Computer Museum Summary

Museum of Computers is part of the Computing Center at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava

The museum maps the history of computing in Slovakia in the context of Czechoslovak, East European and World development and exhibits more then 800 objects (computers, peripheral and network devices and their parts like printed circuits boards, integrated circuits etc.) as well as many „historical“ books, manuals, magnetic tapes, diskettes, CD/DVD ROMs, and other documents on the Information and Communication Technology.

The Museum is not only a nostalgia of the old days of computing, but also demonstration how  computer technology changed over the last 60 years – from the vacuum tube machines to smartphones with complex systems on a chip or supercomputers with many powerful microprocessors.

Museum has following thematic sections:

    • Prehistory of computers, calculators and organizers: Russian abacus, slide rules, desk top electro – mechanical (Cellatron, Rheimettal, NISA), desktop and pocket electronic calculators (HP 45, HP-9825, TI SR-11, TI-30, TI-50A, TI-51-III, TI-57, TI-59 + TI PC-100C, TI- PS6760Si, Canon Palmtronic, Casio Digital diary SF-5300E, HR-8TE, Sharp PC-1430, IQ-8500, EL-510R,  Hexaglot World translator, Elorg 71, Elka 43, 50, 101, Tesla T-801, MR411, Euro calculators Austria and Slovakia etc.).
    • Analog and hybrid computers: First Slovak computer – analog, developed and built in 1958 at Slovak Academy of Sciences, Czechoslovakia made MEDA 41TC and MEDA 50 and parts of Czechoslovakia made AP3M analog computer and US made EAI Pacer hybrid computer.
    • Data archiving devices and media: Paper tape punching and reading machines (Czechoslovak made FS1500 reader, DT105 puncher and T100 teletype), punched cards (80 and 90 columns),  magnetic tape and cartridge drives  (Czechoslovak ZPA CM5311, DEC TU80, HP A3324N, Exabyte EXB – 8500S, IBM Ultrium 2, Sun DDS3 and 4),  scalable tape library IBM 3583, robotic arm from the IBM Total Storage – Enterprise Automated Tape Library 3494, IBM library manager 7585, different magnetic tapes and cartridges.  Removable magnetic disks – Bulgaria made 29MB IZOT, Scoth 7,25 MB (used with CDC3300),  DEC 100MB stacks and 2,5MB single platter cartridges IZOT and DECpack BPI-12, Czechoslovak made Consul 7113, Hungaria made MF 3200 and 6400 8″, IBM and East Germany made Robotron K5600 (360kB and 1,2MB),  5″ and different 3,5″ floppy disks drives including disassembed devices – illutrating the evolution of mechanical parts and read/write heads.  Follows different hard disk drives (including disassembled), 1MB magnetic bubble memory Intel 7110-1, Keystone Data Silo DS50-S2, IBM microdrive, 240 GB Keystone SSD, CD and DVD drives and disks. Another exhibitted objects are printed circuit boards – Pertec tape controller with six Intel 3000, two bits ALU slices,  Emulex with DEC 310 16 bit single chip microprocessor and Hungarian ALBACOMP SZM 4 Winchester disk interface with Z80 microprocessor and four AMD 2900 4 bits ALU slices. There is also disk controller operator´s panel UU NMD made in the USSR or Bulgaria.
    • Data transmission technology and networks:  Modems, laser and radio transmitter/receiver, local area network components, optical cables, Slovak Academic Network (SANET).
    • The First and the Second generation computers: Parts of the machines and documents used at SAV and other institutions: ZRA-1 parts, GIER PCBs with transistor-diode logic, ZPA 601 ferrite core memory matrix, MINSK 22 PCB.
    • The Third generation Slovak control computer RPP-16: It was the first Slovak digital computer and the first Third generation Czechoslovak control computer, designed at the Institute of Technical Cybernetics (ÚTK) SAV, developed for mass production at VVS (Research and development center) in Žilina (later VÚVT) and manufactured in Tesla Námestovo. Exhibited is RPP-16S (medium) and RPP-16M (mini) computers, PCBs with Czechoslovak made TTL ICs from Tesla Rožnov and ferrite core memory from the first prototype of this machine.
    • DEC mini, super mini computers and servers: DEC PDP 8/e, PDP11/45, PDP 11/84, VAX Vector 6000-450, Alpha server 2000, 2100, 3100, parts of PDP 11/50, DEC writer LA36, CRT monitors VT05 and VT 420, vector graphic display GT40.
    • DEC compatible computers made in  Hungary ( PDP8 compatible – TPD Quadro and parts of PDP11 compatible TPA70), GDR (PDP8 compatible KSR4100), USSR (DEC LSI 11 compatible Electronica 60, on this machine the game TETRIS was developed) and  Slovakia.
    • SMEP (System of Small Computers) parts of DEC PDP 11 compatible computers   developed at VÚVT Žilina and produced in ZVT Námestovo and ZVT Banská Bystrica before 1989. CRT terminals SM1601, SM7202, SM7202.M2, printers Consul 2111-03, D100 (made in Poland), PCBs from SM3, SM4, SM52/11, SM 50/50-1, SM50/50 -2, SM50/40, SM52/12.
    • Mainframes, workstations, servers, parallel and super computers: Parts of CDC 3300, parts of the Soviet made Unified range of COMECON electronic computers  (RIAD) ES 1033,  the first Czechoslovak highly parallel, associative PPS SIMD computer with 256 one bit processors – developed at ÚTK SAV in 1983, IBM Power server 950, RISC system 6000/340, RISC system 6000/220, RISC System 6000/E30,  z900,  System 390 Enterprise server, pSeries 630 Model 6E4, 9117 Mid-range server Model 570 and Model MMA, Blade Center JS20, JS21 and JS22, SGI Origin 2000, SGI Indy workstation, Sun Enterprise 4500 server (CPU/RAM module with 2 UltraSPARC II processors), Sun Fire 280R (CPU module with 2 UltraSPARC III processors), Sun Fire 6800 (CPU/RAM module with 4 Ultra SPARC III processors), ASUS NCL-DS server (with 2 Intel Xeon processors). In the frames of in advance registered excursions, it is possible to visit the most powerful super computer in Slovakia – Aurel (50m from the museum building).
    • Peripherals for mini and mainframes: Different paper tape writers and readers, magnetic tape drives and media, magnetic and optical discs drives and media  (in data archiving section), terminals, plotters and digitizers (at mainframes and mini computer sections e.g. Calcomp 565, HP 1824, pen holder and punch tape with driver software for Digigraph (ZPA Nový Bor), ultra sonic graph pen SAC, ZVT B. Bystrica made GT01 data tablet).
    • 8 bits school and home computers: Slovak 8 bit microcomputers – single board computer PMI -80  developed at Tesla Piešťany, school microcomputer system developed in VÚVT Žilina, one board microprocessor TEMS 80-03 from Tesla Promes (Czech),  home computers with TV set monitors – PMD-85, PP-01, Didaktik Alfa (based on MHB8080 microprocessor), Didaktik Gama, Didaktik M, Mato, Ondra SPO 186  (Tesla Liberec), PCB from SP 840 (based on GDR equivalent of Z80 processor), TP8 (ZVT Banská Bystrica), SAPI I (Tesla Liberec), one needle mosaic printer BT100. UK and US made 8 bit home computers Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Spectrum+, Spectrum +2, Spectrum +3, Atari 800XE, 800XL, 1040ST, Commodore Pet 2000, PLUS/4, 64 and 128D.
    • Desktop  personal computers (exhibited 16 or more bits): IBM 5150 PC, IBM PS/2, East European clones produced before 1989 – Pravetz (Bulgaria), ÚTK SAV made PC AT, PP 06 (developed by VÚVT Žilina and produced by ZVT Banská Bystrica), TNS and TNS -AT (developed and produced by the agricultural cooperative Slušovice – now Czech republic.).
    • Apple Computers: Macintosh SE/30, LC II model MI700, Power Macintosh 7500/100, Power PC 8100/110, iMac, eMac, Power Book 5300S, Power Book G4, MacBook 2.1.
    • Luggables, notebooks and netbooks (exhibited): IBM 8573/121 9 – kg luggable PC, IBM ThinkPad ASUS Eee PC etc.
    • Handhelds, palmtops, tablets and smart phones: LG H-220C -Phenom, U.S. Robotics Pilot 1000, Handspring Visor Edge, Tréo 180g Communicator, Tréo PalmOne 650, HP iPAQ hw6515, The Book Reader, disassembled Apple iPhone 3GS with description of particular components and iPhone 5s, different mobile phones.
    • Integrated circuits: Different SSI, MSI and LSI developed at ÚTK SAV, Tesla VÚST Prague, Tesla Piešťany, VÚVT Žilina and produced at the TESLA Rožnov and Piešťany.
    • Microprocessors: Built in different computers, workstations and servers or part of PCBs: Intel, MOS, Motorola, AMD, IBM, DEC, VLSI, SGI, Sun, Inmos, Acorn and Czechoslovak, Soviet and GDR clones.
    • Virtual reality and computer games: Different joystics, Nintendo 64 console, controllers and game cartridges, Sony Playstation 2, V3 Interact steering wheel, Victor Maxx Technologies Cyber Maxx VR googles, audio casette tapes with games for PMD85, Sinclair Spectrum and Atari computers.
    • Computer Graphics in Visual Arts: At the classroom are exhibited works of the Slovak pioneer of computer graphics art – sculptor Jozef Jankovič, created  at the ÚTK SAV with programmer Imro Bertok. Museum has a collection of computer prints created by computer artists from Austria, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech republic, Slovakia,  France, Germany, Greenland, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Japan,  Singapure, Switzerland, Ukraine, USA. These works were generated (algorithmic art) or created with computers and sent by e-mail to Bratislava. They were printed and exhibited at the exhibitions Computer Graphics – E-Mail Art 1994 – 1998  during an annual computer exhibitions COFAX or at the art galleries in Slovakia, Czech republic and Poland.

How to get here: The main (but not best) entry is directly from Dubravska cesta (approximatelly 150m from IBM garages on the way to SVU (School of Applied Arts)). Ring the bell at the gate. Another entry is from the SAV campus, the one floor building behind the Computing Center (Výpočtové stredisko) staircase behing the entry to Computing Center and to the right 50m (ring the bell). See http://www.vystava.sav.sk/pristup-do-muzea-s-mhd/ or http://www.vystava.sav.sk/pristup-do-muzea-autom/

 

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