VEB Kombinat Robotron (or simply Robotron) was the biggest

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

electronics manufacturer. It was based in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

and employed 68,000 people (1989). It produced

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or te ...

s, SM EVM

minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of smaller general purpose computers that developed in the mid-1960s and sold at a much lower price than mainframe and mid-size computers from IBM and its direct competitors. In a 1970 survey, ' ...

s, the ESER

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...

s, several computer peripherals as well as home computers, radios, television sets and other items including the cookie press ''Kleingebäckpresse Typ 102''.

Divisions

Robotron managed several different divisions: *VEB Robotron-Elektronik Dresden (headquarters) — typewriters, personal computers, minicomputers, mainframes *VEB Robotron-Meßelektronik Dresden — measurement and testing devices, home computers *VEB Robotron-Projekt Dresden —

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...

department *VEB Robotron-Buchungsmaschinenwerk

Karl-Marx-Stadt Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germ ...

— personal computers,

floppy disk drives A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined wi ...

*VEB Robotron-Elektronik

Hoyerswerda Hoyerswerda () or Wojerecy () is a major district town in the district of Bautzen in the German state of Saxony. It is located in the Sorbian settlement area of Upper Lusatia, a region where some people speak the Sorbian language in addition to ...

—

monitors Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West ...

, power supply units *VEB Robotron-Elektronik

Radeberg Radeberg is a small town in the district of Bautzen, Saxony, Germany. It is located approximately 20 kilometres north-east of Dresden. The town has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, and an old castle. History Radeberg was mention ...

— mainframes, radio receivers, portable television receivers, directional radio systems *VEB Robotron Vertrieb Dresden,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

and

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in ...

— sales departments *VEB Robotron-Elektronik

Zella-Mehlis Zella-Mehlis is a town in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated in the Thuringian Forest, 5 km north of Suhl, and 20 km east of Meiningen. The town of Zella-Mehlis is the site of the original Wal ...

—

computer terminal A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for entering data into, and transcribing data from, a computer or a computing system. The teletype was an example of an early-day hard-copy terminal and ...

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with mag ...

s *VEB Robotron-Büromaschinenwerk

Sömmerda Sömmerda is a town near Erfurt in Thuringia, Germany, on the Unstrut river. It is the capital of the district of Sömmerda. History Archeological digs in the area that is now Sömmerda, formerly Leubingen, have uncovered prominently buried h ...

— personal computers, printers, electronic calculators (Soemtron 220, 222, 224), invoicing machines (EFA 380), punched card indexers and sorters (Soemtron 432). *VEB Robotron Elektronik

Riesa Riesa is a town in the district of Meißen in Saxony, Germany. It is located on the river Elbe, approximately northwest of Dresden. History The name ''Riesa'' is derived from Slavic ''Riezowe''. This name, romanised as "Rezoa", appears first i ...

—

printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a laminated sandwich str ...

s *VEB Robotron-Anlagenbau

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

— general contractor, design and assembly for computer and process calculation systems in the GDR and export, training center On 30 June 1990 the ''Kombinat'' Robotron was liquidated and the divisions were converted into corporations. In the 1990s these companies were sold, ''e.g.'', to

Siemens Nixdorf Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme, AG (SNI) was formed in 1990 by the merger of Nixdorf Computer and the Data Information Services (DIS) division of Siemens. It functioned as a separate company within Siemens. It was the largest information ...

, or also liquidated. Robotron Datenbank-Software GmbH is a company which emerged from one of the former divisions of ''Kombinat'' Robotron. It was newly founded on 23 August 1990, just before

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

. Bundesarchiv Bild 183-Z1102-008, VEB Robotron Elektronik Dresden, Endmontage.jpg, Final assembly at VEB Robotron Elektronik Dresden, 1981 Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1984-1128-002, VEB Robotron Elektronik Dresden, Qualitätskontrolle.jpg, Quality conformance testing at VEB Robotron Elektronik Dresden, 1984 Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1985-0211-022, VEB Robotron Elektronik Dresden, Computer EC 2655M.jpg, A worker at an assembly plant producing the ES 2655 mainframe in 1985. Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1987-0125-004, VEB Robotron Elektronik Dresden, Endmontage.jpg, One of the 17,000

worker The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

s at the Kombinat Robotron in the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **G ...

in 1987 working during the weekend to produce

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

Rebranding activities

Robotron printers were sold in Western Germany as "Soemtron" or "Präsident", and the West German branch of

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...

used some Robotron parts for their printers. In East Germany,

Epson Seiko Epson Corporation, or simply known as Epson, is a Japanese multinational electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of computer printers and information- and imaging-related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano ...

printers were sold under the Robotron brand (but the technical description on the back was with the "Epson" logo).

Robotron computers and typewriters

Robotron product series: * ''Midrange computer'' EDVA Robotron 300 (based on

IBM 1401 The IBM 1401 is a variable-wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on October 5, 1959. The first member of the highly successful IBM 1400 series, it was aimed at replacing unit record equipment for processing data stored on pu ...

), * R 4000 and R 4200 computers (based on Honeywell Series 16), *

ES EVM The ES EVM (russian: Единая система электронных вычислительных машин (ЕС ЭВМ), translit=Yedinaya sistema electronnykh vytchislitel'nykh mashin (ES EVM), "Unified System of Electronic Computers"), o ...

systems EC 1040, EC 1055, EC 1056, EC 1057 (based on IBM

System/360 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applica ...

, IBM

System/370 The IBM System/370 (S/370) is a model range of IBM mainframe computers announced on June 30, 1970, as the successors to the System/360 family. The series mostly maintains backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path ...

), *

Minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of smaller general purpose computers that developed in the mid-1960s and sold at a much lower price than mainframe and mid-size computers from IBM and its direct competitors. In a 1970 survey, ' ...

and Superminicomputer K 1600 (DEC

PDP-11 The PDP-11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sol ...

), K 1840 ( VAX 11/780), K 1820 (

MicroVAX II The MicroVAX is a discontinued family of low-cost minicomputers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The first model, the MicroVAX I, was introduced in 1983.(announced October 1983) They used processors that implemen ...

), * Office and personal computers

A 5120 The A 5120 was an office computer produced by VEB Robotron in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz), East Germany starting in 1982. The system featured an 8-bit microprocessor, the U880. It was built for office work and had minimal graphics and sound ...

PC 1715 The PC 1715 was an office computer produced by VEB Robotron in East Germany starting in 1985. The system featured an 8-bit microprocessor, the U880, a clone of the Zilog Z80. It was built for office work and education, but also had an interface for ...

, A 7100, A 7150, BIC A 5105, EC 1834 ( IBM XT), EC 1835 (

IBM AT The IBM Personal Computer/AT (model 5170, abbreviated as IBM AT or PC/AT) was released in 1984 as the fourth model in the IBM Personal Computer line, following the IBM PC/XT and its IBM Portable PC variant. It was designed around the Intel 802 ...

), * OEM microcomputer systems K 1510, K 1520, K 1700 * Operating systems such as

JAMB A jamb (from French ''jambe'', "leg"), in architecture, is the side-post or lining of a doorway or other aperture. The jambs of a window outside the frame are called “reveals.” Small shafts to doors and windows with caps and bases are known ...

Disk Control Program MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ...

or KOBRA File:Robotron A 5120.jpg, Robotron

office computer, ''1982'' File:Robotron-KC87-2.jpg,

Robotron KC 87 The Robotron KC 87, fully known as the Kleincomputer robotron KC 87 (''KC'' standing for ''Kleincomputer'', lit. "small computer"), was an 8-bit home computer released in 1986 and produced in East Germany by the VEB Robotron-Meßelektronik "Ott ...

home computer, ''1987'' File:A7100EC1834.jpg, Robotron A 7100 and EC 1834 (XT-compatible) personal computer, ''1986'' File:RobotronPC1715.jpg,

File:Robotron K1840.jpg, Robotron RVS K 1840 (SM 1710), DEC VAX-11/780 Clone, ''1988'', recorded in the Technical Collections Dresden File:Robotron 204.jpg, A Robotron 204 electric typewriter from the 1980s File:VEB Robotron K8911.jpg, VEB Robotron K8911 File:Robotron calculator in the Pořežany museum.jpg, Robotron calculator with a printer

K1520 bus standard

The K1520 bus was an early

computer bus In computer architecture, a bus (shortened form of the Latin '' omnibus'', and historically also called data highway or databus) is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer, or between computers. This e ...

, created by VEB Robotron in 1980 and specified in TGL 37271/01. It was the predominant computer bus architecture of microcomputer-sized systems of

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

, whose industry relied heavily on the U880 microprocessor, 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 ...

. Among the large number of boards developed using the standard were * CPU modules *

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

modules * graphics cards *

magnetic tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magnet ...

controllers * Floppy disk controllers It was originally intended to be used to connect boards to backplanes, as in the *

office computer * A 5130 office computer * Poly-Play arcade cabinet but was also used as an extension bus for computers that featured a main board *

KC 85 The KC 85 ('KC' meaning "Kleincomputer", or "small computer") were models of microcomputers built in East Germany, first in 1984 by VEB Robotron (the KC 85/1) and later by VEB Mikroelektronik "Wilhelm Pieck" Mühlhausen (KC 85/2, KC 85/3 and KC ...

/2, KC85/3, KC85/4 ** 2 internal slots for extension cartridges and one back-side connector * D002 ** expansion unit for 4 additional extension cartridges * D004 ** floppy controller subsystem for KC95 based systems. 2 internal cartridge slots *

** 2 internal slots, one being occupied by the standard issue floppy disk controller * A 5105 (not produced in significant quantities) * KC 87 (a.k.a. z9001 or KC85/1) * Z1013 * KC compact (not produced in meaningful quantities) The bus had 58 pins and was commonly physically represented by a two-row connector with 29 pins each. The following signals and connections were used: * DB0 ... DB7 (bidirectional data bus) * AB0 ... AB15 (address bus) * /MREQ, /IORQ, /RD, /WR, /RFSH, /M1, /WAIT, /HALT, /INT, /NMI, /BUSRQ, /RESET (Z80 control signals) * /BAI, /BOA (/BUSACK priority chain) * /IEI, IEO (interrupt enable priority chain) * /IODI, /MEMDI, /RDY * clock * +5V * -5V * +12V * ground

References

External links

Robotron.foerderverein-tsd.de
nbsp;— The History of Robotron narrated by former staff members. German language site.

nbsp;— On-line generalised list of computers including Robotron. German language site.
Robotrontechnik.de
nbsp;— On-line museum of Robotron companies and products. German language site with some English translations.
Soemtron.org
nbsp;— Technical data for the Soemtron 22x series (220, 222, 224) desktop calculators manufactured by VEB Robotron Büromaschinenwerk Sömmerda.
Typewriter "Erika"
nbsp;— DDR Museum, Berlin
Company History
nbsp;— Company History Robotron Radeberg. {{DEFAULTSORT:Veb Robotron Home computer hardware companies Volkseigene Betriebe Defunct companies of Germany Science and technology in East Germany

Divisions

Rebranding activities

Robotron computers and typewriters

K1520 bus standard

See also

References

External links