website/content/museum/dataman-designs-menta.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Dataman Designs Menta	Computers	Professional Computer	United Kingdom	1981	NEC D780C	name image logo company company_name specs tabs photos adverts comments oc_id source Menta /media/museum/photos/dataman-designs_menta_1_s.jpg /media/museum/logos/menta_logo.gif /companies/dataman-designs Dataman Designs label value NAME Menta label value MANUFACTURER Dataman Designs label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR 1981 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE Z80 monitor label value KEYBOARD Flat membrane keyboard, 40 keys label value CPU NEC D780C (Z80A clone) label value SPEED Unknown label value RAM 1 KB label value GRAPHIC MODES none label value COLORS No label value SOUND None label value SIZE / WEIGHT Unknown label value I/O PORTS RF TV video output, 24 input/ouput lines, tape interface label value BUILT IN MEDIA None label value POWER SUPPLY External power supply (9V DC tip positive) label value PRICE 1950 FF (France, Sept.. 1982) photos adverts title subtitle text image MENTA Thanks to Callum for this picture /media/museum/photos/dataman-designs_menta_1_m.jpg title subtitle text image ELECTRONIC BOARD Thanks to Callum for this picture /media/museum/photos/dataman-designs_menta_inside_m.jpg title subtitle text image KEYBOARD Thanks to Callum for this picture /media/museum/photos/dataman-designs_menta_keyboard.jpg title subtitle text image CPU Thanks to Callum for this picture /media/museum/photos/dataman-designs_manta_cpu.jpg title subtitle text image MENTA & SOFTY ADVERT (FRANCE, SEPT. 82) /media/museum/pubs/dataman-designs_menta_pub_1.jpg author date text smalc (uk) Wednesday 16th November 2011 sandy white talks of programming with one of these... .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$MTQv0Yz7eSw author date text Colin Camper (UK) Friday 24th December 2010 I used to have one of these. It displayed a memory in HEX on the TV. You could step through your programs and see what happened to the memory on the display. It could print a hex dump via the serial port (A DIL header). The same header was used for saving/loading programs to tape. author date text PeriSoft (USA) Sunday 20th April 2008 That's got to be one of the ugliest computers I've ever seen. 1277 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20220930090953/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1277 2022-09-30

Designed by Barry Savage, the Menta looks like a Sinclair ZX-80 or ZX-81 clone, but it's not. It's rather a development tool and initiation machine based on a Z80A processor. The concept is to help you understand how a Z80A works.

The system itself is very similar to a Sinclair ZX-80 with its flat membrane keyboard. But when you look closer, you notice that the keybord is not quite usual like a QWERTY one for example. It's an hexadecimal one with numbers from 0 to 9 and letters from A to F. All the other keys are marked with Z80 machine language functions and instructions.

Apparently, there is no other language available than the built-in Z80 monitor. It enables you to directly program the Z80A microprocessor via the dedicated keyboard.

There is a RF TV video output to use any television as main display. A tape interface is here to save your work on magnetic tapes. There are even communication possibilities through a 24 i/o line connector.

The Menta is very rare and was only advertised in specialised magazines, next to EPROM programmers.

Indeed the Menta is very similar to its brother: Softy, an E-PROM programmer which used the same plastic case, almost same keyboard and had an E-PROM socket at the left part of the keyboard.

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Contributors : Callum

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.