Soviet BK-0010

From: Sergey Svishchev <svs_at_ropnet.ru>
Date: Fri Jan 29 17:28:57 1999

On Fri, Jan 29, 1999 at 09:34:58AM -0500, Jerome Fine wrote:

> > I recently posted about the Soviet BK-0010 computer.
> > I've since found out a bit more information about it. I'm reliably told
> > that it has an actual PDP-11 processor inside it - and I naturally assumed
> > it was a PDP-11 clone. Its not. In fact, it is a computer-in-a-keyboard,
> > somewhat akin to the Commodore 64. The whole thing weighs 2kg or
> > thereabouts. It's a simple home computer. There are two versions - a
> > membrane keyboard (with brightly coloured keys!) and a "normal" keyboard

> Jerome Fine replies:
>
> Is this computer able to run any of the PDP-11 OSs? Which ones? Does it
> also have an OS which uses a Russian alphabet? Were any of there OSs
> pirated from the original OSs when the CCCP did not pay any license fees
> for western software?

Of DEC OSs, BK-0010 runs at least RT-11 5.3 (under name of Net-RT11); there
are other, custom OSs available (ANDOS, MKDOS, CSIDOS...) They do use
Russian alphabet.

There's a LOT to tell about this machine, but I'm not the right person to
do it. The whole story is big, and needs to be written by someone who "was
there". I only know random facts.

The right place to ask questions is news://fido7.mo.dec (which is
bidirectionally gatewayed from FidoNet echo MO.DEC on 2:5020 backbone.)
NB: go to http://www.fido7.ru/ before you post there.

Related URLs:

http://www.users.itl.net.ua/~prool/BK-0010.html
        Short info about the machine
http://people.weekend.ru/vanyas/museumbk/
http://www.halyava.ru/magicpage/
        Museum of BK-0010
http://rdc.cch.pmc.ru/
        BK-0010 emulator for the Amiga

http://www.chat.ru/~samosvl/
        Internet and education

http://yandex.ru/yandsearch?text=%22%E1%EA-0010%22&formal=on
        Hits returned by Yandex search engine (arguably the best search
        engine for pages in Russian)

http://www.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=228171597
        "How original design was killed by The Mgt. and replaced by LSI-11
        compatible one"

-- 
Sergey Svishchev -- svs{at}ropnet{dot}ru
Received on Fri Jan 29 1999 - 17:28:57 GMT

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