The SuperPET SP9000, also known as Micro-Mainframe or MMF9000, was developed in conjunction with the Department of Computer Science of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. It was primarily designed with universities and scientists in mind.
Based on the CBM 8000 series design, The SuperPet has two processors, a standard MOS 6502 like all Pet systems, and a Motorola 6809. It could run all the original C-8000 software as well as modern 6809 based compilers and development tools: C, PASCAL, BASIC, APL, FORTRAN, COBOL, Assembler, etc.
The SuperPet was actually built as a programmer's machine allowing developers to work at home and transfer/exchange their files with a mainframe through a true built-in RS-232 interface. A power-on menu gave access to various language packages and several utilities: RS-232 setup, machine language monitor, text editor and terminal program.
Technically speaking, the 6502 and 6809 processors shared the same address and control lines so both CPUs worked on the same memory area except the Kernel ROM that remains independent of each processor.
Commodore 8000 series owners could upgrade their system and make them SuperPets thanks to an optional upgrade package.
Please consider donating your old computer / videogame system to Old-Computers.com or one of our partners from anywhere in the world (Europe, America, Asia, etc.).
This was the computer I learned programming on in High School. We had 8 of them and a TRS80 I level 3. This was back in 1982 so our teacher found the only textbook he could for us and decided to teach us structured programming using Pascal. He also taught it at a college level plus. When I got to college and took Pascal it was a super easy A. We also had a device that I believe called a muppet which let the SuperPets share drives and printers. I would love to find one or an Emulator and documentation for that machine..
Thursday 19th January 2023
David (USA)
NAME
SuperPet
MANUFACTURER
Commodore
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
1981
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
CBM BASIC 4.0
KEYBOARD
Full-stroke 73 keys with numeric keypad
CPU
MOS 6502 and Motorola 6809
SPEED
1 Mhz.
RAM
96 KB
ROM
48 KB (Kernal + CBM BASIC)
TEXT MODES
80 columns x 25 rows - 3 character sets (255 each)
GRAPHIC MODES
None
COLORS
Monochrome. Green display
SOUND
1 voice - Three octaves
I/O PORTS
IEEE-488, 2 x 'Datasette', Parallel User port, RS-232, Expansion port
