Datamax Computer Systems was an Australian computer manufacturer operating from Manly, Sydney during the 1980’s.
A Datamax 8000 was the first computer we had at our house. It was a massive machine that commanded/demanded two 8 inch floppy disks and was interfaced through a terminal connected to a serial port. Our family was really productive on this system. With a printer, Wordstar and other applications, Dad managed his business and mum and I used it for our school and uni work. We also had a 300 bps modem and I spent hours calling bulletin boards and learning how to get computers connected to each other and transferring data.
I thought I’d start this post to commemorate this Australian computer manufacturer that was based in a very popular beachside suburb and also 30km from my house. Please post any stories or references to this company and its products.
Cheers, Josh.
- Datamax Pty Ltd
- 34-40 Central Avenue, Manly, NSW
- ACN: 001 964 941
- Registration date: 26/08/1980
- Founded by Mr Chin Kwong
Datamax 8000
The best and most recent reference is the Datamax 8000 Repository at the Microbee Software Preservation Project
https://microbee-mspp.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1822
- CPU: Z80 @4MHz (??)
- Memory: 64KB RAM
- Storage: two 8inch floppy drives
- Operating System: CP/M
- serial connected terminal
- additional serial port for modem
- printer port
Photos from flickr:
Datamax 186
- Multi-user (1-10 terminals)
- 80186 CPU
- 512KB RAM, expandable to 1MB
Screenshots from Your Computer Australia December 1985:
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There’s a press release article on page 91 of this pdf
ETI Australia October 1981
Retail price $6000
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Thank you so much for sharing Josh! Hope to see you back at ACMS soon!
Adrian
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I remember using CP/M on my Amstrad as a kid, although all I could do with it was run LOGO.
I thought the Datamax looked like a nice little machine until I realised those were 8-inch drives. It must have been quite a weighty unit!
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Thanks for the lead. I had a broader search around https://worldradiohistory.com/ and came up with a full-page ad for the Datamax 8000 from the previous month… and priced “under $4500”:
ETI Australia September 1981 magazine pdf
The other article I found comes from January 1988 and introduces us to a new Datamax product: DECATASK. Rather than manufacturing the whole computer system, this is a serial multiplexer expansion card that installs into an MS-DOS system. Probably an ISA expansion card.
Looking back, it seems to me, there was no way they could have sustained being competitive at manufacturing whole computers and the ecosystem was anyhow standardising on x86 and MS-DOS. I guess they would also have had UNIX as a competitor. This product looks like Datamax adapting.
I wonder if the man in the photo is the company’s founder, Mr Chin Kwong, proudly presenting his new expansion card?
ETI Australia January 1988 magazine pdf
There is a typo in the company name in the first paragraph. The rest of the references get it correct and the phone number given at the end matches other Datamax phone numbers.
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Here’s a few more references to Datamax:
- There is a Datamax 8000 emulator/driver for MAME:
- ASIC Organisations & Business Names search
- Name: DATAMAX PTY LTD
- ACN: 001 964 941
- Registration date: 26/08/1980
- Parliament of Australia
- I recalled that years ago I got a search result from Hansard so I searched here and found 37 matches for “Datamax”: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/summary/summary.w3p;orderBy=customrank;page=0;query=datamax;resCount=Default
- The relevances were as a supplier to government and exporter
- Most of the matches refer to newspaper articles and list the publication and issue but do not show the actual article due to “Copyright restrictions prevent us from showing you the contents of this document.”
- A document titled “Contracts for small computer systems”, dated 02-07-1986, lists Datamax Pty Ltd as a successful tenderer, one of “Thirty-four firms have been selected to supply the main categories of computing systems and a further seven firms will supply peripheral items.”
- The complete entry for Datamax reads: “Datamax Pty Ltd for Desk top computers, Multi-user systems , monitors and printers”
- Press Clipping example:
- Title: Manly firm looks to China for expansion
- Source: Sydney Morning Herald
- Date: 01-01-1983
- The final reference is more tenuous but I couldn’t discount it: “COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U., INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS, Number 3467”
This note announces a possible new delta Scuti variable discovered in
a photometric survey near the declination 40.
The Cassegrain focus of the 0.6-m reflector at Xinglong Station of
Beijing Observatory was used for this survey. The star light passes through
the Johnson’s V filter which consists of BG12(1mm) + GG13(4mm) filters and
enters a photoelectric photometer in DC mode (Shi et al.,1987). The signal
is then real-timely recorded by a micro-computer DATAMAX-8000, which can
also display the observed light curve at any time and print out the
observed data.
- Pros and cons for this reference:
- Pro: Datamax 8000 micro computer is specifically mentioned. I haven’t found any references to a similarly named computer during the relevant time period (80s, early 90s). Considering the economic development stage of China at the time, technology wasn’t refreshed at the frequency of today, a machine from 1983 that did the job would have been left to do the job. So it’s plausible that it was still running in 1990. I know of a Datamax 8000 that, last I heard in 2024, was still operational.
- There was a contemporary Datamax UV-1 but I see no links to China, astronomy or a micro-computer model 8000.
- Pro: based on the application, the computer was capable of the task. Whilst I had no experience of graphics on a CP/M system, there were graphics capabilities and an observatory would likely have had access to that, probably a pre-requisite. It’s not clear from the note whether the “display(ed)… light curves” were text or graphics. The graphs (light curves) in the note look like printed dot-matrix graphics.
- Pro: the note is announced by the Beijing Observatory. The founder of Datamax Pty Ltd has a Chinese heritage and there are references to export to China (see above)
- Con: the above evidence is circumstantial
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