column business computer with a built-in 12-inch green phosphor monitor, full-travel keyboard, and the MOS 6502 processor running at 1 MHz with 32 KB of RAM. Released in 1980 as part of the CBM (Commodore Business Machine) series that evolved from the original PET, the 8032 was designed for serious business use: accounting, word processing, database management, and the scientific and engineering applications that characterised professional computing of the early 1980s.
The PET’s Origins
The original Commodore PET, unveiled at the January 1977 Consumer Electronics Show alongside the Apple II and TRS-80, was one of the first complete personal computers sold to the public. Jack Tramiel’s Commodore had originally planned to sell calculator kits but pivoted to full computers after seeing the market opportunity. Chuck Peddle, who had designed the MOS 6502 processor, led the PET’s development. The original PET’s all-in-one design — computer, keyboard, monitor, and cassette drive in a single unit — was years ahead of competitors who required separate components.
80-Column Display
The 8032’s 80-column display was a key differentiator for business use. Earlier PET models offered only 40 columns — adequate for BASIC programming but cramped for word processing and spreadsheet applications. The 80-column display allowed full-width text formatting, making the 8032 genuinely practical for business documents and the professional software of the era. The built-in green phosphor monitor provided crisp, high-contrast text display that reduced eye strain during extended business use.
IEEE-488 Connectivity
The PET/CBM 8032 used the IEEE-488 (GPIB) bus for peripherals — a professional-grade interface that provided fast, reliable connections to disk drives, printers, and other equipment. This gave the 8032 a professional character quite different from the consumer-oriented VIC-20 and C64 that would follow, establishing Commodore’s credibility in the business and scientific computing market that the PET had pioneered.