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KC85
The KC 85 ('KC' meaning "Kleincomputer", or "small computer") were models of microcomputers built in East Germany, first in 1984 by VEB Robotron (the KC 85/1) and later by VEB Mikroelektronik "Wilhelm Pieck" Mühlhausen (KC 85/2, KC 85/3 and KC 85/4). Due to demand by institutions and enterprises exceeding supply, KC 85 systems were virtually unavailable for sale to private customers. Technical information They were based on the U880 CPU (an East German clone of the Z80), with clock speeds of 1.75 and 2 MHz. There was a single 8867 kHz crystal oscillating at twice the PAL chrominance frequency and a divide-by-10, multiply-by-16 phase locked loop was used to derive a 14.2 MHz clock from which the pixel clock (7.1 MHz) and processor clock (1.77 MHz) was derived by division by 2 and 8, respectively (KC85/2, KC85/3 and KC85/4 used the same circuit for this purpose, since the digital to analog video conversion PCB where the clock generation was situated did ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt
VEB Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt was an important manufacturer of active electronic components in East Germany. It should not be confused with the more well-known VEB Kombinat Robotron Dresden which used integrated circuits from Kombinat Mikroelektronik in its computers. Their products often carried the trademark RFT, but this was used on most electronic products from East Germany from otherwise unrelated companies. History The Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt was formed in 1978 when the ''VVB Bauelemente und Vakuumtechnik'' was split into ''VEB Kombinat Elektronische Bauelemente Teltow'' for passive electronic components and ''VEB Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt'' for active electronic components. However, the history of many of the individual plants reaches back further, in some cases to before the Second World War. In 1971 the first integrated circuits had been manufactured — the D100C (TTL) by Halbleiterwerk Frankfurt (Oder) and the U101D (PMOS logic) by Funkwerk Er ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robotron KC 87
The Robotron KC 87, fully known as the Kleincomputer robotron KC 87 (''KC'' standing for ''Kleincomputer'', lit. "small computer"), was an 8-bit home computer released in 1986 and produced in East Germany by the VEB Robotron-Meßelektronik "Otto Schön" Dresden, part of the Kombinat Robotron. The first model in the series, the Robotron Z 9001, was introduced in 1984 and renamed Robotron KC 85/1 in 1985. Despite similar names, the Robotron home computers were not directly related to the KC 85 series produced by the VEB Mikroelektronik "Wilhelm Pieck" Mühlhausen. The availability of the Robotron KC series for private customers was very limited. The computers were mostly used at educational institutions, organizations, and enterprises. Therefore, the extracurricular use of home computers was often allowed for students at institutions and organizations. Design The Robotron KC series used an U880 microprocessor, a clone of the Zilog Z80, which was clocked at 2.5 MHz. The ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VEB Robotron
VEB Kombinat Robotron (or simply Robotron) was the biggest East German electronics manufacturer. It was based in Dresden and employed 68,000 people (1989). It produced personal computers, SM EVM minicomputers, the ESER mainframe computers, several computer peripherals as well as home computers, radios, television sets and other items including the cookie press ''Kleingebäckpresse Typ 102''. Divisions Robotron managed several different divisions: *VEB Robotron-Elektronik Dresden (headquarters) — typewriters, personal computers, minicomputers, mainframes *VEB Robotron-Meßelektronik Dresden — measurement and testing devices, home computers *VEB Robotron-Projekt Dresden — software department *VEB Robotron-Buchungsmaschinenwerk Karl-Marx-Stadt — personal computers, floppy disk drives *VEB Robotron-Elektronik Hoyerswerda — monitors, power supply units *VEB Robotron-Elektronik Radeberg — mainframes, radio receivers, portable television recei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zilog Z80
The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples were delivered in March 1976, and it was officially introduced on the market in July 1976. With the revenue from the Z80, the company built its own chip factories and grew to over a thousand employees over the following two years. The Zilog Z80 is a software-compatible extension and enhancement of the Intel 8080 and, like it, was mainly aimed at embedded systems. Although used in that role, the Z80 also became one of the most widely used CPUs in desktop computers and home computers from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. It was also common in military applications, musical equipment such as synthesizers (like the Roland Jupiter-8), and coin-operated arcade games of the late 1970s and early 1980s, including '' Pac-Man''. Zilog licensed the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assembly Language
In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture's machine code instructions. Assembly language usually has one statement per machine instruction (1:1), but constants, comments, assembler directives, symbolic labels of, e.g., memory locations, registers, and macros are generally also supported. The first assembly code in which a language is used to represent machine code instructions is found in Kathleen and Andrew Donald Booth's 1947 work, ''Coding for A.R.C.''. Assembly code is converted into executable machine code by a utility program referred to as an ''assembler''. The term "assembler" is generally attributed to Wilkes, Wheeler and Gill in their 1951 book ''The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudographics
Text-based semigraphics or pseudographics is a primitive method used in early text mode video hardware to emulate raster graphics without having to implement the logic for such a display mode. There are two different ways to accomplish the emulation of raster graphics. The first one is to create a low-resolution all points addressable mode using a set of special characters with all binary combinations of a certain subdivision matrix of the text mode character size; this method is referred to as block graphics, or sometimes mosaic graphics. The second one is to use special shapes instead of glyphs (letters and figures) that appear as if drawn in raster graphics mode, sometimes referred to as semi- or pseudo-graphics; an important example of this is box-drawing characters. Semigraphical characters (including some block elements) are still incorporated into the BIOS of any VGA compatible video card, so any PC can display these characters from the moment it is turned on, even whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mullard
Mullard Limited was a British manufacturer of electronic components. The Mullard Radio Valve Co. Ltd. of Southfields, London, was founded in 1920 by Captain Stanley R. Mullard, who had previously designed thermionic valves for the Admiralty before becoming managing director of the Z Electric Lamp Co. The company soon moved to Hammersmith, London and then in 1923 to Balham, London. The head office in later years was Mullard House at 1–19 Torrington Place, Bloomsbury, now part of University College London. Start-up In 1921, the directors were Sir Ralph Ashton (chairman), Basil Binyon of the Radio Communication Co, C.F. Elwell and S.R. Mullard (Managing Director). Partnership with Philips In 1923, to meet the technical demands of the newly formed BBC, Mullard formed a partnership with the Dutch manufacturer Philips. The valves (vacuum tubes) produced in this period were named with the prefix PM, for Philips-Mullard, beginning with the PM3 and PM4 in 1926. Mullard fina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pravetz Series 8
Pravets or Pravetz ( bg, Правец, also transliterated as Pravec, ) is a town in Pravets Municipality in central western Bulgaria, located approximately from the capital Sofia. Pravets is home town of Pravetz computers. Pravets has a population of 4,512 people. Mountains surround it, which allows for a mild climate with rare winds. In the outskirts there is an artificial lake used for fishing and recreation. The town is the birthplace of Bulgaria's longtime communist President Todor Zhivkov. The first microprocessor factory in Bulgaria established in Pravets. The computers produced there, which were among the first in Bulgaria, were named Pravetz. Today, the town is most famous for its Computers and technology systems high school and the RIU golf resort complex. There is also a language high school by the name of Aleko Konstantinov. It prepares many students who continue their undergraduate education in Bulgaria, England, the US, Germany, and France. The Professional Comput ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Read-only Memory
Read-only memory (ROM) is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be electronically modified after the manufacture of the memory device. Read-only memory is useful for storing software that is rarely changed during the life of the system, also known as firmware. Software applications (like video games) for programmable devices can be distributed as plug-in cartridges containing ROM. Strictly speaking, ''read-only memory'' refers to memory that is hard-wired, such as diode matrix or a mask ROM integrated circuit (IC), which cannot be electronically changed after manufacture. Although discrete circuits can be altered in principle, through the addition of bodge wires and/or the removal or replacement of components, ICs cannot. Correction of errors, or updates to the software, require new devices to be manufactured and to replace the installed device. Floating-gate ROM semiconductor memory in the form of erasab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forth (programming Language)
Forth is a procedural, stack-oriented programming language and interactive environment designed by Charles H. "Chuck" Moore and first used by other programmers in 1970. Although not an acronym, the language's name in its early years was often spelled in all capital letters as ''FORTH''. The FORTH-79 and FORTH-83 implementations, which were not written by Moore, became de facto standards, and an official standardization of the language was published in 1994 as ANS Forth. A wide range of Forth derivatives existed before and after ANS Forth. Forth typically combines a compiler with an integrated command shell, where the user interacts via subroutines called ''words''. Words can be defined, tested, redefined, and debugged without recompiling or restarting the whole program. All syntactic elements, including variables and basic operators, are defined as words. A stack is used to pass parameters between words, leading to a Reverse Polish Notation style. For much of Forth's existe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BASIC
BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College in 1963. They wanted to enable students in non-scientific fields to use computers. At the time, nearly all computers required writing custom software, which only scientists and mathematicians tended to learn. In addition to the program language, Kemeny and Kurtz developed the Dartmouth Time Sharing System (DTSS), which allowed multiple users to edit and run BASIC programs simultaneously on remote terminals. This general model became very popular on minicomputer systems like the PDP-11 and Data General Nova in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hewlett-Packard produced an entire computer line for this method of operation, introducing the HP2000 series in the late 1960s and continuing sales into the 1980s. Many early video games trace their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
