HCM: East-European Home-Computer ...
| Bulgaria | Czechoslovakia | GDR (DDR) | Hungary | Poland | Romania | USSR | Yugoslavia |
Polish Home-Computer:
| Bosman | Elwro 600 junior | Elwro 800 junior | Elwro 800-2 junior | Elwro 800-3 junior | Elwro 800-4 junior PC |
| Mera 6052 | Meritum | Unipolbrit 2086 |
Special thanks to: Mariusz Malczak, Andrzej Gawel, Jaroslaw Micota, Artur Miller, Michal Hobot

Please contact me if you have any additional information (e.g. pictures / articles), find an error or want to sell/trade/donate a machines to the HCM.

Bosman: Bosman 8


Bosman 8


Bosman 8 (grey)

 Bosman 8
According to Artur Miller the Bosman 8 was a CPM machine. The large keyboard contains quite a few ICs and even some RAM (that is why I believed that it is the CPU - idiotic) but the main CPU is contained in the external box. The floppy could be a 3.5" or a 5.25" unit. The Bosman 8 comes in a grey or in a white case - I do not know if there are any differences ...

Technical Overview:
Year: 198? CPU: Z-80 (clone?)
RAM/ROM: 64kB / 16B Clone: CPM Machine
Colors: ? Resolution: ?


Elwro: 800 junior / 800-2 junior / 800-3 junior / Elwro 800-4 Junior PC


Elwro 800


Elwro 800-2


Elwro 800-3


Elwro 800-4 Junior PC

 Elwro 800
The Elwro 800 junior series is a Sinclair Spectrum clone that was used in poland mainly for educational purposes.

I am not sure what the differences between the Elwro 800 / 800-2 and 800-3 are but here is what I did understand from various sources:

  • Elwro 800 junior: basic machine
  • Elwro 800-2 junior: built in support for floppy disk
  • Elwro 800-3 junior: built in support for floppy disk and sound
The colour of the case can be white or dark brown. I do not think that the case colour corresponds to a specific machine (I have seen a brown Elwro 800-2 and I own a brown Elwro 800-3).
Michal Hobot added: Elwro 800 Junior - it was "Polish Acorn" - designed for schools. Its case was used initially by Elwro for small electronic organ - hence funny wire used initially for keeping scores during playing. It was a ZX Spectrum clone, but with some changes:
  • everything was translated to Polish
  • there was 80 columns mode (by use of unreadable 4x8 pixels font)
  • ROM could be turned off, which made possible to run CP/M on it.
  • They had serial ports used as LAN - you connected computers to each other like in AppleTalk. It was possible to use other computer's floppy.
According to Pawel Kubacki before Mera Elwro was liquidated (actually the remains was sold to Siemens) it developed some new products which unfortunately didn't reach the market. I owe one of the prototypes following the 800 Junior series. The computer is called Elwro Junior 804 PC and in fact is the 800 model with built-in the fdd controler and 3,5" floppy.

Mera Elzab: Meritum


Meritum

 Meritum
The Meritum machine was produced by a company called Mera Elzab in Zabrze (1980-85?). I do not know much more about this machine than that it has a U880D CPU (a east european clone of the Zilog Z80A). Andrzej Gawel told me some details:
  • It was very similar (inside) to Radio Shack TRS-80, and programs designed for TRS-80 (assembler, disassembler) were working fine (checked)
  • ROM: 16 kB (8*2716), two eproms hold the monitor program, the other a basic interpreter with semi-graphics.
  • RAM 48 kB
  • 82255 output (23 lines) on rear, user programable
  • Video: monitor (no TV modulator inside)
  • cassette recorder as i/o device.
Michal Hobot added this info: "The Meritum had 16 KB RAM (4 occupied by system, so for Basic it was 12 KB). 48 KB version was later introduced. There was no graphics mode, but there was semigraphic - each character was divided to 2x3 squares, which can be accessed from Basic "SET" and "RESET" commands. Because screen had 24 lines of 64 characters each, semigraphic resolution was 128x48."
Technical Overview:
Year: 198? CPU:
RAM/ROM: 16 or 48kB / 16kB Clone: TRS-80
Colors: ? Resolution: 128x48 (Semigraphic)

Unipolbrit: Komputer 2086

Unipolbrit 2086


Unipolbrit 2086 (label)


Timex Computer 2048


Timex Computer 2068 (silver)


Timex Computer 2068 (black)

 Unipolbrit Komputer 2086
First of all let me make clear that the Unipolbrit Komputer 2086 is the only "real" polish machine - Timex Computer 2048 and 2068 (silver and black) were sold in Poland but the machines were built in Portugal. Don't confuse "Timex Sinclair" and "Timex Computer" - Timex Sinclair is a US company whereas Timex Computer is a european company from portugal (see [TCW] for a detailed description).

The name "unipolbrit" is composed of:

  • uni = unimor: a polish national electronic company in Gdansk (Danzig)
  • pol = poland
  • brit = britain

"pol" & "brit" means that it was a polish/english joint venture company. The "86" in the name "2086" is not a typo of "2068" as one might think but it is the year of beginning of massproduction.

Unfortunately I do not know the difference (if any) between the TC 2068 and the Unipolbrit 2086. One interesting thing to note is that there was a "spectrum Emulation"-cart for the Unipolbrit 2086 to make it fully speccy compatible.