a year before the release of the Commodore 128, Commodore released the Plus/4. Although targeted at a low-end business market that could not afford the relatively high cost and training requirements of early IBM PC compatibles, it was perceived by the Commodore press as a follow-up to the 64 and would be expected to improve upon that model's capabilities. While the C64's graphics and sound capabilities were generally considered excellent, the response to the Plus/4 was one of disappointment. Upon the Plus/4's introduction, repeated recommendations were made in the Commodore press for a new computer called the "C-128" with increased RAM capacity, an 80-column display as was standard in business computers, a new BASIC programming language that made it easy for programmers to use the computer's graphics and sound without resorting to PEEK and POKEs, a new disk drive that improved upon the 1541's abysmal transfer rate, as well as total C64 compatibility. The designers of the C128 succeeded in addressing most of these concerns. A new chip, the VDC, provides the C128 with an 80-column color CGA-compatible display (also called RGBI for red-green-blue plus intensity). The then-new 8502 microprocessor is completely backward-compatible with the C64's 6510, but can run at double the speed if desired. The C64's BASIC 2.0 was replaced with BASIC 7.0, which includes structured programming commands from the Plus/4's BASIC 3.5, as well as keywords designed specifically to take advantage of the machine's capabilities. A sprite editor and machine language monitor were added. The screen-editor part of the Kernal was further improved to support an insert mode and other features accessed through ESC-key combinations, as well as a rudimentary windowing feature, and was relocated to a separate ROM. The VIC-II chip which controls the 40-column display can only operate at 1 MHz, so the 40-column display appears jumbled in FAST mode. In 80-column mode the editor takes advantage of VDC features to provide blinking and underlined text, activated through escape codes, in addition to the standard Commodore reverse text. The C128's 80-column mode can display lowercase characters along with PETSCII graphics characters; 40-column mode is subject to the same "upper- and lowercase" or "uppercase-plus-graphics" restriction as earlier Commodores. The 40- and 80-column modes are independent and both can be active at the same time. A programmer with both a composite and RGB display can use one of the screens as a "scratchpad" or for rudimentary multiple