Compunet
Encyclopedia
Compunet was a United Kingdom based interactive service provider, catering primarily for the Commodore 64
but later for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST
. It was also known by its users as CNet.
It ran from 1984 before closing down in May 1993.
allowed users to quickly download a set of pages, then disconnect from the service in order to read them, thus saving on telephone costs.
The user interface
used a horizontally scrolling menu system, known as the "duck shoot", and navigation was essentially "select and click" with the ability to jump directly to pages with the use of keywords
. Content could be voted upon by the users.
The service had many features which were considerably ahead of its time, especially when compared to the Internet
of today:
The server hosted Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) (by Richard Bartle
),
Federation, and Realm. The first two of these games continue to run on the Internet
today.
Games creator Jeff Minter
and musician Rob Hubbard
, along with various members of the demo scene, had a presence on the network.
UK decided to construct a nationwide computer network for the use of teachers. The Commodore PET
computer had been very successful. Nick Green developed the specification of what became PETNET with David Parkinson and Mike Bolley of Ariadne Software in The Albany pub
(see "PETNET - data transmission system" in "Microcomputers in education" ed Dr I.C.H. Smith 1982 John Wiley ISBN 0-85312-424-8).
In the Summer of 1982 Keith Hall of Commodore secured the money to commission the prototype which was run on an ADP DEC-10 machine. Ariadne Software wrote the software in 6502 Assembler for the client and FORTRAN for the host. The X25 packet protocol was modified to provide error correction for all file transfers. At ADP's suggestion reliable uploading was achieved by using temporary file names which were changed to user file names when the last byte had been correctly received by the host. Nick Green sought partners who could provide local call access and Host facilities. Alan Carmichael, Graham Craigie and Robert Foot of ADP joined the project.
Around this time the BBC Micro
was released and gained enormous popularity within the UK education system. Commodore's 64 was seen as the "more bangs per buck" American alternative. PETNET became Compunet which was aimed to support consumer and educational users.
Nick Green specified a secure modem based on the Viewdata chip set and the assembly language client software was ported into the modem
and bundled with the Commodore 1541
disk drive. After the first year Commodore was bought out and Compunet Teleservices Ltd became an independent company.
ADP provided the initial DEC-10 mainframe, as well as the local-access dial-up points. But this was very expensive and a scheduled migration to a VME bus based multi-micro machine was successfully undertaken. New local dial-up points were provided by ISTEL
(on their Fastrak network). After a management buy out ISTEL was sold to AT&T. This led to the failure of ISTEL technical support and an upgrade of local access to 2400/2400 baud. The best efforts of Ariadne and Compunet staffers Jason Gold and Mark Clarke came to nothing as the English legal system failed to protect Compunet's contracts. This meant a higher cost nationwide rate call for most users. A third move of the Compunet Host to Camden in North London was undertaken with Nick Green now board chair and MD.
By this time client software was ported to the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST
and a teletype compatible version of the service using BBS
scrolling text was introduced aimed at integration with the Internet and PCs.
Compunet ceased trading in May 1993, when the company went into receivership for non-payment of VAT
after the sudden short illness and death of Jim Chalmers, their sole practitioner accountant. He was negotiating a VAT refund at the time. Immediate barrister intervention failed despite £250,000 of debt asset.
Typical off-peak charges would be £0.80UKP per hour.
Premium services incurred additional charges, which required the user to first place money in their account. These services included:
, Compunet provided a custom 1200/75 baud
modem
(affectionately known as the "brick") which utilised the machine's cartridge port. As well as the usual modem features, the device had a custom ROM
which contained the rudiments of the software required to access the service. This software could be updated automatically upon connection to the service.
Out of the box, the modem was unable to connect to standard Bulletin board
systems unless an optional software package was purchased.
The modem
was programmed with a unique ID. This allowed it to work as a dongle
to help prevent piracy
of protected software.
The custom nature of the technology hindered Compunet to a degree. The graphical design was very much keyed into the Commodore 64's graphical capabilities. Although this was more powerful than the Viewdata
systems such as Prestel
, it meant porting
was difficult. However, software was later made available for the Amiga
(1987) and Atari ST
(1988). A PC
version was developed in-house but never made publicly available.
The Amiga
and Atari ST
versions both emulated the graphics and interface of the original Commodore 64
. However, the PC
version was teletype in nature, utilising Kermit
for file transfers.
Specification:
When ADP announced it was to shut down its DEC-10 network in Great Portland Street, Central London, Nick Green then consultant to Compunet and Mark Clarke (ex Commodore guru) researched closely coupled multi-micro architectures. Compunet was rewritten in C and migrated to a VME rack configured by Cambridge Micro Computers in the Park Royal Industrial Estate. It ran under OS-9
with a single 25 MHz master board.
Specification:
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
but later for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
. It was also known by its users as CNet.
It ran from 1984 before closing down in May 1993.
Overview
Compunet hosted a wide range of content, and users were permitted to create their own sections within which they could upload their own graphics, articles and software. A custom editor existed in which the "frames" that made up the pages could be created either offline or when connected to the service. The editor's cacheCache
In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
allowed users to quickly download a set of pages, then disconnect from the service in order to read them, thus saving on telephone costs.
The user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
used a horizontally scrolling menu system, known as the "duck shoot", and navigation was essentially "select and click" with the ability to jump directly to pages with the use of keywords
Keywords
Keywords are the words that are used to reveal the internal structure of an author's reasoning. While they are used primarily for rhetoric, they are also used in a strictly grammatical sense for structural composition, reasoning, and comprehension...
. Content could be voted upon by the users.
The service had many features which were considerably ahead of its time, especially when compared to the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
of today:
- Pricing of content (Optional. Users could price their own content).
- Voting on content quality.
- "Upload anywhere" of content: programs, graphics and text (Unless a section was protected).
- Software could be dongleDongleA software protection dongle is a small piece of hardware that plugs into an electrical connector on a computer and serves as an electronic "key" for a piece of software; the program will only run when the dongle is plugged in...
protected (the custom modemModemA modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
doubled as the dongle in this instance). - WYSIWYGWYSIWYGWYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...
editing of content. - Chat room (known as Partyline), which allowed users to create their own rooms (similar principles have been shown in IRC).
The server hosted Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) (by Richard Bartle
Richard Bartle
Richard Allan Bartle is a British writer, professor and game researcher, best known for being the co-creator of MUD1 and the author of the seminal Designing Virtual Worlds. He is one of the pioneers of the massively multiplayer online game industry.-Life and career:Bartle received a Ph.D...
),
Federation, and Realm. The first two of these games continue to run on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
today.
Games creator Jeff Minter
Jeff Minter
Jeff 'Yak' Minter is a British computer/video game designer and programmer. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and his recent works include Neon , a non-game music visualization program that has been built into the Xbox 360 console, and the video games Space Giraffe , and Space Invaders...
and musician Rob Hubbard
Rob Hubbard
Rob Hubbard is a music composer best known for his composition of computer game theme music, especially for microcomputers of the 1980s such as the Commodore 64...
, along with various members of the demo scene, had a presence on the network.
History
In 1982, CommodoreCommodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...
UK decided to construct a nationwide computer network for the use of teachers. The Commodore PET
Commodore PET
The Commodore PET was a home/personal computer produced from 1977 by Commodore International...
computer had been very successful. Nick Green developed the specification of what became PETNET with David Parkinson and Mike Bolley of Ariadne Software in The Albany pub
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
(see "PETNET - data transmission system" in "Microcomputers in education" ed Dr I.C.H. Smith 1982 John Wiley ISBN 0-85312-424-8).
In the Summer of 1982 Keith Hall of Commodore secured the money to commission the prototype which was run on an ADP DEC-10 machine. Ariadne Software wrote the software in 6502 Assembler for the client and FORTRAN for the host. The X25 packet protocol was modified to provide error correction for all file transfers. At ADP's suggestion reliable uploading was achieved by using temporary file names which were changed to user file names when the last byte had been correctly received by the host. Nick Green sought partners who could provide local call access and Host facilities. Alan Carmichael, Graham Craigie and Robert Foot of ADP joined the project.
Around this time the BBC Micro
BBC Micro
The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...
was released and gained enormous popularity within the UK education system. Commodore's 64 was seen as the "more bangs per buck" American alternative. PETNET became Compunet which was aimed to support consumer and educational users.
Nick Green specified a secure modem based on the Viewdata chip set and the assembly language client software was ported into the modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
and bundled with the Commodore 1541
Commodore 1541
The Commodore 1541 , made by Commodore International, was the best-known floppy disk drive for the Commodore 64 home computer. The 1541 was a single-sided 170 kilobyte drive for 5¼" disks...
disk drive. After the first year Commodore was bought out and Compunet Teleservices Ltd became an independent company.
ADP provided the initial DEC-10 mainframe, as well as the local-access dial-up points. But this was very expensive and a scheduled migration to a VME bus based multi-micro machine was successfully undertaken. New local dial-up points were provided by ISTEL
ISTEL
ISTEL, formerly BL Systems, and latterly AT&T Istel, was a British information technology company.-History:The company was formed in 1979 as BL Systems Limited through a merger of the computer departments of various automotive manufacturing companies brought together under the British Leyland ...
(on their Fastrak network). After a management buy out ISTEL was sold to AT&T. This led to the failure of ISTEL technical support and an upgrade of local access to 2400/2400 baud. The best efforts of Ariadne and Compunet staffers Jason Gold and Mark Clarke came to nothing as the English legal system failed to protect Compunet's contracts. This meant a higher cost nationwide rate call for most users. A third move of the Compunet Host to Camden in North London was undertaken with Nick Green now board chair and MD.
By this time client software was ported to the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
and a teletype compatible version of the service using BBS
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
scrolling text was introduced aimed at integration with the Internet and PCs.
Compunet ceased trading in May 1993, when the company went into receivership for non-payment of VAT
Vat
Vat or VAT may refer to:* A type of container such as a barrel, storage tank, or tub, often constructed of welded sheet stainless steel, and used for holding, storing, and processing liquids such as milk, wine, and beer...
after the sudden short illness and death of Jim Chalmers, their sole practitioner accountant. He was negotiating a VAT refund at the time. Immediate barrister intervention failed despite £250,000 of debt asset.
Subscription model
Compunet charged a quarterly subscription, and telephone call costs were in addition to this.Typical off-peak charges would be £0.80UKP per hour.
Premium services incurred additional charges, which required the user to first place money in their account. These services included:
- Private e-mailE-mailElectronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
(some free quota was provided). - Uploading content.
- Custom banners.
- Customised user name (instead of, for example, 'abc3').
- Access to chat and gaming services.
Client
For the Commodore 64Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, Compunet provided a custom 1200/75 baud
Baud
In telecommunications and electronics, baud is synonymous to symbols per second or pulses per second. It is the unit of symbol rate, also known as baud rate or modulation rate; the number of distinct symbol changes made to the transmission medium per second in a digitally modulated signal or a...
modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
(affectionately known as the "brick") which utilised the machine's cartridge port. As well as the usual modem features, the device had a custom ROM
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
which contained the rudiments of the software required to access the service. This software could be updated automatically upon connection to the service.
Out of the box, the modem was unable to connect to standard Bulletin board
Bulletin board
A bulletin board is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise things to buy or sell, announce events, or provide information...
systems unless an optional software package was purchased.
The modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
was programmed with a unique ID. This allowed it to work as a dongle
Dongle
A software protection dongle is a small piece of hardware that plugs into an electrical connector on a computer and serves as an electronic "key" for a piece of software; the program will only run when the dongle is plugged in...
to help prevent piracy
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
of protected software.
The custom nature of the technology hindered Compunet to a degree. The graphical design was very much keyed into the Commodore 64's graphical capabilities. Although this was more powerful than the Viewdata
Viewdata
Viewdata is a Videotex implementation. It is a type of information retrieval service in which a subscriber can access a remote database via a common carrier channel, request data and receive requested data on a video display over a separate channel. Samuel Fedida was credited as inventor of the...
systems such as Prestel
Prestel
Prestel , the brand name for the UK Post Office's Viewdata technology, was an interactive videotex system developed during the late 1970s and commercially launched in 1979...
, it meant porting
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
was difficult. However, software was later made available for the Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
(1987) and Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
(1988). A PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
version was developed in-house but never made publicly available.
The Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
and Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
versions both emulated the graphics and interface of the original Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
. However, the PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
version was teletype in nature, utilising Kermit
Kermit (protocol)
Kermit is a computer file transfer/management protocol and a set of communications software tools primarily used in the early years of personal computing in the 1980s; it provides a consistent approach to file transfer, terminal emulation, script programming, and character set conversion across...
for file transfers.
Server
The host server was a DEC-10 at launch, which ran Compunet as a time-slice. ADP provided the mainframe, as well as the local dial-up points, which allowed users all over the country access for the cost of a local telephone call.Specification:
- 1 megaword 36 bit RAMRam-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
(upgraded for Compunet). - £50,000 per month running costs (including the local-rate telephone call facilities).
- Compunet host software written in FortranFortranFortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
, by Ariadne Software and further developed by Robert Foot with chat and real-time user and management accounting.
When ADP announced it was to shut down its DEC-10 network in Great Portland Street, Central London, Nick Green then consultant to Compunet and Mark Clarke (ex Commodore guru) researched closely coupled multi-micro architectures. Compunet was rewritten in C and migrated to a VME rack configured by Cambridge Micro Computers in the Park Royal Industrial Estate. It ran under OS-9
OS-9
OS-9 is a family of real-time, process-based, multitasking, multi-user, Unix-like operating systems, developed in the 1980s, originally by Microware Systems Corporation for the Motorola 6809 microprocessor. It is currently owned by RadiSys Corporation....
with a single 25 MHz master board.
Specification:
- VME bus.
- 1 x 6820 for disk access.
- 10 megabytes RAMRam-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
. - 4 x 200 megabyte hard disks for storage.
- 3 x 6810s (5 megabytes RAM each) for communications.
- 52 simultaneous connections.
Trivia
- The company behind Compunet's full name was Compunet Teleservices Ltd.
- The Stafford Beer Viable System ModelViable System ModelThe viable systems model, or VSM is a model of the organisational structure of any viable or autonomous system. A viable system is any system organised in such a way as to meet the demands of surviving in the changing environment. One of the prime features of systems that survive is that they are...
inspired the design. System Five: the encrypted identity, System Four: user editing, System Three and recursion: the Host side and System Two as user and management accounting.
- The client software was originally intentioned to scrollScrollA scroll is a roll of parchment, papyrus, or paper, which has been drawn or written upon.Scroll may also refer to:*Scroll , the decoratively curved end of the pegbox of string instruments such as violins...
(as opposed to having frame oriented screens- like Viewdata or teletext). However, this could not be achieved on the Commodore PETCommodore PETThe Commodore PET was a home/personal computer produced from 1977 by Commodore International...
due to interruptInterruptIn computing, an interrupt is an asynchronous signal indicating the need for attention or a synchronous event in software indicating the need for a change in execution....
clashes with the 300 baud acoustic modem. Multi-User games and the (never publicly released) PC client did feature scrolling, however.
- Richard Bartle's Multi User Dungeons (MUD)MUDA MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...
was ported to ADP's DEC 10 by implementing a BCPL compiler. It was the world's first commercial multi-user game.
- Nick Green, chairman of Compunet at the time of the service ceasing, commented that BT (who ran the underlying telephone lines) took four times the amount of money from Compunet's users than Compunet did itself.
Sources
- Article: "CNET - Moving with the times"
- Direct discussion with Nick Green (ex-Chairman of Compunet).