Winia Electronics, formerly named Daewoo Electronics, is a South Korean home appliances company and a member of South Korean
Winia Group. Established in 1971, it has since grown into a global business with more than 64 production sites, research and development and sales centres in more than 40 countries worldwide. Daewoo Electronics Sales UK (DESUK) was established in November 1993. It is the third largest electronics firm of South Korea after
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
and
LG. The company manufactures a range of electronics and home appliances also some automotive electronic equipments and accessories by being the
OEM
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
to assist its parent company's motor vehicle subsidiaries
Daewoo Motors which is currently divided among US based Korean automotive manufacturer
GM Korea
GM Korea Company ( ko, 한국지엠주식회사) is the South Korean subsidiary of multinational corporation General Motors. GMK is also the third largest automobile manufacturer in South Korea. GM Korea's roots go back to the former Daewoo Motors ...
&
Tata Daewoo the manufacturer of Daewoo Heavy Diesel Commercial vehicles.
Venture into computers
The Daewoo CPC-300 was a
home computer based on the
MSX standard, and produced by a
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
n company
Daewoo Electronics Co. Ltd. as one of several models of series of MSX computers. It also has the logo IQ 2000 on top of the case.
The computer was made in the form of a keyboard. All the circuits of the computer are in the keyboard case. Two possible color versions exist - black with gray keys, and white with gray and blue keys. Both have a built-in power-supply. This version of an MSX computer does not have a floppy drive, and only one slot for cartridges on the top of the case.
Two varieties of this computer exist - the CPC-300 and the CPC-300E. The CPC-300E is a cut-down version of the CPC-300 for educational purpose, so it doesn't have
joystick port.
The CPC-300 also exists in two regional versions - Korean, and an export version (no information about export variant for CPC-300E is known). The Export version does not have a special name.
Korean version
The keyboard contains symbols of
Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...
and a special key (with the label «Hangul» in hangul), which switches input mode between English and hangul. This key has a
LED indicator (similar to the
CAPS LOCK key).
The power-on
splash screen
A splash screen is a graphical control element consisting of a window containing an image, a logo, and the current version of the software. A splash screen can appear while a game or program is launching. A splash page is an introduction page on a ...
is different from the standard MSX splash screen, and displays the label "IQ 2000" in hangul. In the case of the CPC-300, which does have a
real-time clock
A real-time clock (RTC) is an electronic device (most often in the form of an integrated circuit) that measures the passage of time.
Although the term often refers to the devices in personal computers, servers and embedded systems, RTCs are pr ...
, the current date and time is also shown. After the splash screen, the
MSX BASIC
MSX BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC programming language. It is an extended version of Microsoft's MBASIC Version 4.5, adding support for graphic, music, and various peripherals attached to MSX microcomputers. Generally, MSX BASIC is designed to ...
version screen appears. It contains the labels ''MSX BASIC version 2.0 Copyright 1985 by Microsoft'' (in English) and ''MSX Hangul version 3.00 Copyright 1986 by Daewoo'' (where ''Hangul'' and ''Daewoo'' written in hangul). After that, the MSX BASIC prompt appears on the screen (there is no standard prompt with version strings).
MSX-BASIC on this computer has a special monochromatic high-resolution display mode, for displaying hangul symbols. This mode can be enabled by the command SCREEN 9. Technically, this mode is a software-modified SCREEN 6 mode. So, the
VDP of this computer is a standard
Yamaha V9938
The Yamaha V9938 is a video display processor (VDP) used on the MSX2 home computer, as well as on the Geneve 9640 enhanced TI-99/4A clone and the Tatung Einstein 256. It was also used in a few MSX1 computers, in a configuration with 16kB VRA ...
. The Mode SCREEN 9 in many Korean computers is a reason for rumors that they used a custom VDP, unofficially named the "V9948".
Export version
The keyboard does not have hangul symbols. Instead
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
marks are used. The input mode key in this version does not have an LED and is lettered 'CODE'.
No information about the power-on splash screen for the export version is known.
Technical specifications
These specifications are the same for all versions:
*TV standard:
NTSC
The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...
*Outputs for connection with a TV set or computer display:
**RF modulator output
**Audio and video connector (sound output is mono)
**RGB
**«Monochromatic/Colour» switch
**RF modulator channel switch
*Connectors:
**
Printer
Printer may refer to:
Technology
* Printer (publishing), a person or a company
* Printer (computing), a hardware device
* Optical printer for motion picture films
People
* Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist
* James ...
port
**Cartridge port
**
Tape recorder
An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...
in/out port
*Power supply
voltage
Voltage, also known as electric pressure, electric tension, or (electric) potential difference, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a static electric field, it corresponds to the work needed per unit of charge to ...
: 110/220 V, 60
Hz (voltage switch on the underside of the case)
*Power consumption: 21
W
CPC-300
*
RAM
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* ...
: 128
KB
*
VRAM
Video random access memory (VRAM) is dedicated computer memory used to store the pixels and other graphics data as a framebuffer to be rendered on a computer monitor. This is often different technology than other computer memory, to facilitate b ...
: 128 KB
*Other features:
**Real-time clock with battery backup
**Two
joystick ports
**one
Light pen
A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's cathode-ray tube (CRT) display.
It allows the user to point to displayed objects or draw on the screen in a similar way to a tou ...
port
**A built-in tutorial program called "MSX-TUTOR"
CPC-300E
*RAM: 64 KB
*VRAM: 128 KB
*Other features:
**No real-time clock
**No joystick ports
**No light pen port
MSX-TUTOR
The Korean modification of the CPC-300 has a built-in tutorial program (아이큐 교실 in the Korean language, means "IQ Tutorial"), named MSX-TUTOR. This program starts automatically after the computer powers on. The program can be exited manually by pressing the SELECT key, after that the MSX BASIC prompt appears. To disable MSX-TUTOR, the command SET SYSTEM 1 can be used. This setting is stored in the real-time clock memory. To re-enable MSX-TUTOR the command SET SYSTEM 0 can be used.
The CPC-300E does not have the MSX-TUTOR SET SYSTEM command with any parameter the use of which just causes the message 'Syntax error' to be displayed.
Usage in Russia
A modified version of the Daewoo CPC-300E was one of the types of MSX-computers which were distributed in Russia. At the present time, in some cities, 10-15 new and sealed computers can be found (some owners sell them at Russian online auctions). These computers were a property of some schools. These computers were bought to replace older MSX-based computer in classes which used the
Yamaha YIS503 and
Yamaha YIS805 (Yamaha distributed these computers in the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
during the mid-1980s). For example, the Daewoo-based computers were used in the schools of
Primorsky Krai
Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of t ...
. However, Daewoo computers, used for this purposes, were the standard Korean versions, and they do not contain Russian letters on the keyboard, as Yamaha's models did. Also an English manual is packaged with these computers.
Usage in Iran
Some Refrigerator and TV products such as Daewoo TV DSL-55K5700UL are being sold in Iran since 2018. The other point is selling and buying home appliances from Iranian online stores which is common nowadays.
Acquisitions after bankruptcy
The company's parent company went through a
bankruptcy in 1999 due to the
Asian financial crisis
The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998– ...
. After that, the company was owned completely by a group of creditors. Beside its business of manufacturing consumer goods, it has been contracted by different parties to set up local manufacturing units producing air-conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines. In October 2010, it was announced that the creditor group owning the company is to sell it to an Iran-based electronic company.
After years of trying, in January 2013,
Dongbu Group
DB Group, formerly Dongbu Group, is a large South Korean ''chaebol'' (conglomerate), producing industry, chemical, insurance and financial products. It was established in January 1969 by Junki Kim as Miryung Construction Company, Ltd.
Subsidiari ...
(now known as DB Group) agreed to take over Daewoo Electronics for $270 million in order to attain synergies with DB families (Especially DB Inc., DB Hitek and
Dongbu Steel
KG Steel Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational corporation that produces steel-related and cold-rolled products.
History
In 2013, the Korea Development Bank attempted to restructure the Dongbu Group, but its attempts resulting in slumping ...
). Daewoo Electronics became the family of DB Group by ending its workout status.
In March 2018, Dayou Group (now known as Winia Group) acquired Daewoo Electronics from DB Group.
''Dayyani v. the Republic of Korea''
In November 2010, Iranian company
Entekhab Industrial Group
''Entekhab'' (Persian language, Persian: انتخاب; ''Choice'') was a Persian language newspaper published in Iran between 1991 and 2004. Nevertheless, its news website is active under the name of "Entekhab" (Entekhab.ir) and has turned into on ...
offered to buy Daewoo Electronics from its creditors for $US529 million. Swedish company
Electrolux
Electrolux AB () is a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. It is consistently ranked the world's second largest appliance maker by units sold, after Whirlpool.
Electrolux products sell under a variety ...
also made an offer of $513 million. Entekhab's offer was accepted, and it paid 57 billion won ($US49.67m) as a deposit,
but in June 2011, creditors of Daewoo, led by state-run
Korea Asset Management Corp (KAMCO), cancelled the contract and retained the deposit
after Entekhab missed a scheduled payment and asked for a discount.
KAMCO and other creditors began proceedings to sell the company to
Electrolux
Electrolux AB () is a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. It is consistently ranked the world's second largest appliance maker by units sold, after Whirlpool.
Electrolux products sell under a variety ...
. Entekhab said they viewed the cancellation of the deal as illegal, and said it would take legal action to stop the sale of the company to Electrolux. Entekhab later sought the return of the deposit, but the creditors refused, holding Entekhab responsible for the cancellation.
In 2015, a group of investors led by Mohammed Reza Dayyani, the largest shareholder of Entekhab, began arbitration proceedings at the
International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) is an international arbitration institution established in 1966 for legal dispute resolution and conciliation between international investors and States. ICSID is part of ...
(ICSID) seeking compensation from the South Korean government under the
Iran-South Korea bilateral investment treaty for the investment deposit that they lost, plus interest. In June 2018, the ICSID ruled in favour of Dayyani.
The Korean government appealed to the
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (Englan ...
in England, which in December 2019 denied the appeal. As a result of the ruling, the South Korean government must pay $62.9 million (73.0 billion won) to Dayyani and the other plaintiffs.
Resources
*
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Daewoo
Electronics companies of South Korea
Home appliance brands
Home appliance manufacturers of South Korea
Vacuum cleaner manufacturers
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning companies
Manufacturing companies based in Seoul
Electronics companies established in 1971
Multinational companies headquartered in South Korea
South Korean brands
South Korean companies established in 1971