History of computer hardware in the SFRY

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The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was a socialist country that existed in the second half of the 20th century. Being communist meant that strict technology import rules and regulations shaped the development of computer history in the country, unlike in the Western world. However, since it was a non-aligned country, it had no ties to the Soviet Bloc either. One of the major ideas contributing to the development of any technology in SFRY was the apparent need to be independent of foreign suppliers for spare parts, fueling domestic computer development.

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[edit] Development

[edit] Early computers

Having received training in Paris, engineers of Mihailo Pupin Institute lead by prof. dr. Tihomir Aleksić started a project of designing the first "domestic" computer at the end of 1950s. This was to become a line of CER (Serbian Cifarski Elektronski Računar, cyrillic ЦЕР - Цифарски Електронски Рачунар - Digital Electronic Computer), starting with the model CER-10 in 1960, a primarily vacuum tube-based computer.

By 1964, CER-20 computer was designed and completed as "electronic bookkeeping machine", as the manufacturer recognized increasing need in accounting market. This special-purpose trend continued with the release of CER-22 in 1967, which was intended for "banking" applications.

There were more CER models, such as CER-12, CER-2, and CER-200, but there is currently little information available on them.

[edit] Imports

Eventually, the communist party of SFRY allowed foreign computers to be imported under strict conditions. This led to the increasing dominance of foreign mainframes and a continuous reduction of relative market share for domestic products.

Despite this, since the interest in computer technology grew overall, systems built by the Mihailo Pupin Institute (first CER, then TIM lines) and Iskra Delta (e.g. model 800, derivative of PDP-11/34 [1]) continued to evolve through the 1970s and even the 1980s.

[edit] Early 1980s: Home computer era

Many companies attempted to produce microcomputers similar to 1980s home computers, such as Ivo Lola Ribar Institute's Lola 8, EI's Pecom 32 and 64 [2], PEL Varaždin's Galeb (computer) and Orao (*), Ivel Ultra and Ivel Z3, etc. Many factors caused them to fail or not even attempt to enter the home computer market:

  • they were prohibitively expensive for individuals (especially when compared to popular foreign ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, etc.)
  • lack of entertainment and other software meant they were not appealing to majority of contemporary computer enthusiasts
  • they were not available in stores

The end result is that those computers were only used in government institutions that were prohibited from purchasing foreign equipment. Those computer that could have been connected to existing mainframes and used as terminals were more successfully in business environments and others were used as educational tools in schools.

The government tried to control the proliferation of foreign home computers by introducing the cost and memory size limitations for imports. However, many people imported them nevertheless either illegally or by dividing a single computer into pieces that separately fit within prescribed restrictions. Such grey market activity only helped the demise of domestic home computer production.

One computer model managed to stand out - Galaksija. Created by Voja Antonić, the entire build-it-yourself diagrams and instructions were published in the special issue of popular science magazine "Galaksija" called Računari u vašoj kući (Computers in your home) in December 1983. Althogh initially unavailable for purchase in assembled form, more than 8,000 enthusiasts built the computer. Many more were later mass-produced for use in schools.

Home computers were widely popular in SFRY - so much so that software (otherwise recorded on cassette tapes) was broadcasted by radio stations (e.g. Ventilator 202). Software pirates were common and would freely publish their ads in popular computer magazines of the time, such as Računari, Svet kompjutera, Moj Mikro and Revija za mikroračunala. Cheap (pirated) software lead to essentially every home computer owner being a small "software collector" having hundreds, if not thousands of software titles. This would later cause a mixture of both good and bad effects. Development tools were easy (inexpensive) to obtain resulting in large proliferation of widely recognized computer experts but those same experts were unable to succeed in their own, domestic, market due to the same piracy that allowed them to learn their art so well.

[edit] Late 1980s: PC era

The second half of the 1980s saw the rise of popularity of IBM PC compatible and, to a somewhat lesser degree, Amiga and Atari ST computers. Domestic computer hardware manufacturers produced a number of different IBM PC compatibles, such as TIM and Lira but their "success" was limited to government-owned companies that were required to purchase only domestic technology.

The grey market once again allowed foreign technology to become dominant amongst individual buyers and software piracy continued to thrive until the break-up of the country in the 1990s.

[edit] Timeline

History of computing
Hardware before 1960
Hardware 1960s to present
Hardware in Soviet Bloc countries
Operating systems
Software engineering
Programming languages
Graphical user interface
Internet
World Wide Web
Computer and video games
Timeline of computing
More...

1960

1964

1966

1967

1971

1979

1980

1983

1984

1985

1986

1988

[edit] See also

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