🇸🇰 SMEP PP 01: Part 1 (First Look) [TCE #0461]
80Let's have a look at another Czechoslovak 8080 based machine, the SMEP PP 01, using the Tesla MHB8080A clone.
SMEP = Systém Malých Elektronických Počítačov (Small Electronic Computer System), and
PP 01 = Personálny Počítač (Personal Computer).
It is quite a large machine, however not too heavy. It appears that it should have a top lid (like a typewriter ... wot dat?), and could be carried like a briefcase with a handle on the front.
The keyboard is expansive but doesn't feel like much fun to touch-type on as the key switches don't have much travel. Perhaps a clean & lubricate might help?
It comes with a decent number of interface ports: colour RGB video output, cassette recorder, V.24 serial, parallel, two expansion ports plus an additional edge connector (for additional ROMs?) on the top of the machine.
It includes 64KBytes of RAM and 16KByte of ROM, curiously implemented by a mixture of 1KByte EPROMs (of both Czechoslovak & Soviet manufacture) and masked ROMs. The ROM apparently contains a monitor and BASIC.
Most of the logic uses Tesla chips.
It was developed at the Computing Technology Research Institute (Výskumnom Ústave Výpočtovej Techniky = VÚVT) in Žilina and manufactured at the Computing Technology Plant (Závodoch Výpočtovej Techniky = ZVT) in Banská Bystrica (now in independent Slovakia).
There still is a company called ZVT in Banská Bystrica, specialising in PCB manufacture: https://www.zvtprint.sk/
A good source of information & emulator:
https://pp01.borik.net/index.php