Commodore 1551

The Commodore 1551 (originally introduced as the SFS 481) is a floppy disk drive for the Commodore Plus/4 home computer. It resembles a charcoal-colored Commodore 1541 and plugs into the cartridge port, providing faster access than the C64/1541 combination. Commodore reportedly planned an interface to allow use of the 1551 with the C64, but it was never released.

Commodore 1551
View of a European Commodore 1551 disk drive, showing the connector
CodenameSFS481[1]
ManufacturerCommodore Business Machines, Inc.
Product familyCommodore 264 series
TypeFloppy drive
Release date1984 (1984)[2]
Introductory priceUS$400[2] (1984) equivalent to $1,100 in 2022
Discontinued1986[2]
Media5.25" floppy disk Single Sided, Single Density[3]
Operating systemCBM DOS 2.6[3]
CPUMOS 6510T[4]: 86 
Memory
  • 2 kB RAM[4]: 86 
  • 16 kB ROM[4]: 86 
Storage170 kB[3][4]: 86 
ConnectivityTED parallel port[3]
Dimensions97 mm × 200 mm × 374 mm
3.8 in × 7.9 in × 14.7 in[4]: 86 
Mass10.5 kg
23 lb[4]: 86 
Backward
compatibility
PredecessorCommodore 1541
Successor
Rear view
Adapter interior

Aside from faster access, the drive is very similar to the 1541. Like the 1541, it is a single-sided 170-kilobyte drive for 5¼" disks, with each disk split into 664 256-byte blocks available for user data plus 19 blocks for DOS data and directory; the file system makes each block its own cluster.[4]: 86 

Hardware

The disk drive uses group coded recording and contains an MOS Technology 6510T processor as a disk controller. The 6510T is a specialized version of the 6510 processor used in the C64, and it is only used in the 1551. The DOS limits the number of files per disk to 144 regardless of the number of free blocks on the disk because the directory is of a fixed size, and the file system does not allow for subdirectories. Its DOS is compatible with the 1541, so disks written by one drive can be utilized in the other.

The 1551 has no DIP switches to change the drive's device number. If a user added more than one drive to a system, they had to open the case and cut a trace in the circuit board to permanently change the drive's number, or hand-wire an external switch to allow it to be changed externally. It is possible to connect a maximum of two 1551s to one computer.

Reference
  1. "Commodore 1551 Disk Drive". The Centre for Computing History. n.d. Archived from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  2. "Commodore 1551". C64-Wiki. 13 October 2021. Archived from the original on 12 September 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  3. Zimmerman, Bo (n.d.). "Commodore 1551 Disk Drive". Zimmer's.net. Archived from the original on 8 October 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  4. Commodore 1551 Disk Drive User's Guide. Commodore Business Machines. October 1984. Retrieved 12 September 2023 – via Internet Archive.

Further reading
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