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Elektronika Bk-0010
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Computer Information

  Type Home Computer
  Released 1985
  Processor K1801VM1 @3MHz (BK-0010), @46MHz (BK-0011), @4MHz (BK-0011M)
  OS Vilnius BASIC (ROM embeeded), OS BK-11 , various hobby OSes
  Memory 32 KiB


Elektronika BK is a series of Soviet Home Computer s trademarked as Elektronika that are approximate clones of PDP-11 . They are based on the К1801ВМ1 (Soviet clone of 11/03 LSI-11 ) CPU and were available in several different versions.

''BK'' (''БК'') is abbreviation - domestic (or home) computer.

All models had one free Q-Bus slot and a parallel port used to connect pripherals such as printer and mouse.


MODELS


Elektronika BK-0010 (Электроника БК-0010) was the first model. It had a membrane keyboard, 32 KiB RAM (half of which was used for the frame buffer), 32 KiB ROM with FOCAL Interpreter , a TV connected via EuroConnector (a version of SCART ) or a monitor could be used as a display device. A Tape Recorder was used for data storage in factory configuration.

There also was a separate Euroconnector for a color TV. It would display 256×256 graphics in four colours.

Although the instruction set and the I/O ports were described in the documentation provided with the computer, the assembly language development tools were not included. A Gray Market of games and development software flourished.

Disk drive controllers became available from third-party vendors.

Elektronika BK-0010-01 was more powerful with a conventional keyboard and a BASIC dialect P-code Compiler ( Vilnius BASIC ). FOCAL interpreter was shipped in an external ROM card which could be inserted into the Q-Bus slot.

Elektronika BK-0010Sh (Электроника БК-0010Ш) was a model intended specially for school use. It had a special network adapter which could be inserted into the Q-Bus slot.

Elektronika BK-0011 came in 1990, had 128 kiB of RAM divided into 16 KiB pages, a newer version of BASIC in ROM, 16 video palettes, and had the possibility to use a Disk Drive (The disk drive adaptor could also be used with BK-0010 series). One of the Operating System was ANDOS . A modification of RT-11 also existed.

Elektronika BK-0011M was a modified version of Elektronika BK-0011, which fixed some incompatibilities with BK-0010. In particular, the sound in programs for BK-0010 didn't work on BK-0011. It was fixed in BK-0011M. BK-0011M quickly went into production, and most of BK-0011 series computers were actually BK-0011M.

A 16-bit universal port with separate input and output busses, present in all models, allowed to utilize a multitude of peripheral devices ( Joystick , Mouse , printers, various sound output devices, etc.) for home entertainment, education, and for data acquisition and monitoring in various industrial and research settings.

Enthusiasts managed to connect more advanced devices to BK series computers. They developed a Hard Disk controller, and 2.5" HDDs were successfully used with BK computer. Other popular enhancement was an AY-3-8912 sound chip.


MODS


It was not uncommon among Users to install one or two Mechanical Switches that made using the computer more convenient. Some of the common mods were:

  • Reset Button . Programs often Hung ; also, some Games did not have a properly implemented Exit function. Without the button, the computer had to be reset by Power Cycling , eventually leading to a worn out power switch on the external power supply.


  • Pause switch. The switch activated hardware suspension of Instructions Execution in the processor. The pause switch was useful for pausing games, most of which did not have a Pause Key . A few games, however, did not behave gracefully after being returned from the suspension, because the programmable hardware Timer built into the processor Chip was still running while the instructions execution was suspended.



  • Clock speed switch (“turbo” switch). Changed the processor Clock Speed from the standard 3 MHz (BK-0010--- series) to 4 or 6 MHz, or from the standard 4 MHz (BK-0011--- series) to 3 or 6 MHz. Not all processor samples worked reliably at 6 MHz; the possibility of such Overclocking had to be determined experimentally for each sample. Switching the clock speed changed the pace of dynamic games. The turbo switch usually had to be installed together with the pause switch, because the simplest circuit for switching the clock speed produced bad Shapes in the clock signal due to Contact Bounce when the mechanical switch was flipped, running the risk of hanging the software execution unless the processor was in the suspended state.



These modifications were relatively simple and could be carried out by users who knew how to handle a Soldering Iron . Most of the people in the Cottage Industry of selling programs could also do the mods for a small Fee .


EMULATORS


There are various software Emulator s of BK for modern IBM PC -compatible computers. An emulator is able to run at a much higher speed than the original BK.


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