1984 · Modular Colour Home Computer · Work 988 of 1,871
The planning office of an electronics works in Thuringia on a misty autumn morning, on a desk of light wood veneer a flat black base unit thirty-eight centimetres wide with ventilation slots on top, along its front a silver strip with two module slots, three small green lamps and cream-white push buttons, in front a flat black keyboard with round cream-white keys, every key plain, smooth and unmarked, on the base unit a small cream-yellow portable television with a soft even pale blue glow, a hand in a pale blue nylon work-coat sleeve sliding a flat black plug-in module into a slot, a rubber plant, factory chimneys in the mist outside.
What it was used for
Small computer from VEB Mikroelektronik "Wilhelm Pieck" Mühlhausen, shown at the Leipzig fair in spring 1984 under the name HC 900; chief developer Werner Domschke, team leader Werner Dennstedt. U880D at 1.75 MHz, 32 KB RAM of which 16 KB was screen memory, 4 KB ROM holding the CAOS operating system, no built-in BASIC — that came from cassette or as a plug-in module. A television served as display. In 1984 the machine went to industry, education and state bodies; it reached the shops only in 1986, then at 1,700 Mark (HNF).
What was new
What marks it is the construction: a detached keyboard, a base unit with slots, and modules pushed into them — 2 module bays and 1 expansion port, up to 14 bays with add-on units, with bank switching to an address space of 4 MByte (zock.com). Elektronikpraxis reads this modularity as a practical answer to the unreliable supply of components. Every pixel could be addressed individually (HNF). The barb is in the name: in 1985 the home computer HC 900 became the small computer KC 85/2, the H dropped — and according to Elektronikpraxis, private buyers could hardly obtain such computers until shortly before the end of the GDR.
What the sources leave open: The 1,700 Mark price for 1986 comes only from the HNF; robotrontechnik.de dates the 1986 retail launch to the successor KC 85/3, for which Elektronikpraxis gives 4,300 Mark. robotrontechnik.de estimates roughly 40,000 to 45,000 units for all KC machines together, not for the KC 85/2 alone. No source states why this particular machine was renamed: the HNF speaks only of a general standardisation of designations.