Compunet - History

History

In 1982, Commodore 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. Compunet culture was covered in the first issue of Commodore Disk User, which shipped software on its cover disk.

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.