The machine ran the operating system CP/M and was somewhat unusual in that it used dual Z80 CPUs, the second being used as a disk controller.

There were several variants, including the SuperBrain II (released in 1982), SuperBrain II Jr., "QD" (quad density disk drives) and "SD" (super density) models.

Up to 255 CompuStar workstations could be daisy-chained together via DC-37 "Chaining Adaptor" parallel ports to share the "central disk system" (one of the three hard drive peripheral options below).

Each computer, or VPU (Video Processing Unit), was assigned a unique number from 1 to 255 by setting an eight-position DIP switch.

[1] The brazilian company Prológica introduced the Sistema 700 in 1981, based on the SuperBrain and with similar characteristics.