---
title: Dataman Designs Menta
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- United Kingdom
years:
- '1981'
cpus:
- NEC D780C
params:
  name: Menta
  image: /media/museum/photos/dataman-designs_menta_1_s.jpg
  logo: /media/museum/logos/menta_logo.gif
  company: /companies/dataman-designs
  company_name: Dataman Designs
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: Menta
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Dataman Designs
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: United Kingdom
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1981'
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: Z80 monitor
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Flat membrane keyboard, 40 keys
  - label: CPU
    value: NEC D780C (Z80A clone)
  - label: SPEED
    value: Unknown
  - label: RAM
    value: 1 KB
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: none
  - label: COLORS
    value: 'No'
  - label: SOUND
    value: None
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: Unknown
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: RF TV video output, 24 input/ouput lines, tape interface
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: None
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: External power supply (9V DC tip positive)
  - label: PRICE
    value: 1950 FF (France, Sept.. 1982)
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  photos:
  - title: MENTA
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to Callum for this picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/dataman-designs_menta_1_m.jpg
  - title: ELECTRONIC BOARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to Callum for this picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/dataman-designs_menta_inside_m.jpg
  - title: KEYBOARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to Callum for this picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/dataman-designs_menta_keyboard.jpg
  - title: CPU
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to Callum for this picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/dataman-designs_manta_cpu.jpg
  adverts:
  - title: MENTA & SOFTY ADVERT (FRANCE, SEPT. 82)
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/pubs/dataman-designs_menta_pub_1.jpg
  comments:
  - author: smalc (uk)
    date: Wednesday 16th November 2011
    text: sandy white talks of programming with one of these... .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$MTQv0Yz7eSw
  - author: Colin Camper (UK)
    date: Friday 24th December 2010
    text: I used to have one of these. It displayed a memory in HEX on the TV. You could step through your programs and see what happened to the memory on the display. It could print a hex dump via the serial port (A DIL header). The same header was used for saving/loading programs to tape.
  - author: PeriSoft (USA)
    date: Sunday 20th April 2008
    text: That's got to be one of the ugliest computers I've ever seen.
  oc_id: 1277
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20220930090953/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1277
    date: '2022-09-30'
---

Designed by Barry Savage, the Menta looks like a Sinclair ZX-80 or ZX-81 clone, but it's not. It's rather a development tool and initiation machine based on a Z80A processor. The concept is to help you understand how a Z80A works.

The system itself is very similar to a Sinclair ZX-80 with its flat membrane keyboard. But when you look closer, you notice that the keybord is not quite usual like a QWERTY one for example. It's an hexadecimal one with numbers from 0 to 9 and letters from A to F. All the other keys are marked with Z80 machine language functions and instructions.

Apparently, there is no other language available than the built-in Z80 monitor. It enables you to directly program the Z80A microprocessor via the dedicated keyboard.

There is a RF TV video output to use any television as main display. A tape interface is here to save your work on magnetic tapes. There are even communication possibilities through a 24 i/o line connector.

The Menta is very rare and was only advertised in specialised magazines, next to EPROM programmers.

Indeed the Menta is very similar to its brother: Softy, an E-PROM programmer which used the same plastic case, almost same keyboard and had an E-PROM socket at the left part of the keyboard.

---

**Contributors :** Callum

<table> <tr> <td></td> <td>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.</td> <td></td> </tr> </table>