website/content/museum/polycorp-poly-1-educational-computer.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
POLYCORP Poly 1 Educational Computer	Computers	Professional Computer	New Zealand	1981	Motorola 6809	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos emulators links oc_id source Poly 1 Educational Computer /media/museum/photos/polycorp_poly1_1s.jpg /companies/polycorp POLYCORP label value NAME Poly 1 Educational Computer label value MANUFACTURER Polycorp label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN New Zealand label value YEAR 1981 label value END OF PRODUCTION 1989 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE BASIC interpreter + text editor label value KEYBOARD Full QWERTY keyboard + function keys label value CPU Motorola 6809 label value SPEED 1 MHz or 4 MHz (Unconfirmed) label value RAM 64 KB label value VRAM 2 x 240x204 Display pages or\ 1 x 480x204 Display page – 48K\ 2 Text screens – 2K label value ROM 16 KB BASIC + 4 KB BIOS label value TEXT MODES Display 1 - 40x24 Text\ Display 3 - 40x24 TeleText label value GRAPHIC MODES Displays 2 & 4 – 240x204\ Display 5 – 480x204 label value COLORS 16 label value SOUND Clock chip (Unknown specs) label value SIZE / WEIGHT Big & heavy label value I/O PORTS DIN Network connector label value BUILT IN MEDIA Proprietary Networking System to a CP/M based server (no internal storage) label value OS FLEX label value POWER SUPPLY Internal label value PERIPHERALS None label value PRICE ~NZ$4000 photos emulators links 1235 title subtitle text image POLY 1 EDUCATIONAL COMPUTER /media/museum/photos/polycorp_poly1_1.jpg title url platform text Poly and Proteus emulator http://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/homepages/andrew/poly/Poly.htm Windows Emulates the Poly, Proteus, and Epson MX-80 Printer. title url text The Poly Preservation Project http://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/homepages/andrew/poly/Poly.htm 1269 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230601001859/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1269 2023-06-01

The Poly was a home/educational computer platform developed in New Zealand in the early 1980s. It was marketed to schools, but because it was prohibitively expensive and somewhat idiosyncratic, the main customers seem to have been the Australian Army and somebody in China.

Perhaps its most remarkable feature was its ability for networking, which seems to have used a protocol all of its own. For a year or two it may have been the most network capable home computer in the world, before 3Com thought to make Ethernet cards for the Apple II.

It was named after Wellington Polytechnic, where it was developed.

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Contributor: Tony Thompson

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.