The K 1840, full name RVS K 1840 (, "computer system with virtual memory") is a

minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of smaller general purpose computers that developed in the mid-1960s and sold at a much lower price than mainframe and mid-size computers from IBM and its direct competitors. In a 1970 survey, ...

from the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Its development began in August 1985 at

VEB VEB may stand for: * Venturing and Emerging Brands, a division of Coca-Cola * Virtual business * Venezuelan , currency of Venezuela between 1879 and 2007, ISO 4217 code VEB * ' (German for "People-owned enterprise"), a state-owned workplace or est ...

Robotron Elektronik in Dresden, and it went into production in 1988.

Minicomputer

The K 1840 minicomputer is a clone of VAX-11/780 from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The export of western

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in 32-bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calculation ...

minicomputers to Comecon countries was forbidden by the CoCom technology embargo. Therefore one was developed locally, using

computer aided design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...

(CAD) technology based on a 32-bit computer architecture. The K 1840 is the first 32-bit computer of the M 32 VAX-compatible minicomputer line. Copies of VAX-11/7xx computers are known also from Czechoslovakia (CM 5152), Hungary (TPA-11/540, 560 and 580), Romania (CORAL 8730) and the Soviet Union (CM 1700). K 1840 has a maximum computing speed of 1.1 MIPS; it can access up to 16

MiB The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

of main memory and up to 4 GiB of virtual memory. The first prototype with the essential core components was introduced in April 1987, and five more were built from then until September 1987. The new computer was presented to the public in October 1987. In 1988 it was awarded the

National Prize of the GDR The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) (german: Nationalpreis der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik) was an award of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, ...

, 1st class, and a gold medal at the

Leipzig spring fair Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. Production started in June 1988 and 217 machines were delivered at a price of 1.9 million Mark up to 1990. While the K 1840 was under development, its successor (the K 1845, based on the VAX-11/785) had already been conceived. The K 1845 was presented to the public at the Leipzig spring fair in 1990. It has a larger main storage capacity (up to 64 MiB) and can handle more bus adaptors and controllers than its predecessor. Twenty prototypes were built. A further successor was contemplated: the K 1850, with a performance of 6 MIPS, using emitter-coupled logic (ECL) gate arrays. Robotron developed a copy of the

MicroVAX II The MicroVAX is a discontinued family of low-cost minicomputers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The first model, the MicroVAX I, was introduced in 1983.(announced October 1983) They used processors that impleme ...

called the K 1820, which reaches approximately 90% of the performance of the K 1840. The K 1820 is fully compatible with the software of the K 1840, so that already-developed system and application software can be used. In mid-1990, production of the K 1840 and K 1845 and all development work stopped, because economical production was not feasible under free-market conditions resulting from the currency, economic and social union of East and West Germany on 1 July 1990, causing the collapse of Robotron's traditional markets in the Soviet Union and

East Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

. There are K 1840s in the Technische Sammlungen Museum in Dresden, in the Konrad-Zuse-Computermuseum in Hoyerswerda and in the

Computer History Museum The Computer History Museum (CHM) is a museum of computer history, located in Mountain View, California. The museum presents stories and artifacts of Silicon Valley and the information age, and explores the computing revolution and its impact on ...

in Mountain View, California, US.Accession Number 102678345 of the Computer History Museum
/ref>

Notes

References

*Dieter Walter:
History of the VEB Robotron Elektronik Dresden
'; PDF in German language *Claus Preussler, Klaus-Dieter Weise:
Compilation of Robotron computer products
'; PDF in German language

External links

* ttp://www.robotrontechnik.de/html/computer/k1840.htm K 1840 at www.robotrontechnik.de
Technische Sammlungen Dresden
{{in lang, de

* ttp://www.computerhistory.org/ The Computer History museum Minicomputers Goods manufactured in East Germany Science and technology in East Germany Computers designed in Germany