Karadawn Advert - January 1982

It's perhaps something of a stretch to claim that yet another Z80, CP/M system was the most advanced available, but here it is, apparently: the Karadawn KD 700, first launched towards the end of 1981.

Looking a little like Intertec's SuperBrain, it did up the spec a little by coming with twin Z80A 4MHz processors, and also offered a mathematical and Greek character set as an option, perhaps positioning it at the scientific end of the market.

It also seemed to be going after the CAD/CAM market with optional high-resolution video, bit-addressable graphics and a light-pen attachment.

Storage was also fairly generous, offering mixed 8" and 5¼" floppies, as well as up to four externally-connected 66MB hard disks, for a decent-at-the-time total of over 260MB of disk space.

Karadawn Ltd itself is another company that has disappeared without trace - all that remains are a few adverts showing the company as selling "microcomputer systems and software" as well as computer components.

This included Rostronics' Z Plus, installed for £4,500, or a complete word-processing system with the Z Plus and Wordstar for £6,950 - that's an impressive £39,600 in 2026.

The advert also claims that KD 700 was somehow manufactured by Karadawn Ltd - a UK company - in Santa Cruz, California, but that probably implies that it was actually an OEM micro.

Anyway, it retailed for £2,750 plus VAT, or around £15,600 in 2026, but was also available for lease at "approximately £20 per week", or £99 now.

It did seem to at least have several distributors, including U-Micro, a company which would become famous for its high-end 68000-based machines.

A pair of adverts from May 1982's Practical Computing showing Karadawn's new Interlink and Interbus systems

Karadawn was back in the spring of 1982 with a couple of new systems that looked very much like Shelton's Sig/Net.

The first was the stand-alone Interlink, which was a Z80-based CP/M machine that came with additional software for mainframe connections. It retailed for £3,500 plus VAT, which is about £19,800 in 2026.

The second was the multi-tasking, multi-user Interbus, which was an S-100-based system that required a plug-in CPU and memory board for each user on the system, which would connect to "most terminals".

This cost £3,750, or about £21,300 now, but that included a terminal. Price per additional user was a "mere" £2,000 plus VAT, which is about £11,400 now.

Karadawn's alternative to Gemini's Multiboard system, as well as a DIY multi-user option. From Practical Computing, May 1982

Karadawn was also selling its own S-100 boards, in a similar way to Gemini Micro's Multiboard setup, from which it was possible to build your own micro.

First up was the KD-80 S-100-based CPU board - complete with a floppy-disk controller, Z80 processor and a 2K ROM monitor - which was apparently a "real flyer" and retailed for £495 plus VAT, which is about £2,820 in 2026.

Intended to go with this was the KD-64 S-100 64K memory board, which together would provide most of what was required to build a complete micro. The KD-64 sold for £450 plus VAT, or £520 (£2,580), although there was also a bundle offer to buy both for £895, a saving of £50.

Finally, it was even possible to build your own budget multi-user system, with the KD-17716 board coming with its own Z80A processor, 64K memory and printer ports for £985 (£5,610).

This would require a "mainframe" S-100 motherboard and power supply for £550 (£3,130) and an operating system of CP/M 2.2, MP/M 2.0 and CP/NET for another £475 plus VAT, or about £2,700 now.

That gives a total cost - host CPU and memory, mainframe and S-100 motherboard, two "slave" Z80 cards, 8" Tandon floppy disk drive, operating system and two £525 terminals - of about £5,100 plus VAT, or around £29,100 now.

That's not actually that bad, when compared to the similar two-user Clenlo Ace, available for £6,580 plus VAT - that's around £37,500 now.