Commodore P-500

On Mon, 23 Jun 1997, Larry Anderson & Diane Hare wrote: <snip> <snip> A couple of years back, I took a book out of the university library entitled "The Microcomputer Users Handbook 1985" and typed some stuff up 500" and "Commodore 700". Would this "500" be related to the P-500, or to something else? The notes I have about the Commodore 500 say that it was intended to be a "professional/scientific" computer, and the cost was "from" 799 UKP. It used a 2MHz 6509 processor (whatever that is :) ) and came with 128K or 256K, expandable to 896K. It had 28K of ROM, including the BASIC interpreter. The ports I have listed are RS-232C, IEEE-488, video and audio out (my source didn't say what kind), cassette, cartridge port, and two joystick ports. Screen size: 40x25 characters. 320x200 pixels in hi-res, 16 colours, 8 sprites (sounds like the C64's VIC-II). I think it also specifically stated that the machine used the SID chip for sound, but I may have just been reading between the lines. Also mentioned were optional Z80A and 8088 processor boards, which were supposed to be able to operate concurrently with the 6509. Release date was listed as 1982, but I noticed that that book usually listed _UK_ release dates. Still, it couldn't be any earlier if the machine had the SID and VIC-II chips. Is it possible the machine was available in Europe and not North America? I think I'll have to go back to the library to find that book now that I've got a video camera and framegrabber, to grab some of the (many, many) photos of old systems. Doug Spence ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca