Komfort-MUPID (C2A2)

Summary

The MUPID is a videotex terminal from Graz that does more than simply retrieve information. Bildschirmtext (BTX) uses a telephone line and a television to retrieve pages of text and images from a computer network. Graz computer science professor Hermann Maurer recommended introducing BTX to the Austrian Ministry of Science, but called for a programmable, “intelligent” device rather than a simple decoder. The MUPID 1 was presented in Vienna in June 1982; the devices were built in Styria.

The Komfort-MUPID is a small computer with a full keyboard, improved graphics, and built-in BASIC and a text editor. A Z80A processor works with 128 KB RAM, accompanied by a 1200/75-baud modem, a cassette port, a printer interface and an optional floppy disk drive. Data is usually stored at the BTX centres on the network; anything in working memory is lost when the computer is switched off. The postal service rented the devices to customers. The C2D and C2D2 models were available in Germany, and the C2A2 in Austria.

About 50,000 MUPIDs were made in total. More than 800 Austrian notaries used the system into the late 1990s because it was the only way to access the land register electronically. Hermann Maurer saw BTX as anticipating many ideas of the World Wide Web, from email and online games to forums.