yann64andClaude Opus 5.5
b274874139
1,289 discussions, 9,527 archived comments; pages no longer carry the comments themselves. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
72 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
72 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: COMART Communicator
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categories:
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- Computers
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types:
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- Professional Computer
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origins:
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- United Kingdom
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years:
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- '1979'
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cpus:
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- Z80-A
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params:
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name: Communicator
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image: /media/museum/photos/comart_communicator_system_1.jpg
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company: /companies/comart
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company_name: COMART
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specs:
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- label: NAME
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value: Communicator
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- label: MANUFACTURER
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value: Comart
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- label: TYPE
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value: Professional Computer
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- label: ORIGIN
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value: United Kingdom
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- label: YEAR
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value: '1979'
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- label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
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value: None
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- label: KEYBOARD
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value: Serial video terminal
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- label: CPU
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value: Z80-A
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- label: SPEED
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value: Unknown
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- label: RAM
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value: 64 KB
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- label: TEXT MODES
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value: Depends on the video terminal used
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- label: I/O PORTS
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value: 2 x Serial RS-232
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- label: BUILT IN MEDIA
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value: 2 x 5.25'' floppy disc drives - 190 KB, 390 KB or 790 KB each
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- label: OS
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value: CP/M
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- label: POWER SUPPLY
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value: Built-in power supply unit
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- label: PERIPHERALS
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value: S-100 boards
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- label: PRICE
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value: $3500
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forum_thread: 742
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oc_id: 759
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source:
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url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608143122/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=759
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date: '2023-06-08'
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---
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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.
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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.
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Several S-100 boards were available. They offered Viewdata/Prestel capabilities, or 18.7 MB hard disk, with 13.4 MB cartridge backup.
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The system ran CP/M operating system. A smaller system called **the Educator**, with networking facilities, was also available.
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**Chris Coggins** adds:\
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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.
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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.
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