The MUPID (short for "Mehrzweck Universell Programmierbarer Intelligenter Decoder" in German) or MUPID A320 was an early
home computer like system introduced in 1981, designed and invented by
Hermann Maurer
Hermann Adolf Maurer (born April 26, 1941) is an Austrian computer scientist, serving as Professor of Computer Science at the Graz University of Technology. He has supervised over 40 dissertations, written more than 20 books and over 600 scienti ...
at
TU Graz
Graz University of Technology (german: link=no, Technische Universität Graz, short ''TU Graz'') is one of five universities in Styria, Austria. It was founded in 1811 by Archduke John of Austria and is the oldest science and technology research ...
,
Austria to be used as a
Bildschirmtext terminal, but it was also capable of being used as a stand-alone computer.
It had a
Zilog Z80 microprocessor and came with
BASIC
BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...
as operating system, 128 KB of
RAM, a V.24 1200/75
baud
In telecommunication and electronics, baud (; symbol: Bd) is a common unit of measurement of symbol rate, which is one of the components that determine the speed of communication over a data channel.
It is the unit for symbol rate or modulatio ...
modem, audio input/output for
tape recorder, a
parallel printer interface and an optional external
floppy drive unit. At the time it excelled in having advanced color graphic capabilities.
There were several model variations: the MUPID C2D (square case with separate
keyboard) and MUPID C2D2 were available in
Germany, the MUPID C2A2 or "Komfort MUPID" (later models) were available in Austria.
The Mupid was also sold under other brands, as the
Grundig PTC 100 (C2D2 variation in a different color) and the
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
T3110 (C2D variation).
A card for older
IBM PC compatibles with an
ISA slot
Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) is the 16-bit internal bus of IBM PC/AT and similar computers based on the Intel 80286 and its immediate successors during the 1980s. The bus was (largely) backward compatible with the 8-bit bus of the 808 ...
was developed that gave a PC the same graphics capabilities as a MUPID.
File:Mupid.jpg, Mupid A320 keyboard and decoder (red)
File:Btx-Museum 1 mupid Btx-Decoder C2D mit Tastatur C2D-Keyboard 13.jpg, MUPID C2D
File:Btx-Museum 1 mupid Btx-Decoder C2D mit Tastatur C2D-Keyboard 01.jpg, MUPID C2D decoder
File:Btx-Museum 1 mupid Btx-Decoder C2D mit Tastatur C2D-Keyboard 07.jpg, MUPID C2D keyboard
File:Btx-Museum 1 mupid Btx-Decoder C2D mit Tastatur C2D-Keyboard 15.jpg, MUPID C2D display
File:Btx-Museum 4 mupid Btx-Decoder C2A2 13.jpg, Mupid C2A2
File:Mupid C2A2 (left angle view) (Thomas Conté).jpg, Mupid C2A2 keyboard
File:Btx-Museum 5 - MUPID floppy disk drive 01.jpg, Mupid C2A2 disc drive
File:Btx-Museum 56 Siemens (mupid) Btx-Decoder T3110 mit Tastatur 12.jpg, Siemens T3110
File:Btx-Museum 56 Siemens (mupid) Btx-Decoder T3110 mit Tastatur 01.jpg, Siemens T3110 decoder
File:Btx-Museum 56 Siemens (mupid) Btx-Decoder T3110 mit Tastatur 07.jpg, Siemens T3110 keyboard
File:Btx-Museum 56 Siemens (mupid) Btx-Decoder T3110 mit Tastatur 14.jpg, Siemens T3110 display
The original Mupid A320 was followed in 1983 by the MUPID II.
This version supported the CEPT
Prestel standard, had a better keyboard, a 320 × 240 graphics mode, four voice sound, two
DIN6 joystick connectors, a
DIN8 tape interface, a
DB25 modem, a
DE9 serial connector and a DIN8 external disk drive connector.
References
Home computers
Videotex
Telecommunications in Germany
Z80-based home computers
{{Videotex