RESP ("beginning", in Latin) is a personal microcomputer designed by a team under his leadership Miklós Patrubany, formed by Nicolae Pop Baldi, Nicusor Socaciu, Liviu Dervesteanu, Emil Precup, Eugen Lupu and Ioan Ciascai from Institute of Computing Technology from Cluj-Napoca (ITC).
The year of its launch was 1980, being produced in limited series (approx. 200 pieces) at the Factory of Memories and Electronic Components for Computing Technique in Timisoara (FMCETC).
The research and manufacturing procedures were led by Patrubany Miklos, the computer PRAE 1000 was launched at the end of 1983 and put into series production.
PRAE computer keyboard
The computer keyboard was ultra-thin, with 40 circular keys that worked at the touch of a button. Each key it was guaranteed for a million clicks.
Storing PRAE computer data
The data was stored on tape, at a recording density of 1200 baud. For the method of recording / playing data on / from the magnetic tape, eng. Ion Ciascai obtained the patent no. 91141 / 26.06.1986.
The power supply and rectifier bridge were internal (see image below); also inside there is a small speaker for audible signaling of errors.
PRAE-1000 computer
The PRAE-1000 was built on a microprocessor Z80 (2.5Mhz) and had 16 kB of RAM and 16 kB of EPROM memory. The display was made on a black and white TV, and as a support for storing programs and data, it was an audio cassette player, later developing a floppy disk interface.
PRAE-1000, could work both in text mode 32 lines of 30 characters each and graphically, monochrome without shades of black and white, with a resolution of 256 by 256 pixels. The connection with other devices or systems was made through an RS 232 serial interface.
Starting from the initial version, the PRAE computer, was made in various configurations:
PRAE-T computer
PRAE-T which had a simple configuration consisting of keyboard, TV and external audio cassette support, and was intended for students and those interested in working on a computer.
PRAE-L computer
PRAE-L, in a more extensive configuration, used in the educational process and PRAE-M, in a maximum configuration containing 64 kB of RAM, a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive, a mini printer and the operating system was compatible with the CP / M system.
As a laboratory model it has been developed PRAE Phoenix, compatible with both PRAE-M and Sinclair Spectrum systems.
The computer can be seen at Retro IT Museum in Arad. Below, the room with Romanian computers and the collection of processors inside the museum.
Bibliography:
Nicolae Tapus, Information Science and Technology in Romania, Romanian Academy, Romanian Academy Publishing House - Bucharest, 2018
It was a torment! Each instruction had to be typed letter by letter! But it was a good start.
Well, even today you type them letter by letter.
The exception was presented by the Spectrum, where each key had multiple assignments in the case of the BASIC interpreter. It took some practice to figure out how to find a certain instruction. However, I respected that interpreter, the simplest and most efficient BASIC interpreter.
Nowhere did I find an interpreter in which the INPUT instruction to evaluate expressions, even in the own context of the command interpreter.
When you ever had to enter from the keyboard, you could enter numbers, strings, 2 + 3 expressions that were automatically evaluated, or even expressions that could contain variable names in the program, which is crazy.
There was also his brother "aMIC", they both had a rather strange "Basic" interpreter and were not compatible. The first TIM-S seems to have been built in aMIC housing.
In the '90s there was an electronics magazine written in Timisoara where the schemes for Microtim and TIM-s were presented, I don't know if they were somehow in the normal Tehnium as well.
It's like "RET" was called the magazine. And there was another one published in Cluj "If".