Wanted: ICL Comet 2000

The ICL Comet 2000 was the first serial produced Danish micro-computer, only less than a 100 was produced, and it was so faulty that the company behind ended up buying most of them back and replacing them with a never model, the ones not bought back was upgraded and the few left over have disappeared into the void of time.

For this reason we are on searching for anybody who might have or have had one of these, we are both interested in original and modified systems. 

So please contact me if you, or someone you know, might be in possession of:

  • Hardware or software from the machine or the machine itself.
  • Stories, pictures or printouts in regards to this machine.
  • Marketing materials, newspaper cutouts or anything else.

Origin

Development of the machine was started in 1977 by the engineer Mogens Pelle and was first released as a series of articles in a Danish DYI electronics magazine, these article where discovered by the inventor of the Danish programming language Børge Christensen, who contacted Mogens Pelle and convinced him that this machine needed to go into commercial production in order to supply Danish schools with cheap computers.

So in late summer 1979 the first batch where produced in corporation witch ICL Denmark and HH Electronics and rolled out to customers, only around 100 where made and already in 1980 the design where scrapped in favor of a new design made by HH Electronics.

Mogens Pelle also decided to launch a successor named “Butler, meaning this system effectively had two different succeeding machines, but it also had a very  short live which is probably why it have been so hard for us to find it.

So far we have seen it in a sales posting on the Internet from 2006, it was sold to “a collector on Funen“, meaning it’s probably there and being taken good care of, which is nice to know – but we would like to find this collector.

We also seen / heard about it in relations to several schools all around the country, but it was presumable most popular in Southern Jutland, but we also have picture from a school in the capital region who used these machines.

Technology

About meThe system was a relatively simple Zilog Z80 based machine using the Danish Programming language as its Operating System, routines where added so the built in Phillips Mini-Casettestation would be accessible like an ordinary floppy drive would be, just _very_ slowly.

  • Processor: Zilog Z80 @1Mhz
  • Memory: 32kb
  • Video output: Composite out
  • Monitor: Modified television (tv-tuner removed for tax and customs rebate)
  • Storage medium: Phillips Mini-Casettestaton.
 
If you know or have _ANYTHING_ please contact me, don’t think that what you have might be worthless, I’d rather have to many inquiries than to little!
ICL Comet 2000

Note: All information on this site is based on on-going research and might change with no warning in the future.