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Robotrontechnik-Forum » Technische Diskussionen » Once upon a time... » Themenansicht

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000
31.12.2012, 16:32 Uhr
Micha

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bin gerade dabei, in einem US Forum auf Anfrage die Geschichte meines K1000 Nachbaus zu erzählen. Naja, und da ist eben auch einiges an Hintergrundgeschichte zum Thema Robotron in Kurzform zusammengerafft. Dachte ich protokolliere das hier mal mit - falls jemand ernsthafte Einwände zu der Geschichte hat.

K1000uC – A Hobby Project

Part1: History

Once upon a time in Eastern Germany... there was a company named Robotron. In that country they were kind of a monopolist – the almost only company making everything in the range from pocket calculators to mainframe computers. From mid 70's they started activities into the new field of microprocessors. The first attempt was of limited success. It was a fully pin-compatible replication of the Intel 8008 processor named U808. It soon turned out that building systems around this microprocessor required a fortune of additional hardware. The results were 'hardware monsters'. But even some of them were still impressive – for instance a ticket machine for train stations where you could choose and purchase your ticket interactively – that was pure ScienceFiction at that time! – and these ticket machines remained in practical operation for a number of years.
Another cool application of the U808 processor was the K1000 desktop calculator family – the main subject of this thread.
Robotron had inherited some of the traditional German manufacturers of high quality electro-mechanical devices such as Rheinmetall-Borsig Sömmerda. They used the U808 still for a number of years as basis for their accounting machines.
For practical reasons the U808 had a short livetime. Quickly the decision makers at Robotron had realized the Intel 8008 was not a good choice – and they switched to a replication of the Zilog Z80 processor which they called the U880. From today's perspective that was a really wise decision. The Z80 was not just a microprocessor but there was an entire family of highly integrated peripheral chips that allowed to design computer systems around that microprocessor with much less generic hardware. Guess I do not have to tell you guys much about the advantages of the Z80 architecture

Dieser Beitrag wurde am 31.12.2012 um 17:17 Uhr von Micha editiert.

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001
31.12.2012, 16:42 Uhr
Rüdiger
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Allein 30.000 Stück des U808 wurden in den Sömmerdaer Kleinfakturierautomaten 1711 verbaut und das 8 Jahre lang. Von begrenztem Erfolg kann man da also nicht sprechen.
--
Kernel panic: Out of swap space.

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002
31.12.2012, 17:18 Uhr
Micha

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ok, ich hab versucht den Einwand so aufzufangen. Hoffe das ist ok:

Robotron had inherited some of the traditional German manufacturers of high quality electro-mechanical devices such as Rheinmetall-Borsig Sömmerda. They used the U808 still for a number of years as basis for their accounting machines.

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003
31.12.2012, 19:42 Uhr
Micha

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Part2: Robotron K1000

The Robotron K1000 was a Family of Desk Calculators built around the Robotron U808 microprocessor (Intel U8008). Atttributed as „Kleinstcomputer“ (tiny computer) they actually weighted about 45 lbs and had dimensions of 23x17x7 inches. The weight came mainly from the cast aluminium chasis and the power supply unit.
The device has an impressive look - somewhat like a war tank. Its other main attributes: it is a terribly slow calculator, but it features high precision numerics.
The K1000 family actually consisted of the members:
K1001 – programmable desk calculator
K1002 – programmable desk calculator with magnet card reader
K1003 – programmable desk calculator with magnet card reader and thermo printer

The K1000's closest relative is probably the HP-9810, but the K1000 is by no means a clone of it or of anything else. It features a maximum of either 3992 program steps or 242 data registers – 8 program steps can be negotiated for one data register. It has some advanced capabilites such as indirect memory adressing, symbolic labels, alphanumeric printing.
Because of their numeric accuracy the K1000 calculators were fairly popular at Engineering Companies or Engineering Departments of bigger Companies.

Dieser Beitrag wurde am 31.12.2012 um 20:24 Uhr von Micha editiert.

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004
31.12.2012, 20:57 Uhr
kaiOr

war tank in strawberry field ^^

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005
31.12.2012, 21:24 Uhr
ggrohmann

Zitat:

kaiOr schrieb
war tank in strawberry field ^^

Zum Wohl

Ich glaube, diese Decke hat echten Wiedererkennungswert, die war auch schon mal auf einem Bild mit den Nachbauten.

Guido

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006
31.12.2012, 21:52 Uhr
Micha

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die "war" nicht nur, die "wird sein" - ich erzähl doch hier gerade nur die Vorgeschichte zu dem Projekt

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