Commodore RAM Expanders
Memory was always precious on early home computers, and Commodore sold add-ons for almost every machine it made.
The VIC-20 shipped with only 5 KB, and Commodore offered three plug-in cartridges to help: the VIC-1210 with 3 KB, the VIC-1110 with 8 KB and the VIC-1111 with 16 KB. The machine could be expanded to 40 KB in total, of which up to 27.5 KB was available to BASIC. The Super Expander graphics cartridge carried its own 3 KB of RAM. The business-oriented 8032 PET could take a 64 KB memory board.
For the Commodore 64 and 128, Commodore produced the RAM Expansion Units: the 1700 with 128 KB, the 1764 with 256 KB and the 1750 with 512 KB. These use a dedicated chip to copy blocks of memory to and from the computer at high speed, and they were especially valued as RAM disks under GEOS and by bulletin board operators.
The Amiga range had its own family. The A1050 added 256 KB of chip memory to the Amiga 1000 in 1985. The A501, from 1987, fitted the trapdoor slot under the Amiga 500 with 512 KB and a battery-backed clock. Later machines got the 1 MB A501+ for the A500+ and the 1 MB A601 for the A600. For the Amiga 2000, the A2052 Zorro card held up to 2 MB, and the A2058 came with 2 MB and could hold up to 8 MB. The CDTV could use small personal memory cards, and Commodore's PCs had their own memory boards.
Collectors look for working originals with their labels intact, and Commodore-branded examples are the ones to seek for a period-correct setup.