History of computing in Poland


This article describes the history of computing in Poland.

Odra

Some of the earliest computers created in Poland were the first Odra computers. They were manufactured at the Elwro manufacturing plant in Wrocław, and exported to other communist countries. The production started in 1959–1960.
The last series of Odra computers—the Odra 1300—consisted of three models: the Odra 1304, 1305, and the 1325. Although the hardware was developed by Polish teams, the software for the above machines was provided by the British company ICL. The Odra was ICL 1900 compatible.

K-202

was 16-bit minicomputer built by Jacek Karpiński in 1971. It was faster and cheaper than most of the world's production at this time, and more advanced than IBM PC released decade later, but the production was never started because of political reasons and dependence on western parts; it was not compatible with the ES EVM standard.

Meritum

Produced by Mera-Elzab, Meritum I and II models were created in 1983 and 1985 respectively. Based on U880DA CPU, with 16 and 48KB RAM, were based on the TRS-80 computer. They were intended primarily for scientific, engineering and office applications.

Elwro Junior

Elwro 800 Junior and Elwro 804 Junior PC were ZX Spectrum clones intended for schools, and for home use respectively. The 804 model had a 3.5" disk drive built in; the drive was available as an accessory for 800. The computers used the Z80A CPU, 64KB RAM and 24KB ROM. The ROM contained either CP/J operating system, or Spectrum-compatible BASIC.

Mazovia

Mazovia was a Polish clone of IBM PC/XT.