How did the computer evolve across the iron curtain?

ByDaniel Antal

During the Cold War that lasted from 1945 to 1989, the Soviet Union (Soviet Union) controlled the Communist regime of Eastern European countries and established a fence made of iron wire at the western border of eastern Germany · Czechoslovakia · Hungary · Yugoslavia Banned between the borders. Under the control of the Soviet Union with diplomatic ties with the capitalist camp, computer which is indispensable for modern society seems to have developed its own development, was born in Czechoslovakia right beneath the Cold War and was immersed in computerMartin MalýHe is clarifying.

Home Computers Behind The Iron Curtain | Hackaday
http://hackaday.com/2014/12/15/home-computers-behind-the-iron-curtain/

British former Prime Minister Churchill expressed the posture of the Soviet Union against capitalist camps America and Western European countries as "iron curtains" and is used as a word expressing the tension of the Cold War since then. Czechoslovakia in the Cold War era, located on the east side of the iron curtain, was a socialist republic who was deeply influenced by the Soviet Union as an ally, although it was not included in the Soviet Republic.

According to Malý, the Soviet Union said that the academic "birth" that was born after the Second World WarCyberneticsCriticized as "similar science of bourgeois" used to control humans with machines, but later he understood the importance of computers in science and military and started developing computers in Eastern European countries.

In Czechoslovakia where Mr. Malý was born, "TeslaThere was a company named the company. Tesla manufactures a variety of electronic equipment from semiconductors to record players and TVs, so to speak, it is a Czech comprehensive electrical equipment manufacturer. The interesting thing that Tesla sold was "JPR-1Computer called.


JPR - 1 is a single - board computer with 8224 and 8228 chipset and memory, and what is interesting is that JPR - 1 's designer has the same model drawingPrinted boardAs "Amatérské RádioWhat was published in a magazine called "Magazine." According to Malý, the Communist government permitted the disclosure of computer details was surprising given the political system at the time, and it can be seen that the government needed an engineer in the background.

Tesla is equipped with an LED display for computers / calculators "PMI-80"Upgraded PMI - 80 and 32 KB RAM · 16 KB VRAM · Keyboard - equipped"PMD 85-1"64 KB RAM ·" keyboard mounted "Ondra"We released the computer for home, but due to the terribly high price of Czech - Slovakia 's average salary at the time of 6 months, it was not distributed at ordinary households, but facilities such as schools, factories, laboratories were purchasing It was a fact.

This is PMI-80


PMD 85-1 which upgraded PMI-80


Tesla's Ondra


However, it is not so if computers were not popular in the general households of Czechoslovakia. At that time general households went in from West Germany, Australia, the UK with non-regular routes and individual importsSinclair ResearchYaAtariThere was a computer circulating. Sinclair Research's "ZX Spectrum"And Atari's"800 XL"The price is an average salary for a month, about a sixth of Tesla's computer. Also, Sharp's "MZ-800"May be on the market, and othersCommodoreofAmigaYaAtari STComputer such as computer appeared in the market, but it seems that there was only a thing that was imported individually, not a regular route.

Import computers that were distributed from non-regular routes are not necessarily accompanied by manuals, so even if they are said to be for home, they are buying geeky people in modern times. People who purchased imported computers seemed to have acquired overseas computer magazines and books and learned how to operate, among Maly's friends are Atari 800XL and the instruction manual of CPU "6502"DisassemblerSome people studied codes and code tables while trial and error using only software.


On the other hand, there is no software shop in Czechoslovakia in the Cold War era, so we had to smuggle from Western Europe countries to get the software. However, while it was difficult to obtain software, the owner of the computer had toBASICIt is necessary to study, as a result, many programmers grew. However, it is forbidden to sell even if studying programming and developing software by yourself, and in 1989 only the person who obtained the license license finally allowed to sell your own software.

In 1989 the Berlin Wall collapsed and the Cold War began to close and the iron curtain disappeared. In the Czechoslovakia since the Cold War, purchasing of hardware and software began at the general household level, and gradually filled the gap of the IT industry that was opened up in Eastern Europe and America. Mr. Malý, who grew up in such an environment, is currently working as an IT consultant at a Czech newspaper company with programming as a hobby and would like to expect to reveal precious stories about IT in the Cold War era is.