Full content from the completed page crawl (media download still running)

6,654 pages: 1,289 machines, 702 software, 460 companies, 64 history, 17 articles, 59 fun.
4,336 media files so far; references to files not downloaded yet are left out.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ

content/museum/comart-communicator.md

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+---
+title: COMART Communicator
+categories:
+- Computers
+types:
+- Professional Computer
+origins:
+- United Kingdom
+years:
+- '1979'
+cpus:
+- Z80-A
+params:
+  name: Communicator
+  company: /companies/comart
+  company_name: COMART
+  specs:
+  - label: NAME
+    value: Communicator
+  - label: MANUFACTURER
+    value: Comart
+  - label: TYPE
+    value: Professional Computer
+  - label: ORIGIN
+    value: United Kingdom
+  - label: YEAR
+    value: '1979'
+  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
+    value: None
+  - label: KEYBOARD
+    value: Serial video terminal
+  - label: CPU
+    value: Z80-A
+  - label: SPEED
+    value: Unknown
+  - label: RAM
+    value: 64 KB
+  - label: TEXT MODES
+    value: Depends on the video terminal used
+  - label: I/O PORTS
+    value: 2 x Serial RS-232
+  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
+    value: 2 x 5.25'' floppy disc drives - 190 KB, 390 KB or 790 KB each
+  - label: OS
+    value: CP/M
+  - label: POWER SUPPLY
+    value: Built-in power supply unit
+  - label: PERIPHERALS
+    value: S-100 boards
+  - label: PRICE
+    value: $3500
+  comments:
+  - author: Mike Arnold (United Kingdom)
+    date: Wednesday 8th December 2021
+    text: I used to sell Comart and Cromemco in the 1980s. Still have some Comart parts in the attic somewhere. Much prefer Cromemco though and still have a working system from them.
+  - author: Stacey (United Kingdom)
+    date: Saturday 14th November 2020
+    text: So weird. The man in this photo is my dad. He died 3 years ago and I miss him so much. I''d love to know who Sarah is...
+  - author: Ross (United Kingdom)
+    date: Monday 2nd March 2020
+    text: Does anyone have any bootable software for the Communicator please?
+  - author: John Adams (UK)
+    date: Monday 23rd May 2016
+    text: |-
+      I worked in Byeshiop Manchester we sold these along side North Star Commodore Pet, Apple II, Sharp Mz80k vic20 and Cromemco.
+
+      I still have a Communicator with 10Mb hard drive, I think it will end up at Bletchley as they said $ it off.
+
+      I fell out with them somewhat after I set up sale to Kellogg''s to weight the frosties packets instead of them buying a harris mini, then when the guy came round to discuss the sale I was told to make the tea.
+
+      I said to the young lad who worked Saturdays that I thought I should set up on my own, he told the owner who sacked me.
+
+      He had previously given me my P45 when I had to visit hospital for something less than trivial.
+
+      I am not bitter as it was a really good grounding and I have had my own Computer company ever since.
+
+      He went on to manage Clive sinclairs z88 thing and Byteshop went on to be purchased by another company which still trades.
+  - author: Paul Hindley (uk)
+    date: Friday 10th July 2015
+    text: One of these ran the flight display boards at Manchester Airport. I remember the screen was on top of the Base unit and would wobble. I always felt drunk after using it.
+  - author: Paul Kerry (Scotland)
+    date: Monday 27th October 2014
+    text: |-
+      I have a copy of PCW magazine from 1983 in which the CC was promoted as \*future proof\*.
+
+      I think I''d like to upgrade mine, now. My 5mb HD isn''t particularly power-efficient, the coils which move those disk-heads make my lightbulbs dim !! $)
+  - author: Sarah
+    date: Friday 11th October 2013
+    text: Feels strange seeing this as comart and Kode was my fathers company ....
+  - author: Peter Todd (United Kingdom)
+    date: Wednesday 4th September 2013
+    text: |-
+      Comart Ltd. CP1525M 8086
+
+      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$r79uslEWQj8
+  - author: Peter Todd (UK)
+    date: Wednesday 4th September 2013
+    text: Footage of a Comart CP1525M is here, any information to help with restoration would be welcome - I have the CROSS montior running but no Rodime spinup.
+  oc_id: 759
+  source:
+    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608143122/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=759
+    date: '2023-06-08'
+---
+
+Comart was the computer system group that took over the Byte Shop/Computerland chain when it had financial difficulties in the late 70s. They were a large company distributing [North Star](/museum/northstar-horizon/) systems, and similar equipments. The Communicator was their first effort in distributing a British-made system.
+
+The Communicator is a S-100 bus system based around a main chassis with a 10-slot-mother-board. The system had 64 KB of RAM and came with three variations of dual floppy disk drives.
+
+Several S-100 boards were available. They offered Viewdata/Prestel capabilities, or 18.7 MB hard disk, with 13.4 MB cartridge backup.
+
+The system ran CP/M operating system. A smaller system called **the Educator**, with networking facilities, was also available.
+
+**Chris Coggins** adds:\
+The Communicator was upgraded over several years until the Communicator was given multi-user capability by running MP/M80 but finished off running Intel 386 processors with 512 KB RAM running CCP/M86. Hard disk had grown to 40MB Rodime drive.
+
+David Broad sold Comart to Kode International and 2 years later it lefts it's Cambridgeshire factory and moved to Swindon. The Company went downhill, dropped the S-100 bus to use standard PC architecture but eventually closed.