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It sold around two million units in Europe and, technology-wise, was more impressive than the [[ZX Spectrum]] and on a similar level with the [[Commodore 64]]. The firmware of the CPC was also leagues ahead of the C64.

One notable exception was the sound chip: while the C64 employed the splendid custom SID chip, Amstrad opted for a generic sound chip - [[AY|AY-3-8912]] - with unremarkable features. It is no surprise though as there was not much choice in off-the-shelf sound chips in early 1984. The reason is that Yamaha had patented its hardware implementation of frequency modulation synthesis (FM) in the 1970s, allowing it to nearly monopolize the market for this technology until the mid-1990s [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_modulation_synthesis Source].

That saidAnother good choice could have been to use the SAA1099 soundchip, which does not use FM synthesis. But unfortunately, it was introduced on the firmware of market in late 1984, too late for being used in the CPC was leagues ahead of the C64.