Draft:CUB (computer)
Widely used Romanian-built office computer of the 1980s
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The CUB and CUB-Z (Calculator Universal de Birou, "Universal Office Computer") were microcomputers manufactured by ICE Felix in Bucharest during the 1980s.[1] The CUB was based on the Intel 8080, while the CUB-Z used the Z80A—hence the appended Z. The CUB-Z was produced from 1986 to 1989,[1] before being superseded by the HC 88.[2] Both models were used in administration, education, office automation, and computer-aided design.
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ICE Felix manufactured approximately 255,000 office computers in total by 1989.[3] In that year, Romania was the second-largest producer of electronic computing systems in the Eastern Bloc after the Soviet Union.[3] Computer production in Romania was highly centralised in the Electronic Computer Enterprise (later ICE Felix), established in 1972.[4] The CUB and CUB-Z ran CP/M, the dominant operating system for 8-bit office computing in the 1980s. When the CUB-Z was superseded by the HC 88 in 1989, the HC 88 retained CP/M compatibility alongside ZX Spectrum BASIC, combining the roles of office workstation and home computer in a cheaper, more compact package.[2]
CUB
The CUB, based on the Intel 8080 processor, comprised a single-board central unit, an alphanumeric monitor, a conventional keyboard, and one or two single-density floppy disk drives.
The central unit supported up to 64 KB of memory, of which 2–16 KB was allocated to self-test and monitor programs. The display showed 24 rows of 80 columns, with characters displayable in normal, inverse, or adjustable-brightness modes. The QWERTY keyboard had 78 keys, some of which were software-assignable.
External storage consisted of one or two floppy disk drives (5¼- or 8-inch) with a total capacity of 512 or 1,024 KB (double-sided, single density). An optional 132-column dot matrix printer running at 150 characters per second could be connected.
The operating system was CP/M (single-user, single-task), under which BASIC, Pascal, COBOL, and other languages were available.
CUB-Z
The CUB-Z consisted of a module with an integrated 12-inch monochrome monitor (green-on-black), connected via ribbon cable to the disk unit (two 3½- or 5¼-inch drives in a single enclosure).[1] Compared to the M118, the CUB-Z's Z80 processor (replacing the 8080) offered improved performance in a significantly smaller form factor.
The monitor program (comparable to a BIOS) was advanced by Romanian standards. The computer featured a simple tone generator programmable via monitor routines, as well as graphics capabilities (also accessible through monitor routines). The CUB-Z could communicate with other systems via its serial interface using the Kermit protocol.
Software included a BASIC interpreter and compilers for C, Pascal, Turbo Pascal, Fortran, COBOL, Forth, and the Z80 assembler.[1]
In conjunction with the CPP 286 programmable console (manufactured by Automatica Bucharest), the CUB-Z could be used for programming, archiving, and validating programs for programmable logic controllers, including offline simulation and online execution.[1]
| CUB | CUB-Z | |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel 8080 | Z80A |
| Clock speed | 3.5 MHz | |
| ROM | 2–8 KB EPROM | 2–8 KB EPROM |
| RAM | 64 KB | 64 KB |
| Text display | 25 × 80 | 25 × 80 |
| Graphics resolution | 512 × 256 pixels | 512 × 256 pixels |
| Operating system | CP/M | CP/M |
| Interfaces | 2× serial (RS-232), 1× IEEE 488, 2× parallel | 2× serial (RS-232), 1× IEEE 488, 2× parallel |