VEB Kombinat Robotron () (or simply Robotron) was the largest

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

electronics manufacturer. It was headquartered in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

and employed 68,000 people in 1989. Its products included

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

SM EVM SM EVM (СМ ЭВМ, abbreviation of Система Малых ЭВМ—literally System of Mini Computers) are several types of Soviet and Comecon minicomputers produced from 1975 through the 1980s. Most types of SM EVM are clones of DEC PDP-11 ...

minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe computers . By 21st century-standards however, a mini is ...

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, various computer

peripherals A peripheral device, or simply peripheral, is an auxiliary hardware device that a computer uses to transfer information externally. A peripheral is a hardware component that is accessible to and controlled by a computer but is not a core compo ...

as well as

microcomputers A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (P ...

, radios, television sets and other items including

cookie press A cookie press is a device for making pressed cookies such as spritz cookies. It consists of a cylinder with a plunger on one end, which is used to extrude Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross section (geometry), cr ...

''Kleingebäckpresse Typ 102''.

Divisions

Robotron managed several different divisions: *VEB Robotron-Elektronik Dresden (headquarters) —

typewriters A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...

, personal computers, minicomputers, mainframes *VEB Robotron-Meßelektronik Dresden — measurement and testing devices, home computers *VEB Robotron-Projekt Dresden —

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

department *VEB Robotron-Buchungsmaschinenwerk

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

— personal computers,

floppy disk drives A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a 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 with a ...

*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, in which the Upper Sorbian language is spoken in addition to German. ...

—

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 unit A power supply unit (PSU) converts mains AC to low-voltage regulated DC power for the internal components of a desktop computer. Modern personal computers universally use switched-mode power supplies. Some power supplies have a manual switch f ...

s *VEB Robotron-Elektronik

Radeberg Radeberg is a small town in the Bautzen (district), 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 Rade ...

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

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...

— sales departments *VEB Robotron-Elektronik

Zella-Mehlis Zella-Mehlis is a town in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district of Thuringia, Germany. It is situated in the Thuringian Forest, approximately 5km north of Suhl and 20km east of Meiningen. History Two of Germany's most notable firearm manufactu ...

—

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. Most early computers only had a front panel to input or display ...

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 hard disk drive platter, pla ...

s *VEB Robotron-Büromaschinenwerk

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

— personal computers,

printers Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James Printer (1 ...

, 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 f ...

—

printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB), also called printed wiring board (PWB), is a Lamination, laminated sandwich structure of electrical conduction, conductive and Insulator (electricity), insulating layers, each with a pattern of traces, planes ...

s *VEB Robotron-Anlagenbau

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

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

Siemens Nixdorf Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme (SNI) AG 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 te ...

and

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

, or liquidated. Less than five percent of the employees were able to switch to successor companies. However, the abundance of highly qualified workers promoted the subsequent settlement of various companies in the region. ''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 () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

. 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 17,000 assembly workers at Robotron in 1987 working a weekend to make

typewriter A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...

Robotron hardware and software

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

IBM 1401 The IBM 1401 is a variable word length computer, 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 pr ...

), * ''R 4000'' and ''R 4200'' computers (based on Honeywell Series 16), * ES EVM systems , ''EC 1055'', ''EC 1056'', ''EC 1057'' (based on IBM

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

, IBM

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

), *

Minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe computers . By 21st century-standards however, a mini is ...

and

Superminicomputer A superminicomputer, colloquially supermini, is a high-end minicomputer. The term is used to distinguish the emerging 32-bit architecture midrange computers introduced in the mid to late 1970s from the classical 16-bit systems that preceded them ...

(DEC

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

K 1840 The K 1840, full name RVS K 1840 (, "computer system with virtual memory") is a minicomputer from the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Its development began in August 1985 at Volkseigener Betrieb, VEB VEB Robotron, Robotron Elektronik in Dresden, ...

(

VAX 11/780 The VAX-11 is a discontinued family of 32-bit superminicomputers, running the Virtual Address eXtension (VAX) instruction set architecture (ISA), developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Development began in 1976. In ad ...

), K 1820 ( MicroVAX II), * 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 cap ...

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 was also put to some sp ...

, , , , ( IBM XT), ( IBM AT), * OEM modular microcomputer systems ''K 1510'', , ''K 1700'' * Operating systems such as Single User Control Program (based on CP/M), , ''Disk Control Program'' e(based on

MS-DOS 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 op ...

), and SIOS (an in-house development). File:Robotron A 5120.jpg, Robotron

office computer, ''1982'' File:Robotron-KC87-2.jpg, Robotron KC 87 microcomputer, ''1987'' File:A7100EC1834.jpg, Robotron ''A 7100'' and ''EC 1834'' (XT-compatible) personal computer, ''1986'' File:RobotronPC1715.jpg, Robotron

office computer, ''1985'' File:Robotron K1840.jpg, Robotron RVS

(SM 1710), DEC

VAX-11 The VAX-11 is a discontinued family of 32-bit superminicomputers, running the Virtual Address eXtension (VAX) instruction set architecture (ISA), developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Development began in 1976. In ...

/780 Clone, ''1988'', recorded in the Technical Collections Dresden File:Robotron 204.jpg, A Robotron Optima 204 electric typewriter from the 1980s File:VEB Robotron K8911.jpg, VEB Robotron K 8911 terminal, ~1981 File:Robotron calculator in the Pořežany museum.jpg, Robotron calculator with a printer File:Z1013 Hauptplatine.jpg , Robotron Z1013 single-board microcomputer kit, ''1985''

Rebranding of products

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 (India), in India ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ' ...

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

Epson Seiko Epson Corporation, commonly known as Epson, is a Japanese multinational electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of printers and information- and imaging-related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano, Japan, t ...

printers were sold under the Robotron brand that still had the Epson logo on the back.

K 1520 bus standard

The K 1520 bus was an early

computer bus In computer architecture, a bus (historically also called a data highway or databus) is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer or between computers. It encompasses both hardware (e.g., wires, optical ...

, 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 known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, whose industry relied heavily on the

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 F ...

microprocessor, a clone of the

Zilog Z80 The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog that played an important role in the evolution of early personal computing. Launched in 1976, it was designed to be Backward compatibility, software-compatible with the ...

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

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

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 magnetic ...

controllers and

floppy disk controller A floppy-disk controller (FDC) is a hardware component that directs and controls reading from and writing to a computer's floppy disk drive (FDD). It has evolved from a discrete set of components on one or more circuit boards to a special-purpo ...

s. It was originally intended to be used to connect boards to backplanes, as in the modular microcomputer system,

office computer, A 5130 office computer and the Poly-Play arcade cabinet. But it was also used as an expansion bus for computers that featured a

mainboard A motherboard, also called a mainboard, a system board, a logic board, and informally a mobo (see "Nomenclature" section), is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It holds and allow ...

such as *

office computer - with 2 internal slots, one being occupied by the floppy disk controller *

KC 85 The KC 85 ('KC' meaning "Kleincomputer", or "small computer") were models of microcomputers (KC 85/2, KC 85/3 and KC 85/4) built in East Germany by VEB Mikroelektronik "Wilhelm Pieck" Mühlhausen. The first model in the series, the HC 900, origi ...

/2, KC 85/3, KC 85/4

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (P ...

s - with two internal slots for expansion cartridges and one back-side connector for: ** D002 - expansion unit for 4 additional expansion cartridges ** D004 - a floppy controller subsystem plus 2 cartridge slots * KC 87 microcomputer - a.k.a. Z 9001 and KC 85/1 * Z 1013, a

home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

- consumer product in kit form * BIC A 5105 eeducational microcomputer - not produced in significant quantities * KC compact late home computer - 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 (bus priority chain) * /IEI, IEO (interrupt enable priority chain) * /IODI, /MEMDI, /RDY (access control) * 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 Volkseigene Betriebe Defunct computer companies of Germany Home computer hardware companies Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct computer systems companies Science and technology in East Germany

Divisions

Robotron hardware and software

Rebranding of products

K 1520 bus standard

See also

References

External links