Commodore P-500

On Mon, 23 Jun 1997 21:53:54 -0800, you wrote: %All I can do is give you the U.S. perspective on this machine, since I %haven't heard any stories on the European distribution of P-500s. <snipped> I've seen described in French computer magazines (e.g. Microsystems in their banc d'essais) a number of post-PET computers. The P500 was one of them. There was also a P700. This was circa 1984-85. If memory serves, they are like the original PETs except for a more aerodynamic casing and much better internal circuitry and also built-in floppy drives. I think there was even one version with an 8088 for youknowwhat compatibility. I went to an electronics component shop in Lyon once and they used one such machine for inventory/receipt/payment control. Everything ran on the two floppy drives. The problem with these machines, I think, was that they were essentially 6502-based business machines and lost out to the IBM PC's 8/16-bit architecture. Ben