website/content/museum/robotron-pc-1715.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Robotron PC 1715	Computers	Professional Computer	Germany	1985	U880	name image company company_name specs tabs photos links comments oc_id source PC 1715 /media/museum/photos/robotron_1715_system_s1.jpg /companies/robotron Robotron label value NAME PC 1715 label value MANUFACTURER Robotron label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN Germany label value YEAR 1985 label value END OF PRODUCTION 1989 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE None label value KEYBOARD Typewriter type, 97 keys with numeric keypad and 15 function keys label value CPU U880 (Z80 clone) label value SPEED 2.25 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR CRT controller : KR 580 WG 75 (Intel 8275) label value RAM 64 KB (theoricaly upgradable to 256 KB, but memory expansions never came) label value ROM 2 KB label value TEXT MODES 64 x 16, 80 x 24 label value GRAPHIC MODES None label value COLORS Monochrome green phosphore label value SOUND no sound device label value SIZE / WEIGHT 50 (W) x 40 (D) x 14 (H) cm / 12.8 Kg label value I/O PORTS Keyboard, printer (RS-232), V24, external drive label value BUILT IN MEDIA 2 x 5''1/4 disk-drives (720 KB each) label value OS SCP (CP/m-Clone) label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in switching Power Supply Unit label value PRICE 19,047 GDR Mark (GRD, 1986) photos links title subtitle text image LARGE VIEW Keyboard, main unit and display cases were of metal. /media/museum/photos/robotron_1715_system_s2.jpg title subtitle text image SIDE VIEW Nice and pure design. /media/museum/photos/robotron_1715_sideview_s1.jpg title subtitle text image RUNNING The Robotron 1715 is running a Czech version of WordStar. /media/museum/photos/robotron_1715_running_s1.jpg title subtitle text image KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP Note the 10 editing keys and the strange location of the F15 key. /media/museum/photos/robotron_1715_keyboard_s2.jpg title subtitle text image REAR PANEL From left to right:\ • Monitor's power socket\ • Fuses and mains socket\ • (top) External floppy drive connector\ • Video output connector\ • V24 connector\ • Serial printer connector. /media/museum/photos/robotron_1715_rearside_s1.jpg title subtitle text image INSIDE **(1)** Large fan\ **(2)** Manufacturing card\ **(3)** Switching PSU\ **(4)** Two NEC floppy disk drives, assembled in Germany under NEC licence\ **(5)** Floppy drives controller card, covers a large part of the main board. /media/museum/photos/robotron_1715_inside_s1.jpg title subtitle text image MOTHERBOARD **(1)** 64 KB RAM chips (32 x 4116)\ **(2)** Siemens display controller\ **(3)** Character generator ROM. A second sockets allows a second (extended) character generator to be added.\ **(4)** I/O chips\ **(5)** 2 KB BIOS ROM\ **(6)** Z80 processor, Russian version\ **(7)** Disk drives controller card connector. /media/museum/photos/robotron_1715_mainboard_s1.jpg title subtitle text image CZECH MANUFACTURING CARD /media/museum/photos/robotron_1715_manufcard_s1.jpg title url text Robotron 1715 unofficial support page http://www.xepb.ru/robotron/index.html Very useful page with docs, download (boot disks), forum, sale/exchange, links. title url text www.robotrontechnik.de http://www.robotrontechnik.de/ Very very complete and detailes website devoted to Robotron (in German). author date text Jan Procházka (Czech Republic) Monday 8th May 2017 Some software here:\ http://www.kc85.de/Service/cpm_downl.html author date text Piotr (Poland) Thursday 7th August 2014 Hej Przemek, je$$380$eli nadal masz go do sprzedania, napisz prosz$$281$ na adres: niubio $at$ gmail.com. Dzi$$281$ki :) author date text Przemek (Poland) Thursday 23rd January 2014 I have a Robotron 1715 FDD machine if you like$) I looks like new. Nobody knew what is was for many years. author date text Qdlaczian (Poland) Sunday 17th July 2011 I own PC 1715 . Where can I get some software for it ? e.g. sytem disk ? author date text Exin Sunday 24th October 2010 I have a PC 1715 W myself. (The 256KB Version is named PC1715W, not M.) These machines were usually shipped with CPZ/CPA. (A CPM copy with using the additional memory as a ram disk.) Also, both drives are not controlled the same way and you could only boot from one. 1st drive is Double Density, the second one is Quad density. That means 360K for the first and 640K(or something, but not 720K) for the second. The second drive is mainly used to use strange disk formats. Like on the C128, you also had a program to format a Disk in various kind of formats. If you were supposed to do some CAD, a graphics card for the internal expansion port was "available". It was a huge card fitted onto the available slot of the normal mainboard. But i only heard of prototypes. 864 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230607091245/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=864 2023-06-07

The Robotron 1715 was designed in Eastern Germany and manufactured by VEB Robotron Büromaschinenwerk "Ernst Thälmann" in Sömmerda.

It was based on a Z80 CPU (in fact Eastern clone U880), and used SCP, a CP/M compatible operating system. It was widely used in Russia and other East European countries for office and educational purposes.

Although it didn't stand the comparison with Western PC systems, it was a very robust and reliable system daily used by numerous companies in every field. One of its main drawback is that it didn't have any graphic resolution.

There were different models of the 1715, with different memory and floppy configurations. The 1715M had 256 KB RAM and SCP3 (CP/M 3.0 clone) as its OS.
The 1715 was the direct successor of the Robotron A5120 and was fully software-compatible with it.

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Contributors : Ruediger

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.