OT: a programmable calculator

[StefanR5R]

At my day job, I started a project today in which I use among else documentation from a preceding project of 1987. In it, the engineer reports that he obtained some of the results using in-house programs and commercial programs which ran on this calculator:

(link: auto-translated overview, with more pictures)

 

[TennesseeTony]

But...why? The 286 was everywhere, even the 386 was out 2 years before then... I guess if you already have it, and you are proficient with it, why not.

 

[StefanR5R]

But...why? The 286 was everywhere, even the 386 was out 2 years before then...

They could move only few of these through the iron curtain. There was an embargo, and a general lack of convertible currency too.

Edit, East Germany began to reverse-engineer the 286 in 1986, and started production of the clone in 1989 just before the wall came down. Reverse engineering undertakings like these were a huge resource drain, and it was difficult to see whether independent developments wouldn't have been more economic. (Though binary software compatibility to Western processors was an issue already at these times.)

Edit 2, in the 80s, there was a range of 8 bit computers being produced in the GDR, e.g. CP/M compatible ones based on a Zilog Z80 clone. But production volume of these computers was so low that only a fraction of the industry demand in East Germany and the Eastern Bloc could be satisfied (let alone individual end users' demand).

 

[crashtech]

That's really cool, thanks for sharing it! You know, as well as Germany is doing, from way over here it's easy to forget that not so long ago there was an East Germany with sometimes horrendous conditions. What a time that was when the wall came down!

 

[Markfw]

That's really cool, thanks for sharing it! You know, as well as Germany is doing, from way over here it's easy to forget that not so long ago there was an East Germany with sometimes horrendous conditions. What a time that was when the wall came down!

When I was there in Berlin in 2009, it still looked like a wall was up. In east Berlin, it was a toilet. When you crossed the line, it was like the USA, You could almost see the wall !

 

[ao_ika_red]

I just read this while looking for DHEP thread.
Wow, what a historic piece. I always wonder how USSR and their allies could keep up with the west in technological advancement. Well, Stefan's thread finally fill some of the puzzle.
Thank you Stefan.