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Native name | Правец |
|---|---|
| Company type | Public |
| Industry | Computer hardware Electronics |
| Founded | 1979; 46 years ago (1979) |
| Founder | Engineer Ivan Vasilev Marangozov |
| Headquarters | Pravets,Bulgaria, nearSofia,Bulgaria |
Area served | Bulgaria |
| Products | Desktops,servers,notebooks,netbooks |
Pravetz (Bulgarian:Правец) is a brand of personal computers produced inBulgaria from 1979. They were widely used in scientific organizations and schools until the 1990s.[1]
Pravets were the first personal computers made in Bulgaria. Before that, various types of large computer systems were used, the size of rooms (60-70), as well as evenvacuum tube computers before that. The name of the Pravets computers comes from the city where they were manufactured, calledPravetz,[2] ("Правец" in Bulgarian) with some components and software being produced in other towns such asSofia,Plovdiv,Stara Zagora and other Bulgarian cities.[3][4]
Pravetz computers are still[when?] in use in some schools such as NPH of CTS (National Professional High school of Computer Technological Systems[5] "НПГ по КТС" ), locally also known as UKTC. and TSES (Technological School "Electric Systems",[6] ТУЕС)[, similar to college for beginner students in computing, because they are adapted in manufacturing for educational purposes.
Bulgaria was the leading manufacturer, with its leading trademark Pravetz, of computer and peripherals electronics for the socialist economic unionCOMECON in 20th century.
An early Bulgarian-madepersonal computer wasIMKO-1 (its name resembles Bulgarian nameELKA (short name for ELektronen KAlkulator, Cyrillic ЕЛКА ЕЛектронен КАлкулатор) or calculator, yet the name of the first state-manufactured personal computers points to its production as a PC or Pravetz Computers (правя, pravja - make, manufacture)). The prototype of the Pravetz computers that were developed by engineer Ivan Vassilev Marangozov,[7] who was rightfully accused of cloning theApple II. In fact, IMKO-1 was a nearly identical clone of the original Apple II with a few minor exceptions - case, keyboard, character table (the lowercaseLatin alphabet was replaced with Cyrillic uppercase) and power supply (early models used bulky and heavy linear power supplies). A few early models were produced at the ITKR (pronouncedee-teh-kah-reh, Institute of Technical Cybernetics and Robotics), a section of theBulgarian Academy of Sciences. Industrial production in Pravetz started shortly after.[8]
The line of Bulgarian personal computers at the time of release was prohibitively expensive for individuals and in addition were only sold to different government institutions - educational sector, military and administrative sector.
Pravetz computers were of major importance in the economy of theComecon.
Except for theOric-derivedPravetz 8D (and possibly the IMKO-1), all the Pravetz 8-bit systems are largely compatible with the popularApple II and its successors, with the exception that they offerCyrillic fonts and some other improvements compared toApple.
Much before Pravetz entered serial manufacturing, theIMKO-1 prototype development within the Institute of Technical Cybernetics and Robotics (ITKR) (ИТКР), a section of theBulgarian Academy of Sciences 1979.[9][10] According to some computer users, IMKO was the very first Bulgarian personal computer, its name resembles theELKA name for the contemporary Bulgarian electronic calculator. It used a clone of theMOS Technology6502 CPU running at 1 MHz and 16/4KB ofRAM/ROM. The storage media is acassette recorder. It had a metal case and very large and heavy linear power supply. The ROM was an exact copy of the Apple II ROM (the only change was the name).[11]
The next prototype IMKO-2 was developed as a clone ofApple II Plus, although the keyboard design stayed close to the original Apple II model, rather than the Plus keyboard. In 1982 experimental small series assembly of IMKO-2 units was organised by the ITKR in their production base inIskar, Sofia. Initially, only about 50 units were manufactured for testing the feasibility for mass production. In became the basis of the industrial scale production of the Pravetz series 8.[12]
Pravetz-16 wereIBM PC compatible:
The brand was revived in 2014 by Pravetz Computers OOD, a private company that specializes inx86-64 based laptops.[13]