4 ms·

> The picture is one of a landscape littered with uninspired attempts to copy American IBM PCs, British ZX Spectrums, and other Western computers. As opposed t

by rob74 3y ago

> The picture is one of a landscape littered with uninspired attempts to copy American IBM PCs, British ZX Spectrums, and other Western computers. As opposed to the Galaksija, which, er... copied the ZX Spectrum? I somehow fail to see the point that the article is trying to make here. If anything, the designers of the Galaksija had an easier job than those of the numerous other Eastern European Spectrum clones (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ZX_Spectrum_clones?useskin=vector#Czech_&_Czechoslovak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ZX_Spectrum_clones?use...), because they at least had some access to western-made components... EDIT: after reading the Wikipedia article, I stand corrected: the Galaksija wasn't a Sinclair clone, it was an independently designed Z80-based home computer. Which of course meant that you couldn't access the extensive software library (= games) available for ZX Spectrum, but had to develop your own software.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
flohofwoe 3y ago
The Z80 chip family was also "easily" available behind the Iron Curtain because East Germany manufactured reverse-engineered Z80 clones (called the U880). AFAIK the ZX Spectrum ULA could be 'emulated' with TTL logic, that's what East German hobbyist Spectrum clones did at least. That's also why Spectrum clones were so popular, they didn't require any complex custom chips like the C64.
- lstodd 3y ago
  There were clones of 8080, Z80 and 8086. The KR580VM80A - an 8080 clone was the most popular/accessible in the USSR I think. The U880 was a Z80 clone, Soviet designation KR1858VM1, but most of the early-mid 1980s 8-bit home-built machines were 580- and thus 8080-based.
RetroTechie 3y ago
From its design/specs, it looks to have very similar capabilities as a Sinclair ZX80/ZX81. And the lesser-known Jupiter Ace. Read: ~3/4 of the time the CPU cycles through some tightly-coded ROM software, and character data from ROM + a bit of circuitry generates the monochrome video signal. Roughly ~1/4 of the time (vblank) the CPU can work on user programs. Given the constraints of composite video timing, the Galaksija must be doing this in similar fashion. So with a Z80 at 3MHz it would perform as if at ~0.8MHz. Slow (even by those days' standards!), but useable. ZX81 is rather flexible in how it produces graphics (esp. with 16KB RAM). And has a "FAST" mode in which the video generation is skipped, giving full CPU speed @ the cost of a blank screen. Dunno if Galaksija can do this. ZX Spectrum added dedicated video hardware (no CPU work needed to generate image), color, sound, and more extensive BASIC. So from programmer's perspective, a very different beast. Disclaimer: I'm one of the very few people who re-implemented the ZX81's "ULA" chip (a kind of semi-custom gate array) in a CPLD. So I know a 'little' about how this works. :-) If you want more info just ask. Not familiar with the Galaksija design though.

by rob74 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

flohofwoe 3y ago

The Z80 chip family was also "easily" available behind the Iron Curtain because East Germany manufactured reverse-engineered Z80 clones (called the U880). AFAIK the ZX Spectrum ULA could be 'emulated' with TTL logic, that's what East German hobbyist Spectrum clones did at least. That's also why Spectrum clones were so popular, they didn't require any complex custom chips like the C64.

lstodd 3y ago
There were clones of 8080, Z80 and 8086. The KR580VM80A - an 8080 clone was the most popular/accessible in the USSR I think. The U880 was a Z80 clone, Soviet designation KR1858VM1, but most of the early-mid 1980s 8-bit home-built machines were 580- and thus 8080-based.

RetroTechie 3y ago

From its design/specs, it looks to have very similar capabilities as a Sinclair ZX80/ZX81. And the lesser-known Jupiter Ace. Read: ~3/4 of the time the CPU cycles through some tightly-coded ROM software, and character data from ROM + a bit of circuitry generates the monochrome video signal. Roughly ~1/4 of the time (vblank) the CPU can work on user programs. Given the constraints of composite video timing, the Galaksija must be doing this in similar fashion. So with a Z80 at 3MHz it would perform as if at ~0.8MHz. Slow (even by those days' standards!), but useable. ZX81 is rather flexible in how it produces graphics (esp. with 16KB RAM). And has a "FAST" mode in which the video generation is skipped, giving full CPU speed @ the cost of a blank screen. Dunno if Galaksija can do this. ZX Spectrum added dedicated video hardware (no CPU work needed to generate image), color, sound, and more extensive BASIC. So from programmer's perspective, a very different beast. Disclaimer: I'm one of the very few people who re-implemented the ZX81's "ULA" chip (a kind of semi-custom gate array) in a CPLD. So I know a 'little' about how this works. :-) If you want more info just ask. Not familiar with the Galaksija design though.