Intertec Advert - September 1983

Intertec - based in Columbia, South Carolina, US - had been founded as a terminal manufacturer in 1973. It then launched its Z80-based SuperBrain micro in 1979, which seemed to be everywhere throughout the early 1980s.

That ubiquity was despite the company not actually advertising much directly, at least in the UK, where like Commodore in the US it seemed to leave advertising almost entirely to its resellers.

Even when it did advertise, it clearly couldn't be arsed that much with internationalisation, mentioning "dollar for dollar", "dollar value" and "labor" in the main advert which appeared in the UK's Personal Computer World.

An earlier advert for the SuperBrain, via one of its distributors - KGB Micros of Slough. In 1980 it was selling for £1,720 - about £10,400 in 2024 money. From Personal Computer World, October 1980

The advert's not actually for the SuperBrain, but is largely to promote its extended warranty, compared to the usual three months for other manufacturers.

It does however also feature Intertec's CompuStar - a machine which was essentially an early network "server" which supported up to 255 users.

Unlike conventional multi-user systems at the time, the processing power wan't concentrated in a single central micro, but instead each user had their own "intelligent terminal" with its own CPU and 64K memory.

The company managed to survive - through a period where it had shed all but 12 of its empoyees - until 1986, where it re-branded itself as Wells American.

By 1988 it was selling a completely new CompuStar range of IBM compatibles^[1], but it had been late to the IBM party and never really recovered, filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1991.