website/content/museum/pravetz-imko-1-2-pravetz-82.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Pravetz IMKO-1/2 & Pravetz 82	Computers	Home Computer	Bulgaria	1979	6502	name image company company_name specs tabs photos adverts comments oc_id source IMKO-1/2 & Pravetz 82 /media/museum/photos/pravetz_imko_system_2.jpg /companies/pravetz Pravetz label value NAME IMKO-1/2 & Pravetz 82 label value MANUFACTURER Pravetz label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN Bulgaria label value YEAR 1979 label value END OF PRODUCTION Unknown label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE Floating point BASIC interpreter. Several ROM expansion boards were available with Cobol, Fortran, Pascal, Logo, Ada languages label value KEYBOARD Full stroke 56 keys label value CPU 6502 label value SPEED 1 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR None label value RAM 48 KB expandable to 64 KB label value ROM 12 KB label value TEXT MODES 40 chars. x 24 lines label value GRAPHIC MODES 280x192 dots x 6 colours (or 280 x 160 + 4 text lines) in HiRes\ 40 x 40 squares (+4 text lines) or 40 x 48 in 16-colour mode. label value COLORS 16 label value SOUND built-in speaker label value SIZE / WEIGHT 39 (W) x 45 (D) x 12 (H) cm label value I/O PORTS floppy drive, tape recorder, 8 expansion slots label value BUILT IN MEDIA None label value OS Apple OS label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit label value PERIPHERALS All Apple II extensions label value PRICE 4190 Levs - About $2600 photos adverts title subtitle text image IMKO-1 /media/museum/photos/pravetz_imko_system_s3.jpg title subtitle text image RIGHT SIDE /media/museum/photos/pravetz_imko_rightside_s1.jpg title subtitle text image KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP The lower case letters are replaced with the Cyrillic alphabet. The AAT keys are like Shift keys but toggle between the two alphabets. The yellow AAT key is like a 'Shift Lock'. The associate led lights when the Cyrillic alphabet is selected. the 'MK' key is like the 'Control' key, and 'OCB' means 'Escape'. /media/museum/photos/pravetz_imko_keyboard_s1.jpg title subtitle text image REAR SIDE Left side: Composite video jack and tape recorder DIN plug. Right side: AC/DC power fuses and power switch. /media/museum/photos/pravetz_imko_rear_s1.jpg title subtitle text image OPENED CASE Like the genuine Apple II, a trap door allows the user to add, remove expansion cards. The expansion slots could receive any Apple or compatible cards. /media/museum/photos/pravetz_imko_openedcase_s1.jpg title subtitle text image INSIDE The main board was an almost pure copy of the Apple II card. The card was made in Bulgaria but all the integrated circuits came from Asia, USA or Western Europe. The power supply was strong but simplistic and of old design. /media/museum/photos/pravetz_imko_inside_s1.jpg title subtitle text image IN USE Here with a Zenith monochrome composite monitor. /media/museum/photos/pravetz_imko_running_s1.jpg title subtitle text image DISPLAY CLOSE-UP A small Basic program allows to see that the character generator ROM holds both Cyrillic and latin alphabets. /media/museum/photos/pravetz_imko_charactersdisplay_s1.jpg title subtitle text image ROBKO-1 The arm robot Robko-1 /media/museum/photos/pravetz_imko_robkorobot_1.jpg title subtitle text image ADVERT #1 The display says: "Personal computer Pravetz 82" Thanks to **Bojidar Stefanov** /media/museum/pubs/pravetz_imko_pub_s1.jpg title subtitle text image ADVERT #2 Pravetz Apple II compatible technology and price are compared with the IBM compatible Pravetz 8C. Thanks to **Bojidar Stefanov** for the English translation /media/museum/pubs/pravetz_imko_pubcompar_s1.jpg author date text Sergei Frolov (Russia) Friday 30th September 2016 http://pravetz.bg/history says that IMKO-1 was based on 8080 CPU and not Apple $$ author date text Marin Aleksandrov Thursday 6th February 2014 Does anyone know how many of the Pravetz 8 series were produced in total? Thanks. author date text Ivan Toshkov (Bulgaria) Thursday 17th October 2013 Note, that the normal monthly salary back then was about 200lv. So 4190lv is quite high price and not many people had them in their homes. That said, these computers (and later models) became quite common in factories and schools and there were freely available computer courses in many places. author date text Konstantin Pavlov (Bulgaria) Tuesday 11th December 2012 This computer is historic for two reasons - First, it introduced the $phonetic$ layout of the Bulgarian keyboars (as opposed to BDS, which is the standard typewriter layout). Second, it was hacked (upgraded) to work with cyrillic characters, replacing the small latin letters and creating a new Cyrillic codepage. author date text Kiril (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) Tuesday 26th September 2006 Well. I watch this machine and remember the early 80's when I started to learn BASIC.... Sweet memories :) 956 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230128071023/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=956 2023-01-28

In 1979, the Bulgarian Techical Cybernetics Institute took up with the idea of creating a small microprocessor based system.

In 1980 the first three Bulgarian microcomputers were produced. Their creators called the machine IMKO-1 for Individualen Micro KOmputer. In 1981 a series of few tenths machines was released. First users were enthusiastic about the versality and ease of use of the IMKO. Furthermore, the price wasn't very high.
Mass production started in 1982. First models shipped with a standard TV set instead of a monitor.

The IMKO-1 was actually an almost 100% compatible Apple II system featuring same expansion slots. Sadly, neither expansion card nor floppy disk unit were available in Bulgaria. Some rare customers bought them from Western European countries or from Taiwan, others used a tape recorder.

The first international presentation of the IMKO-1 occured at Robotics Symposium in England. Bulgaria demonstrated then a robot controlled by a microcomputer. At this time, Japaneses and U.S. robots were controlled by minicomputers. The IMKO-1 robot system cost thus ten times cheaper and its maintenance was much more easy.

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Bozhidar Stefanov from Bulgaria adds:
Imko-1 and Imko-2 (almost the same machine with little upgrades) have been first manufactured in Sofia until 1982. The name was changed to Pravetz 82 when the computer was made in Pravetz, a small town near Sofia. It had a lot of peripherals like daisy whell printer, plotters or modems as well as loads of strange expansion boards specially manufactured for various factories. The Robot was called Robko 1 (an arm type robot)

Ivaylo Uzunoff reports :
Usually there was a monitor the same color as the computer box sitting on top of the main unit. The monitor had a black background, the symbols displayed on the monitor were green. usually on the right hand side there were two floppy drives one on top of another. They were connected with a wide "ribbon" cable to the main computer. To load OS you need to insert the disk into the flopy, since the computer did not had a HDD. Then you can insert a disk with primitive software or game.

We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.