website/content/museum/comart-communicator.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
COMART Communicator	Computers	Professional Computer	United Kingdom	1979	Z80-A	name company company_name specs comments oc_id source Communicator /companies/comart COMART label value NAME Communicator label value MANUFACTURER Comart label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR 1979 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE None label value KEYBOARD Serial video terminal label value CPU Z80-A label value SPEED Unknown label value RAM 64 KB label value TEXT MODES Depends on the video terminal used label value I/O PORTS 2 x Serial RS-232 label value BUILT IN MEDIA 2 x 5.25'' floppy disc drives - 190 KB, 390 KB or 790 KB each label value OS CP/M label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit label value PERIPHERALS S-100 boards label value PRICE $3500 author date text Mike Arnold (United Kingdom) Wednesday 8th December 2021 I used to sell Comart and Cromemco in the 1980s. Still have some Comart parts in the attic somewhere. Much prefer Cromemco though and still have a working system from them. author date text Stacey (United Kingdom) Saturday 14th November 2020 So weird. The man in this photo is my dad. He died 3 years ago and I miss him so much. I''d love to know who Sarah is... author date text Ross (United Kingdom) Monday 2nd March 2020 Does anyone have any bootable software for the Communicator please? author date text John Adams (UK) Monday 23rd May 2016 I worked in Byeshiop Manchester we sold these along side North Star Commodore Pet, Apple II, Sharp Mz80k vic20 and Cromemco. I still have a Communicator with 10Mb hard drive, I think it will end up at Bletchley as they said $ it off. I fell out with them somewhat after I set up sale to Kellogg''s to weight the frosties packets instead of them buying a harris mini, then when the guy came round to discuss the sale I was told to make the tea. I said to the young lad who worked Saturdays that I thought I should set up on my own, he told the owner who sacked me. He had previously given me my P45 when I had to visit hospital for something less than trivial. I am not bitter as it was a really good grounding and I have had my own Computer company ever since. He went on to manage Clive sinclairs z88 thing and Byteshop went on to be purchased by another company which still trades. author date text Paul Hindley (uk) Friday 10th July 2015 One of these ran the flight display boards at Manchester Airport. I remember the screen was on top of the Base unit and would wobble. I always felt drunk after using it. author date text Paul Kerry (Scotland) Monday 27th October 2014 I have a copy of PCW magazine from 1983 in which the CC was promoted as *future proof*. I think I''d like to upgrade mine, now. My 5mb HD isn''t particularly power-efficient, the coils which move those disk-heads make my lightbulbs dim !! $) author date text Sarah Friday 11th October 2013 Feels strange seeing this as comart and Kode was my fathers company .... author date text Peter Todd (United Kingdom) Wednesday 4th September 2013 Comart Ltd. CP1525M 8086 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$r79uslEWQj8 author date text Peter Todd (UK) Wednesday 4th September 2013 Footage of a Comart CP1525M is here, any information to help with restoration would be welcome - I have the CROSS montior running but no Rodime spinup. 759 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230608143122/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=759 2023-06-08

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 systems, and similar equipments. The Communicator was their first effort in distributing a British-made system.

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.

Several S-100 boards were available. They offered Viewdata/Prestel capabilities, or 18.7 MB hard disk, with 13.4 MB cartridge backup.

The system ran CP/M operating system. A smaller system called the Educator, with networking facilities, was also available.

Chris Coggins adds:
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.

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.