--- title: A 1982 Modem For $100 | daily.dev description: The Commodore 1600 VICModem was perhaps the first phone modem to sell for under $100. Commodore outsourced the design to Anchor Automation, which built it... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-1982-modem-for-100-nesxjfle0 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A 1982 Modem For $100 | daily.dev og:description: The Commodore 1600 VICModem was perhaps the first phone modem to sell for under $100. Commodore outsourced the design to Anchor Automation, which built it... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-1982-modem-for-100-nesxjfle0 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/NeSxJfLe0.png og:image:alt: A 1982 Modem For $100 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A 1982 Modem For $100 **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The Commodore 1600 VICModem was perhaps the first phone modem to sell for under $100. Commodore outsourced the design to Anchor Automation, which built it around a Motorola MC14412 modem chip plus six other chips. The chip could technically handle 600 baud, but the modem was rated for 300, while rival 300 baud modems cost at least twice as much and 1200 baud units ran $600 or more. To save money it connected directly to the phone line but couldn't dial for you, so users had to dial manually and plug the handset cord into the modem. Commodore also bundled a Y cable called the VIC-1605 to work around handsets without modular jacks. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What chip did the Commodore VICModem use and what baud rate was it rated for? The Commodore 1600 VICModem used a Motorola MC14412 modem-on-a-chip along with six other supporting chips, built by Anchor Automation on Commodore's behalf. Although the MC14412 could theoretically handle 600 baud, the modem itself was rated for only 300 baud to keep costs down. _Retro hardware tinkerers compare old chip specs like this one on daily.dev._ ### Why couldn't the VICModem dial the phone automatically? Commodore left out auto-dial capability to hit the sub-$100 price point, so users had to dial the phone number themselves and then unplug the handset cord and plug it into the modem. This connected the modem directly to the line instead of using an acoustic coupler, but still required manual dialing. _Fans of vintage computing hardware trade these design trade-off stories on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Commodore 1600 VICmodem](https://daily.dev/posts/commodore-1600-vicmodem-lviiqgk0b) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [1983 Northern Telecom Commodore Phone](https://daily.dev/posts/1983-northern-telecom-commodore-phone-pcgskezzr) · Two Stop Bits · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Building A Discrete Component 75 Baud Modem](https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-discrete-component-75-baud-modem-4fsmbyvxt) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Age Of Altair](https://daily.dev/posts/the-age-of-altair-hzsayiw8b) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#retrocomputing](https://daily.dev/tags/retrocomputing) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-1982-modem-for-100-nesxjfle0) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A 1982 Modem For $100","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-1982-modem-for-100-nesxjfle0","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-1982-modem-for-100-nesxjfle0"},"datePublished":"2026-10-30T23:09:10.544Z","dateModified":"2026-10-30T23:09:35.360Z","description":"The Commodore 1600 VICModem was perhaps the first phone modem to sell for under $100. 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Although the MC14412 could theoretically handle 600 baud, the modem itself was rated for only 300 baud to keep costs down. Retro hardware tinkerers compare old chip specs like this one on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why couldn't the VICModem dial the phone automatically?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Commodore left out auto-dial capability to hit the sub-$100 price point, so users had to dial the phone number themselves and then unplug the handset cord and plug it into the modem. This connected the modem directly to the line instead of using an acoustic coupler, but still required manual dialing. Fans of vintage computing hardware trade these design trade-off stories on daily.dev."}}]} ```