website/content/museum/telenova-compis.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Telenova Compis	Computers	Professional Computer	Sweden	1985	Intel 80186	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos links oc_id source Compis /media/museum/photos/compis_telenova.jpg /companies/telenova Telenova label value NAME Compis label value MANUFACTURER Telenova label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN Sweden label value YEAR 1985 label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke separate keyboard with editing and numeric keypads. Built-in speaker and setup data's label value CPU Intel 80186 label value SPEED 8 Mhz label value CO-PROCESSOR 82720 (Graphic), 8087(arithmetic coprocessor), label value RAM 128 kb or 256 kb, expandable to 768 kb label value ROM Unknown label value TEXT MODES 50 x 25, 80 x 25 label value GRAPHIC MODES 640 x 400 (color), 1280 x 800 (monochrome) label value COLORS Monochrom label value SOUND No sound... label value I/O PORTS 2 x RS232C, Monitor, Tape-recorder, Keyboard, 2 x iSBX-bus, Centronics, Analogue In/Out, Network socket, Graphic expansion slot, floppy disk, light pen label value BUILT IN MEDIA Two 5.25'' disk-drives, optional 10 Mb / 60 Mb external hard-disk label value OS CP/M86, UCSD-p, MS-DOS label value POWER SUPPLY Power supply unit is located in the monitor photos links 362 title subtitle text image THE TELENOVA AND ITS PERIPHERALS /media/museum/photos/telenova2.jpg title url text Another Compis page http://www.compis.nu/ Page in swedish with some technical information to download and Compis' links title url text Compis Info! http://compisinfo.googlepages.com/ Preservation of COMPIS with docs, firmware, gallery and software title url text Compis_Lever http://groups.yahoo.com/group/compis_lever/ Yahoo group ! title url text Hogia's PC Museum http://www.hogia.se/pcmuseum/datorer75-84/datorer75-84-sida.htm This museum has a nice page about the Compis (swedish). title url text Telenova Compis page http://WWW.DF.LTH.SE/~pi/compis/ Page in Swedish with some information, online docs and software. title url text Telenova Compis' page http://www.abc80.net/old/ver1/compis/ A page dedicated to the Compis with software, tools and documentation to download (in swedish). 358 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230608090713/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=358 2023-06-08

The Telenova Compis computer was designed to be used in swedish schools. It featured a 80186 cpu and used CP/M 86.

The name "compis" would be a synthesis of the word Computer and the swedish word "kompis", meaning Buddy or mate. It was also a shorting for 'computer i skolan' (computer in school).
The Compis was called Scandis in Norway.

There was a small speaker in the keyboard. On the later models (Compis II) the network identity and other setup-data of the computer were also stored in the keyboard.
Compis II was also capable of running MD-DOS. Some models only had one floppy drive. It had amber monochrome display while the first model had green on black.

Svenska Datorer AB (Swedish Computers AB) went bankrupt shortly after beginning the production of the compis. Further production was taken over by the state-owned Televerket´s company TeleNova that invested large amounts of money in the project.

The following languages were available on disk : Comal, Pascal, Fortran, Cobol.

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Henrik Erlandsson's memories:
This was the computer I grew up with in college in Sweden. Like the Microbee from my high school years, it could be networked. I used that feature to program (in the excellent Pascal compiler, where you could insert assembler code) to my knowledge the first networked Tetris clone, called Fetris. (This was in 1986).
People competing against each other in the computer room caused a lot of loud screams and I remember it actually got some non-nerds hooked on these computers.

There was an excellent word processing package for the Compis which most of the students used for homework assignments. It used the special word processing shortcut keys placed around the arrow keys to great effect.
The computers were networked to a server with a 10 MB (Winchester?) harddisk, of which each student was allotted a 200kb workspace. Wow! :)

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.