Elektronika BK 0010-01
======================
I have several these computers: they are traditional home computers
from 1980s (computers with integrated keyboards, with several ports and
which can be connected to old TVs) except for two things: they were
made in the USSR and they do not have 8bit CPUs - they run Soviet CPU
which is compatible with the PDP-11 (they are not copies so differences
in instruction set can be found).
These devices may be not so impressive today: an PDP-11 CPU running at
3MHz, 16kB of RAM, a serial and an parallel port (mechanically
incompatible with usual ones), tape device connector (a big DIN one -
but any tape player will be OK here) and build-in BASIC (it seems to be
a simplified MSX BASIC clone and not a DEC BASIC as it was in the
Elektronika MK-90 portable computer). Graphics output is limited (the
color output has 4 colors only - it was improved in later models) and
there is no acceleration. People say that CPU is powerful enough to
overcome this limitation... By the way, there is a DEC-compatible QBUS
(with mechanically different connectors, of course) so it is possible
to connect other peripherals - HDDs and floppies are possible but
another interface board is needed (of course it is rare there days). I
read elsewhere that some of original DEC accessories can be connected
and used with some effort, too.
I have had issues with TV output - first I bought an old Czechoslovak
CRT which was designed to be used as an output device for home
computers. I was able to catch very low quality signal (it was possible
to guess what is on the screen but the most of texts was not actually
readable). Then I have tried an LCD TV from 1990s - there was no
picture at all. I suspected the old soviet cables but I had no
possibility to repair them correctly.
Recently I have found on the eBay a seller who have been selling
DIN-SCART cables designed especially for these computers. The cable has
2 DIN connectors: one for B/W TV output and one for color TV output. So
I connected just one first. No success for any of the cables. Then I
connected both of them - and I have got an excellent, sharp, color
picture! At the moment it is just orange on black but the Wikipedia
says that it is the correct color mode and I should be able to use ALL
FOUR COLOURS which this device offers!
Well, now I have to find a way to pump data into device and out of it.
I have the DIN-3.5mm adapter so it would be possible to use my
computer to emulate a tape device (any software tips?) I also have a
Czechoslovak TESLA "walkman" which was designed (among other tasks) to
be used as data storage device for computers. But I don't have the
necessary cable (it was the big DIN connector for computer connection).
For now, I decided to try an emulator. Surprisingly, there are many. I
downloaded one for the PPC Macs and sources for the Linux one (it uses
the SDL 1.x - it was update in 2005 for the last time) [1]. I tried to
compile it and with minor alteration of the Makefile (I had to replace
the "/usr/lib/libSDL.so" with just "-lSDL") it was actually compiled.
And it runs (I wrote a very short BASIC program which worked correctly
- I did no more tests so far). If you think that it is not unusual then
please note taht it's a C++ program from early 2000s and I have
compiled it on a POWER9 (ppc64le) platform and not on a 32bit Intel one
for which it was originally written. So the authors of this program did
excellent work.
By the way, a programming manual for this computer is here [2]. There
are some strange Javascript scripts on this page but the Links ("links
-g") handles this page very well. The manual is obviously in Russian.
References:
[1] https://sourceforge.net/projects/bk-terak-emu/
[2] http://simulators.narod.ru/bookbk.htm