The NABU Network (Natural Access to Bi-directional Utilities) was an early home computer system which was linked to a precursor of the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

, operating over cable TV. It operated from 1982 to 1985, primarily in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Canada. Its functionality was then revolutionary, though it was not a commercial success. It has been called "The Internet — 10 years ahead of its time" (even though elements of the

history of the internet The history of the Internet has its origin in information theory and the efforts of scientists and engineers to build and interconnect computer networks. The Internet Protocol Suite, the set of rules used to communicate between networks and de ...

predate it).

Functionality

Families, schools, or individuals would purchase a NABU Personal Computer, which would be connected via cable TV to NABU's servers. In addition to normal PC capabilities of the time, the computer could download software and information content through the cable feed and could upload primitive information back up to the servers. Applications included games, the programming language

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, news/current events, and rudimentary PC banking/shopping. At its peak, approximately 100 applications were available. The NABU Network can be credited as being the first online version of fantasy baseball. The game, aptly named Managers Baseball, allowed for choosing teams based on the real names and statistics of MLB teams and players. Player performance in the game was based on real life player statistics and as a Manager you would draft your team and compete against another owner in a mock up game in a purely managerial role. The NABU Personal Computer cost $950

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, approximately the same price as the wildly successful

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

at the time, and the network service cost $8 to $10 per month. (edit- some records show that the network service subscrpition included the computer.)

Hardware

The heart of a NABU Personal Computer is a

Z80A The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples we ...

processor chip running at 3.58 MHz, 64 KB RAM, a Texas Instruments TMS9918A video chip with 16 KB RAM, and a

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sound chip. Data was served via a Gould SEL

minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of smaller general purpose computers that developed in the mid-1960s and sold at a much lower price than mainframe and mid-size computers from IBM and its direct competitors. In a 1970 survey, ...

. By default, the PCs lacked any individual offline storage, but an optional hard drive could be purchased. The interface module included four socketed chips: a TR1865CL-04, a full-duplex

UART A universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART ) is a computer hardware device for asynchronous serial communication in which the data format and transmission speeds are configurable. It sends data bits one by one, from the least significan ...

, an SC87253P 8-bit

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

, an N8X60N FIFO I/O controller and a pre-programmed

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. The remainder of the parts on the board were numerous 74LS series logic ICs. There was an RF module that down-converted signals from the cable connection and up-converted requests to be sent to the server. There were four circuit boards for frequency synthesis, data in and out and RF conversion and dual helical coil bandpass filters. Download speeds over the cable TV line were up to 6.4 Mbit/second.

Business success

The NABU service first became available in 1983 through Ottawa Cablevision and Skyline Cablevision, through the efforts of John Kelly and Bruce Hempell. The project was heavily subsidized by the Canadian government. A major weakness of the Ottawa network was the strictly one-way connection as it was implemented on Ottawa Cablevision. The NABU system itself was bi-directional, but most cable networks of that era did not support this feature due to the cost required for a bidirectional cable infrastructure — a "chicken and egg" problem that limited NABU's market potential. The fact that network access was limited to the NABU Personal Computer, forcing the subscriber to buy it, was mentioned as problematic by 1984, with the company accumulating $5 million losses. The same year

Campeau Corporation Campeau Corporation was a Canadian real estate development and investment company founded by entrepreneur Robert Campeau. It was infamous from its ultimately unsuccessful acquisitions of American department store holding companies Allied Stor ...

, a major investor in NABU, pulled out. Another network was started in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. However, NABU never achieved commercial success and ceased operation in 1985.

Display at York University Computer Museum

York University Computer Museum
(YUCoM) and Center for the History of Canadian Microcomputing Industry provides a display and a virtual tour of this and other Canadian inventions. In 2009, the museum version was officially demonstrated, and in 2010, the development of a software emulator of the Nabu network began.https://ottawa-future.com/uk/eternal-istoriya-the-nabu-network

References

External links

{{commonscat
Hardware Photos

Play Nabu Game Online
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