The Pravetz 8 and 16 were the first computers I ever saw and used on school. We programmed in Basic and Turbo Pascal as well. This was around 1992. The 16s were attached to robotic arms that could be manipulated by the system.
Pravetz Computers
21–30 of 52 posts
Re: Pravetz Computers
#22"Pravetz 8М - Integrated second CPU Zilog Z80A at 4 MHz to be able to run CP/M and its software."
I'd love to be able to buy and ARM cpu card, mostly a RPi with a pci car form factor, to plug into my main computer and run android programs without emulation.
Considering development benefits of such a system, specially more complete ones with video output, why isn't it used these days?
Re: Pravetz Computers
#23The Pravetz 8 and 16 were the first computers I ever saw and used on school. We programmed in Basic and Turbo Pascal as well. This was around 1992. The 16s were attached to robotic arms that could be manipulated by the system.
Robco-1 was connected to 8bit computers
Re: Pravetz Computers
#24This was first computer i was using in school.
Yup, distinctly remember we had programming lessons in second grade on one of those, right before the regime fell. I am not sure if that was the reason I ended up writing software for a living but it sure did not hurt. Emphasis on science, technology and proper education was one of the very few positives of an otherwise deeply corrupt and nepotistic regime.
Re: Pravetz Computers
#25Holy - wasn't expecting this here. My father bought me in the 90s Правец 8Ц (Pravetz 8C), which was Apple ][ E clone (or something like this). Had 80 columns (PR#3), 128kb banked memory - awesome machine... and was more expensive than a russian car (according to my father). Growing up in Bulgaria, not really knowing what sold software means - we end up having most of our games cracked, and you'll be like - "Hey anoth…
All the Bulgarians coming out in this thread
Also had an 8C as a kid
Re: Pravetz Computers
#26This line of computers is really a testament to the ingenuity of people from the Soviet Bloc at a time when resources were few. There's so many stories of them harnessing the limited computing/calculator power they had to play games, run simulations, and more. This era minted a generation of techies that formed the foundation of the tech industry there today. Here's some examples of the clever tricks these hackers di…
They literally cloned the Apple II, I think you’re giving them a little too much credit.
With the resources they had (almost nothing) in the stilted, moribund economy of the Soviet Bloc, cloning the Apple II is quite an incredible technical achievement.
Re: Pravetz Computers
#27"Pravetz 8М - Integrated second CPU Zilog Z80A at 4 MHz to be able to run CP/M and its software." I'd love to be able to buy and ARM cpu card, mostly a RPi with a pci car form factor, to plug into my main computer and run android programs without emulation. Considering development benefits of such a system, specially more complete ones with video output, why isn't it used these days?
High complexity and relatively low reward. There have been many attempts at these sorts of dual architectures through history, and they've mostly been abject failures for various reasons (there have been some dual PC/Mac designs from the 90s, those Sun PCI cards with 80386s built on them, etc)
At the low end of complexity, you could put a raspberry pi on a pcie daughterboard and just power it off the slot, and maybe fake a NIC to the host for file transfer.
That's not really any more useful than just having a separate, dedicated raspberry pi though. To be useful, you need to implement some sort of deeper synchronization. Perhaps you could have a shared memory aperture between the two systems, a virtio style interface (but physical, not virtual!) with the associated protocols for passing through files, visuals, etc.
But it's all complicated and expensive, and in the end unless you're doing CPU level debugging and need to sync a debugger with low level CPU state, there's really not much advantage besides some space saving to just having a separate x/y/z on your desk.
Re: Pravetz Computers
#28MAME can emulate the Pravetz 82 and 8M. However, there are no known dumps of the character ROM so it uses the AGAT character ROM. If anyone happens to have a Pravetz 82 or 8M and wants to dump the character ROM, you can help end this injustice.
Re: Pravetz Computers
#29"Pravetz 8М - Integrated second CPU Zilog Z80A at 4 MHz to be able to run CP/M and its software." I'd love to be able to buy and ARM cpu card, mostly a RPi with a pci car form factor, to plug into my main computer and run android programs without emulation. Considering development benefits of such a system, specially more complete ones with video output, why isn't it used these days?
High complexity and relatively low reward. There have been many attempts at these sorts of dual architectures through history, and they've mostly been abject failures for various reasons (there have been some dual PC/Mac designs from the 90s, those Sun PCI cards with 80386s built on them, etc) At the low end of complexity, you could put a raspberry pi on a pcie daughterboard and just power it off the slot, and maybe…
Cool: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SunPCi didn't knew such thing was developed.
Re: Pravetz Computers
#30I studied in the high school that was built to produce both hardware and software specialists that were going to further develop and support these computers and their software. It was great. We were studying material and subjects that were thought in universities (i.e. 3-5 years ahead in time).
For example, I could work with binary numbers as a 11-12 years old kid as my older cousin thought me. I think 80% of the people that studied in that school ended up owners of IT companies or working as high-end tech specialists.
For the record, at its peak the factory in Pravetz was producing 40% of all computers in the Soviet Union. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_hardware_i...