--- title: COMPUTER DEVICES INCORPORATED Miniterm categories: - Computers types: - Professional Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1980' cpus: - Motorola 6800 params: name: Miniterm image: /media/museum/photos/cdi_miniterm.jpg company: /companies/computer-devices-incorporated company_name: COMPUTER DEVICES INCORPORATED specs: - label: NAME value: Miniterm - label: MANUFACTURER value: Computer Devices Incorporated - label: TYPE value: Professional Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1980' - label: KEYBOARD value: Full-stroke keyboard - label: CPU value: Motorola 6800 - label: RAM value: 32 KB - label: ROM value: About 20 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: Unknown - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: Unknown - label: COLORS value: None - label: SOUND value: Unknown, - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 17 lbs - label: I/O PORTS value: Unknown - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: Mini-cassette - label: OS value: Unknown - label: POWER SUPPLY value: Unknown - label: PERIPHERALS value: 132 column printer, alphanumeric bar-code reader, 1.44 MB disk drive. - label: PRICE value: About $5,000 comments: - author: s00nix (PA, USA) date: Monday 27th June 2022 text: I just picked up one of these, I am going to get it back to its operational condition, however it needs new belts. Anyone know where i could source them? shoot me a message at elitespoon at gmail. - author: Skel (Canada) date: Friday 3rd April 2015 text: Yeah, 1.44MB DOES seems advanced for 1980. I had (and still have) a 80286 in 1989 with one but that was 1989, not 1980... maybe check that? - author: Dave Asmann (PA, USA) date: Friday 28th March 2014 text: My dad was a survey statistician $ the data dept head for Booz Allen $ Hamilton in Philly. He forced them into the computer age during the 60''s $ 70''s. He brought one of these home (Blue/Grey) in 1978. He would telecommute to the Prime mainframe in their office and update his databases via the acoustic coupler. The CDI system in our house had no disk drive, but we had many, many, many microcassettes with all of our basic programs on them. I learned basic on this machine at the age of 7. I can''t tell you how valuable it was to be able to have this available at such a young age. If any of the developers, marketers, sellers of this system read this - thank you. While I am a Mechanical Engineer, I can tackle any programming issue i am faced with thanks to this little system. - author: AtlasSoft (USA) date: Friday 9th December 2005 text: Sounds like it would be an interesting little machine to use... - author: Ben Pazolli (Australia) date: Friday 9th December 2005 text: The article said that you could add a 1.44MB disk drive. Isn't that a bit advance for the 1980s. Can anyone confirm that. - author: Christopher David Farrar (Lyman, Maine) date: Wednesday 5th November 2003 text: This computer was based on the 6800 microprocessor. I had one and an assembler for it on micro cassette. There were two versions. The first was blue and gray and had the microcassette for memory, the second was tan and orange and had bubble memory for storage. The tan one did not have the switch bay across the front. oc_id: 636 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20221205020435/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=636 date: '2022-12-05' --- The "Miniterm" portable computer terminal was the Computer Devices Incorporated's primary product. This "hand-carried" computer was preprogrammed to lead sales, manufacturing, and other untrained in computer operation through data processing tasks. Stored on a minicassette, the program was called up automatically when the computer is switched on. Model 1206/PAT had a 64k processor with 32k RAM and included a modem acoustic coupler, and an 80-column thermal printer that could produce 50 characters per second. Programs were developped in Basic or in Motorola 6800 assembly language on a companion unit. Options included a 132-column printer, alphanumeric bar-code reader, and a 1.44 MB disk drive. --- More information from **Ken Steiner**:\ I was the software guy for this product. It had no display, 80 or 132 column printing, it could print raster graphics using Digital Equipment format. I forget the name of the OS, but it was unusual, even for 6800 standards. It had two different versions of basic - one in ROM that was similar (not as powerful) as in the Apple2, and one called STRUBAL - structured Basic Language. The disk drive was optional. I don't know if any were sold with disk drive, and a few were sold without disk drive.
We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.