Commodore 1570 (original) (raw)

Commodore 1570 external floppy drive

The Commodore 1570 was a 5¼" floppy disk drive for the Commodore 128 home/personal computer. It was a single-sided, 170KB version of the double-sided Commodore 1571, released as a stopgap measure when Commodore International was unable to provide large enough quantities of 1571s due to a shortage of double-sided drive mechanisms. Like the 1571, it could read and write both GCR and MFM disk formats.

The 1570 utilized a 1571 logic board in a cream-colored Commodore 1541 case with a 1541 drive mechanism. Like the 1571, its built-in DOS provided a data burst mode for transferring data to the C128 computer at a faster speed than a 1541. Its ROM also contained some DOS bug fixes that didn't appear in the 1571 until much later. The 1570 could read and write all single-sided CP/M format disks that the 1571 could access.

Although the 1570 was compatible with the Commodore 64, the C64 wasn't capable of taking advantage of the drive's higher-speed operation, and when used with the C64 it was little more than a pricier 1541. Also, many early buyers of the C128 chose to temporarily make due with a 1541 drive (which they might already own as part of a previous C64 setup) until the 1571 became more widely available.

See also: Commodore 1581