website/content/museum/comx-world-operations-ltd-comx-35.md

---
title: COMX WORLD OPERATIONS LTD COMX 35
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Home Computer
origins:
- Hong Kong
years:
- '1983'
cpus:
- RCA CDP-1802A
params:
  name: COMX 35
  image: /media/museum/photos/comx35_rside_1-400px.jpg
  company: /companies/comx-world-operations-ltd
  company_name: COMX WORLD OPERATIONS LTD
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: COMX 35
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: COMX World Operations LTD
  - label: TYPE
    value: Home Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: Hong Kong
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1983'
  - label: END OF PRODUCTION
    value: Unknown
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: COMX Basic
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: |-
      Calculator type keyboard, 55 keys QWERTY\
      Carriage Return (CR), RT, ESC, SHIFT (x2), DEL
  - label: CPU
    value: RCA CDP-1802A
  - label: SPEED
    value: 2,8 MHz
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: 'Video : RCA CDP1869 & CDP1870 chipsets'
  - label: RAM
    value: 32 Kb RAM which are available for BASIC programs
  - label: VRAM
    value: 3 Kb CMOS static RAM
  - label: ROM
    value: 16 Kb
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 40 columns x 24 lines. 64 upper case ASCII characters
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: None, but 64 user programmable graphical characters
  - label: COLORS
    value: '8'
  - label: SOUND
    value: 1 channel synthesiser - 8 octaves, 16 volume steps and special effects + white noise generator
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: 29 (W) x 16 (D) x 4.5 (H) cm
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: Tape, Monitor, 44-pin Bus expansion
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: None
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: 9V ac 500 mA external power supply unit / center positive - -(o- +
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: Expansion box, floppy disk-drives, printers, 80-column card, RAM expansion
  - label: PRICE
    value: £130 (UK, june 1983)
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  - software
  - emulators
  - links
  forum_thread: 124
  photos:
  - title: COMX-35
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: EXPLODED VIEW
    subtitle: ''
    text: Copyright Olivier Boisseau / old-computers.com
    image: /media/museum/photos/comx35_assemblage_1.jpg
  - title: WHITE MODEL
    subtitle: ''
    text: Even rarer ?!
    image: /media/museum/photos/comx35_white_1.jpg
  - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/comx_35_keyboard_1.jpg
  - title: COMX 35 BOX
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/comx_35_box_1.jpg
  - title: PC1 BOX
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/comx_pc1_box_s1.jpg
  adverts:
  - title: UK ADVERT (1983)
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to Nosher.net for this advert
    image: /media/museum/pubs/comx35_pub_pcw_1983-06_021_alsycomx35-m.jpg
  - title: SWEDISH ADVERT
    subtitle: ''
    text: The COMX-35 was sold by Noxon in Sweden.
    image: /media/museum/pubs/comx35_noxon_pub_1.jpg
  - title: SAVLA PC1 ADVERT
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      The COMX PC1 was also marketed as the Savla PC1 in India !

      Thanks to HereBeDragons for this picture
    image: /media/museum/pubs/savla-pc1_comx35.jpg
  emulators:
  - title: 1802 Emulator
    url: http://www.comxclub.hobby-site.com/
    platform: Windows
    text: Beta version of COMX and 1802 Emulator running on windows
  - title: RCS Elf Emulator
    url: http://www.elf-emulation.com/
    platform: Unix / Linux
    text: Beta version of a COMX emulator for Unix/Linux (Windows compilation available)
  links:
  - title: Comx 35 - Your Computer review from 1983
    url: http://www.gondolin.org.uk/hchof/reviews/yc-comx35.html
    text: The title says it all
  - title: COMX club - Nederland
    url: http://www.comxclub.hobby-site.com/
    text: Simple page with contacts of the Club
  software:
  - /software/get-your-gadget
  oc_id: 110
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230606203800/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=110
    date: '2023-06-06'
---

The COMX 35 is a computer designed and manufactured in Hong-Kong by COMX World Operations LTD. The computer is based on an RCA CDP-1802A processor running at 2.8 MHz. The machine contains a total of 35 kB of memory of which 32 kB can be used by the user.

This computer is quite oscbure, and little is known about its history, particularly in Honk-Kong.

It was desgined and manufactured in Hong Kong by **COMX WORLD OPERATIONS LIMITED**. It was also sold in Sweden by Noxon AB, and in the UK by ALSY Computers Ltd, but it is in the Netherlands that he had most success (at least for Europe concerns).

The company that imported the COMX-35 to the Netherlands, West Electronics, supplied almost all of COMX software for free and copyright-free (or for a small fee for tape, disc and / or shipping). West Electronics also hosted several homemade software competitions, resulting in the fact that most software found today for the COMX-35 are actually in dutch.

There is no graphic mode, but user definable characters can be used to simulate graphics. The sound features are poor as there is only one single channel beeper. You can hear it when pressing a key. The Basic is very simple, with not a lot of specific statements, since there is not much to play with...

The keyboard is said to be waterproof (can someone test that for us ?) and used goldplated contacts under the keys (if you've got one, you are rich :-)). There is a built-in joystick to the right of the keyboard (very easy to break), a bit like on the [Spectravideo SV-318](/museum/spectravideo-sv-318/). And just above it, is the power Led.

Different hardware extensions were made available, including an expansion box allowing 4 extension cards to be connected simultaneous. Cards were available to connect floppy disk drives, printers (parallel, serial and thermal) and an 80 column monitor. A 32K RAM extension was available as well, however the additional RAM was not usable or supported by COMX BASIC.

The chosen CPU, the RCA CPD-1802, was also used in the RCA Studio 2 videogame system and a development/hobby systems using Chip-8, like the [Cosmac RCA VIP](/museum/rca-cosmac-vip/). This 8-bit processor is still being manufactured in many forms, as it is radiation-resistant. It was also used as the heart of the Voyager, Viking and Galileo probes !

The COMX-35 is black but can also be found in a white case. This model is rarer than the black one.

The COMX-35 did have a successor: the **COMX-PC1**. This was just a COMX-35 in a different housing and better keyboard. This PC1 was also sold as the Savla PC1 in India!

The design of the COMX-35 is quite similar to the Pecom 64 and the Telmac 600, even the BASIC is based on the same code as these computers. All 3 were based on Quest Super BASIC.

The COMX Basic is interesting and has some original features such as TIME and TIMOUT functions. TIME(X) can be used to start a clock and when X units of time has elapsed, the TIMOUT Y is used to jump to a subroutine beginning with the line number Y. Pretty neat !!

---

Thanks to www.homecomputermuseum.nl, ww.comxclub.hobby-site.com and www.emma02.hobby-site.com for some of the info.