The electronics industry in the

Socialist Republic of Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania ( ro, Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the Romanian Peop ...

was characterized by stronger ties to Western Europe when compared to other countries in the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

due to the drive of the Romanian leadership towards greater autonomy from the Soviet Union.

History

In 1960 the government of

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (; 8 November 1901 – 19 March 1965) was a Romanian communist politician and electrician. He was the first Communist leader of Romania from 1947 to 1965, serving as first secretary of the Romanian Communist Part ...

decided to build an electronics plant in the forest of

Băneasa Băneasa () is a borough () in the north side of Bucharest, in Sector 1, near the Băneasa Lake (). Like all north-side districts of Bucharest, it is relatively sparsely populated, with large areas of parkland. Bordering on Băneasa Forest, ...

which in 1962 was named Baneasa Radio and Semiconductor Parts Company ( ro, Întreprinderea de piese radio și semiconductori or I.P.R.S.). The production of integrated circuits started in 1970 with technology from

Thomson-CSF Thomson-CSF was a French company that specialized in the development and manufacture of electronics with a heavy focus upon the aerospace and defence sectors of the market. Thomson-CSF was formed in 1968 following the merger of Thomson-Houst ...

. The plant developed steadily and grew to 6000 employees by the early 1980s. By 1990 the product range included bipolar digital and linear integrated circuits (including 7400 series integrated circuits), silicon transistors and diodes, microwave devices, thyristors, triacs, and capacitors. I.P.R.S. manufactured with the designation βP14500 a clone of the 1-bit-microprocessor Motorola MC14500B in I²L technology. In 1969 the Research Center for the Design of Electronic Components ( ro, Centrul de Cercetare Proiectare pentru Componente Electronice or CCPCE) was established on the grounds of I.P.R.S. but independent from it. The research center developed semiconductor products from initial experiments to pilot production, at which point the mass manufacturing was handed over to I.P.R.S. By 1974 the center moved to a new headquarter adjacent to I.P.R.S. and changed its name to Research Institute for Electronic Components ( ro, Institutul de Cercetare pentru Componente Electronice or ICCE). With new production facilities opened in 1979 the institute started to manufacture transistors, diodes, integrated circuits, optoelectronics, and microwave devices for end customers, in particular products that were needed only in small quantities (a few thousand per month) and could therefore not be manufactured economically at I.P.R.S. MMN80CPU board

A third entity, Microelectronica was set up in 1981 close to I.P.R.S. and ICCE with the goal of manufacturing PMOS, NMOS, and

CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss", ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSF ...

integrated circuits (including

4000-series integrated circuits The 4000 series is a CMOS logic family of integrated circuits (ICs) first introduced in 1968 by RCA. It had a supply voltage range of 5V to 20V, which is much wider than any contemporary logic family. Almost all IC manufacturers active during t ...

) as well as optoelectronics, complementing the production profile of I.P.R.S. Microelectronica manufactured a clone of the

Intel 8080 The Intel 8080 (''"eighty-eighty"'') is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibil ...

with the designation MMN8080 and a clone of the

Zilog Z80 The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples were ...

with the designation

MMN80CPU MMN80CPU is a Z80A microprocessor clone, working at 3.5 MHz. It was produced from 1988 onwards at Microelectronica Bucharest for Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Easte ...

. The MMN80CPU entered production in 1988. For comparison, the original Z80 was launched in 1976 and the East German clone

U880 The U880 is an 8-bit microprocessor that was manufactured by VEB Mikroelektronik "Karl Marx" Erfurt (abbreviated as MME; part of Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt) in the German Democratic Republic. Production of the U880 started in 1980 at VEB ...

in 1980.

After 1990

I.P.R.S. remained in government hands until 2003. After a factory upgrade in 1992 a steady decline set in. The number of employees dropped to 5000 in 1991 and 2000 at the end of the 1990s. Amid allegations of corruption the plant was sold in 2003 to Syrian businessman Omar Hayssam (who was in 2013 sentenced to a 20-year prison term for organizing the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Baghdad). By 2008, I.P.R.S. was declared bankrupt. The equipment had been stolen or sold for scrap at that point. ICCE was first split into four sections but largely re-united in 1996 as the Institute for Microtechnology ( ro, Institut de Microtehnologii or IMT). While IMT still exists in 2020, it has lost its own commercial manufacturing capabilities as well as its industry partners I.P.R.S. and Microelectronica. Microelectronica ceased commercial operation in 1997 and many of its specialists transferred to IMT. As of 2020, Microelectronica still exists as a "technology showcase", albeit without any products and few employees.

Semiconductor designation

Unlike the

Soviet integrated circuit designation Soviet integrated circuit designation is an industrial specification for encoding of names of integrated circuits manufactured in the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Union countries. 25 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a number of m ...

or the East German semiconductor designation, the Romanian government did not set standards for the labelling of semiconductors. Devices licensed from Western manufacturers were often named according to the

Pro Electron Pro Electron or EECA is the European type designation and registration system for active components (such as semiconductors, liquid crystal displays, sensor devices, electronic tubes and cathode ray tubes). Pro Electron was set up in 1966 in Br ...

standard. ''Microelectronica'' assigned integrated circuit designations according to the underlying technology: MMP for PMOS (e.g. MMP106), MMN for NMOS (e.g. MMN8080), and MMC for

(e.g. MMC4001).

References

External links

* * * Electronics industry by country Economic history of Romania Socialist Republic of Romania Science and technology in Romania {{Electronics-stub

History

After 1990

Semiconductor designation

See also

References

External links