Telesoftware: Home Computing via Broadcast Teletext

Broadcast teletext, as operated by the broadcasting authoriities in the UK has been available as a public service since 1974. As well as being an efficient means of decoding and displaying textual data, it was soon realised that the standard teletext decoder already contained many of the components required for a home computer: it has a character-generator for visual- display; a page-store, and a very convenient numeric keypad for data-entry. With the addition of a few other components, the result is quite a powerful stand-alone computer right inside the TV set. By utilising the teletext system to broadcast programs for such a terminal, a user needs only to select the teletext pages containing a desired program; once this has been read in, it may be loaded and executed by the terminal microprocessor without the need for expensive-storage peripherals, telephone lines or special knowledge by the user.