Vojislav "Voja" Antonić ( sr-cyr, Воја Антонић, ʾ, 12 July 1952) is a Serbian inventor, journalist, and writer. He is known for creating a build-it-yourself home computer Galaksija and originating a related "Build your own computer Galaksija" initiative with Dejan Ristanović. This initiative encouraged and enlightened thousands of computer enthusiasts during the 1980s in the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

. Antonić has donated many of his personal creations to the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

. He was also a magazine editor and contributed to a number of radio shows.

Biography

While in school, Voja Antonić found a passion for

HAM radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communica ...

s. He obtained a licence and a callsign to broadcast his own waves. One day, the state police seized all CB Band units known to operate in the country, creating a new trend for HAM radio units which bored Voja Antonić who decided to move on towards new digital technologies. His first creation with a microprocessor was

Conway's Game of Life The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no furthe ...

machine which shows its state using 16x16 matrix of red

LEDs A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

. Without a computer, Voja Antonić wrote the code on paper and operated the input in the system byte by byte using rotary switches. LEDs being expensive back then, it took him months to buy and install the last LEDs. A replica of his machine reportedly worked flawlessly almost continuously for 40 years. When personal computers arrived on the market, they were not accessible in Yugoslavia. Voja Antonić asked a friend in the USA to disassemble a

TRS-80 Model I The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of ''T ...

and send it to him and received it labelled as "technical junk". He received it, reassembled it, and started his new computer passion. While studying at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in the late 1970s, he started to build computer systems capable of rendering animations. Prior to the Winter of 1981/1982, the Skiing Federation of

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

timed the competitors using regular

stopwatch A stopwatch is a timepiece designed to measure the amount of time that elapses between its activation and deactivation. A large digital version of a stopwatch designed for viewing at a distance, as in a sports stadium, is called a stop clock. ...

es and hand signaling. The upcoming Balkan competition required this to be improved and more precise. In 1981, Antonić created a small, battery powered computer packed together with liquid crystal display, printer and keyboard in

Samsonite Samsonite International S.A. () is an American premium luggage manufacturer and retailer, with products ranging from large suitcases to small toiletries bags and briefcases. The company was founded in Denver, Colorado, United States. Its r ...

suitcases. Over the years five different models were built, named from "Arbitar" to "Arbitar 5", and were used for many years. In 1982, he designed an alarm system for Elektronika inženjering. While on holiday in

Risan Risan ( Montenegrin: Рисан, ) is a town in the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro. It traces its origins to the ancient settlement of Rhizon, the oldest settlement in the Bay of Kotor. Lying in the innermost portion of the bay, the settlement was pro ...

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

in 1983, Antonić learned of the interesting way to have the CPU generate video signal, using an Zilog Z80A microprocessor instead of the more expensive traditional graphics card. When he returned home, he tested the idea; the result was a cheaper build-it-yourself computer with a more simplified design. Near the same time that Antonić made his discovery, Dejan Ristanović, a computer programmer and journalist was entrusted with preparing a special edition of the ''Galaksija'' magazine that would be focused on home computers. Antonić initially thought about publishing his information in the popular ''SAM magazine'' in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

but after becoming acquainted with Ristanović, the two collaborated and published the Galaksija computer's diagram in a special issue entitled ''Računari u vašoj kući'' (''Computers in your home''). Antonić and Ristanović guesstimated that around a thousand people would try to build the computer by themselves, given that the magazine's circulation was 30,000. Some 8,000 people wound up ordering the build-it-yourself kits from Antonić. Antonić essentially released Galaksija to

and never required any compensation for it. He wanted it to be a project anyone can undertake and received only the compensation for writing the magazine ''article'' itself, not the computer. In 1983, his friend

Zoran Modli Zoran Modli (Serbian Cyrillic: Зоран Модли, 22 April 1948 – 23 February 2020) was a Serbian journalist, radio disc jockey, and aviator. He was one of the most popular Yugoslav radio personalities, running one of the most notable radio ...

launched a new section on his national radio show focused on microcomputers. Since data coding was performed in audio range (to fit the format of compact cassettes), Voja Antonić and his radio host friend started using the radio waves to transfer computer-generated data, their own online wireless technology of the predigital age. In 1991, when war broke out in Yugoslavia, Voja Antonić was taken to a remote quarter to be checked by the military. Confessing he was a computer engineer, he was asked to repair an old Apple II, which he did in a day. This earned him the favors of the military forces. During this period, he joined several anti-war and anti- Milošević campaigns, writing articles against terror. In 1995, while going through a difficult time in his life, he threw away almost all of his projects, including the documentation and five prototypes of the Galaksija microcomputer, as interest in ''Galaksija'' waned. In 1999, Voja Antonić created a

logic analyzer A logic analyzer is an electronic instrument that captures and displays multiple signals from a digital system or digital circuit. A logic analyzer may convert the captured data into timing diagrams, protocol decodes, state machine traces, a ...

, probe, serial interface receiver and

frequency counter A frequency counter is an electronic instrument, or component of one, that is used for measuring frequency. Frequency counters usually measure the number of cycles of oscillation, or pulses per second in a periodic electronic signal. Such an instr ...

device based on

Microchip Technology Microchip Technology Inc. is a publicly-listed American corporation that manufactures microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and Flash-IP integrated circuits. Its products include microcontrollers ( PIC, dsPIC, AVR and SAM), Serial EEPROM ...

PIC16F84 microcontroller. It eventually became Microchip's Application Note 689 (AN689) but was subsequently removed. Microchip explained that Yugoslavia was facing an embargo from the USA, making it impossible to promote his technology worldwide. Although the work was published, the only compensation asked by Voja Antonić, a Microchip in-circuit emulator MPLAB-ICE 1000, was never sent to Antonić. In 2006, Microchip restored the Application Note 689 and delivered a In-Circuit Debuggers to Voja Antonić. He donated a copy of the Galaksija to the Muzej Nauke i Tehnike (Museum of Science and Technology) in Belgrade. Antonić currently resides in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Publications

;Print books * ''Do Nonexistent Things Exist: A Guide to Critical Thinking'' ("Da li postoje stvari koje ne postoje – vodič za kritičko razmišljanje") * ''Non-Prophecy from Kremna: A Study of Deception'' ("Kremansko neproročanstvo: studija jedne obmane") * ''Madman's house'' ("Ludakova Kuća") ;Online books * ''Patents that Won't Change the World'' (only available in Serbian, free online) ;Short stories Voja Antonić wrote a number of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

for his appearances in "Modulacije" (eng. ''Modulations'') radio show hosted by

. He personally read them during live public broadcasts.

References

External links

Official website

The "Engineer's Assistant"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antonic, Voja Computer hardware engineers Serbian journalists Serbian male short story writers Serbian short story writers Serbian male essayists Serbian magazine editors Science journalists Serbian technology writers Serbian inventors Galaksija (computer) 1952 births Living people Writers from Šabac