Pravetz were Bulgarian computers, manufactured mainly in the town of Pravetz but also components and software were produced in Stara Zagora

Stara Zagora

Stara Zagora is the sixth largest city in Bulgaria, and a nationally important economic center. Located in Southern Bulgaria, it is the administrative capital of the homonymous Stara Zagora Province...

, Plovdiv

Plovdiv

Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...

 and other.

History

First Bulgarian personal computer

Personal computer

A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

 IMKO-1

IMKO-1

The IMKO-1 , Individualen Micro KOmputer, Individual micro computer) was the first Bulgarian personal computer, built in 1979 in Pravetz, Bulgaria. It was the first in the Pravetz series 8 range of computers. Like other computers in the series, it is an Apple II clone....

, protopype of Pravetz computers was developed by Ivan Vassilev Marangozov, often accused of cloning Apple II. Few first models were produced in ITKR - Institute of technical cybernetics and robotics, BAS

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869. The Academy is autonomous and has a Society of Academicians, Correspondent Members and Foreign Members...

 and later started industrial production.

Pravetz computers were of major importance in Comecon

Comecon

The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance , 1949–1991, was an economic organisation under hegemony of Soviet Union comprising the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with a number of communist states elsewhere in the world...

.

8-bit architecture

• IMKO-1
  IMKO-1
  The IMKO-1 , Individualen Micro KOmputer, Individual micro computer) was the first Bulgarian personal computer, built in 1979 in Pravetz, Bulgaria. It was the first in the Pravetz series 8 range of computers. Like other computers in the series, it is an Apple II clone....
  
   — First Bulgarian personal computer. Has a Intel 8080A/2 MHz CPU, and 16/4 Kb RAM/ROM. The storage media is a cassette recorder.
• Pravetz 82 (IMKO-2) - 82 is model year. BASIC
  BASIC
  BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
  
   interpreter, RAM/ROM - 48/12 Kb; CPU Synertek 6502 /1 MHz. The storage is improved due to one or (optional) two 5.25" floppy disk drive(s).
• Pravetz 8М - Integrated second CPU Zilog Z80A at 4 MHz can work with CP/M
  CP/M
  CP/M was a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc...
  
  . The military version features integrated terminal design.
• Pravetz 8E - Industrial model based on the original Pravetz 82 architecture plus some memory extensions
• Pravetz 8А - Uses Bulgarian-made chipset СМ 630, memory could be expanded up to 1 Mb, accessible in 64Kb windows.
• Pravetz 8D - 8 bit home computer, uses TV instead of computer monitor. Not compatible with Pravetz 82 but inherits its architecture from the Oric
  Tangerine Computer Systems
  British microcomputer company Tangerine Computer Systems was founded in 1979 by Dr. Paul Johnson, Mark Rainer and Nigel Penton Tilbury in St. Ives, Cambridgeshire...
  
   home computers and compatible with their software
• Pravetz 8С - cut down 8А, 128Kb RAM integrated, but not expandable. Less number of slots, but integrated Centronics, FDD controlers, Joystick and sometimes with RS-232. A version of 8C is the Pravetz 8VC, which features terminal like design.
• Pravetz 8S - The most advanced from the series, 128Kb RAM integrated, exapandable to 1080KB. Less number of slots, but integrated Centronics, FDD controlers, Joystick and sometimes with RS-232. Could control 3.5" floppy disk drive and a 5MB HDD. Improved motherboard design with higher integration and support for various character sets.

16-bit architecture

Pravetz-16 were IBM PC compatible

IBM PC compatible

IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...

:

• Pravetz-16 (IMKO-4) - Featured Intel 8086/8088 at 4Mhz. Simple motherboard design with Bulgarian chipset. Standard RAM
  Ram
  -Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
  
   256KB or 512KB expandable to 640KB.
• Pravetz-16E
• Pravetz-16ES (variations as a desktop or tower box) - Featured the 80186 processor at 8Mhz.
• Pravetz-16A
• Pravetz-16T - Turbo version
• Pravetz-286

See also

• Bulgarian computers