A 5120
The A 5120 was an office computer produced by VEB Robotron in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz), East Germany starting in 1982. The system featured an 8-bit microprocessor, the U880. It was built for office work and had minimal graphics and sound capabilities. The price was between 27,000 and 40,000 East German marks (around 24,000-35,000 2016 US dollars) depending on equipment.
| Manufacturer | VEB Robotron |
|---|---|
| Release date |
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| Introductory price | |
| Units shipped | 17,000 (A 5120 and A 5120.16) |
| Operating system | SCP (CP/M clone), UDOS (Z80-RIO clone) |
| CPU | |
| Memory |
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| Storage | two cassette drives, then later one 8" floppy drive, or up to three 5.25" floppy drives |
| Display | Integrated monochrome monitor |
| Platform | K 1520 bus |
| Successor | PC 1715 |
In 1986, a new version was produced, the A 5120.16. The system was identical to the A 5120, with the addition of two additional boards, one with a U8000 16-bit microprocessor (a Zilog Z8000 clone), and one with 256KiB DRAM. The original 8-bit system functioned as an I/O subsystem. In this configuration it could run the relatively powerful MUTOS8000 (Unix System III derivative). The price of this model was between about 32,000 and 48,000 East German marks.
In total, about 17,000 A 5120 and A 5120.16 units were manufactured.
In March 1983, a stamp was issued by the German Democratic Republic featuring the A 5120. 4.5 million copies were printed.
An A 5120 was featured in the 2015 television show Deutschland 83 as an example of technological disparity between East and West Germany in the early 1980s.