The Commodore VIC20 computer was a low cost home computer designed for people interested in learning BASIC programming and for use as a game machine. The VIC20 was introduced in 1980, and was followed by the more popular Commodore 64. The VIC20 sold for $100 in 1983 (Consumer Reports, p.474).
Processor: The VIC20 uses the MOS 6502 microprocessor, which is capable of addressing 64k of RAM.
RAM: The VIC20 has 5k or RAM, expandable to 32k with an Expander Cartridge (Consumer Reports, p.474).
Keyboard: The VIC20 uses the same keyboard as the C64 and C128 (with the exception of the C128's extra keys). The layout is the same as a typical computer or typewriter with a few exceptions. The Commodore keyboard has three keys between the "L" and the "Return", instead of the more typical one or two. While this doesn't present a large problem, it is sometimes easy to miss the "Return" key. The Commodore keyboard includes most all standard ASCII characters, the only ones missing are characters 96 and 123 though 126 (`, {, |, }, and ~). Although not missing, there are some keys and characters that are different from the normal ASCII characters. The backslash (\) is replace with a British pound, and the underline (_) is replace with a back arrow. The keyboard does include standard control and shift keys, as well as a "Commodore" key that generates special characters or colors.
Video: The VIC20 has a somewhat more limited video system than many other home computers of the era. The text resolution is limited to 22 columns by 23 rows. This low text resolution limits the usefulness of the computer for applications such as word processing and spreadsheets, as well as any other program where the user would need to view a fair amount of text at a given time. Despite the low text resolution, the VIC20 does offer a composite video output jack for connecting a monitor or a TV video modulator, and the graphics resolution is reasonably good as well (Commodore Electric, LTD., p15).
Storage: The Commodore VIC20 has an optional cassette interface connector for use with a special Commodore cassette recorder. While this interface does require a special recorder, Commodore has one of the most reliable cassette systems. Disk drives and printers are attached through a special serial interface. The drive that originally shipped with the VIC20, the VIC 1540, is a single sided 35 track drive that uses GCR encoding, which makes it unreadable by any other machine. See compatibility below for more information on other disk drive options. (Commodore Business Machine Newsgroup).
NOTE: Due to similarities between Commodore machines, the following information is common to all Commodore machines listed on this site.