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Coputer PP06 - XT clone from Czechoslovakia

romanon

romanon

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So some people here want to know something about this computer, so here it is.

This computer was made in late 80's in "Závody výpočtovej techniky" Banská Bystrica - Slovakia.
It is IBM PC XT Compatible computer with 8088-4,77Mhz processor, 640kB RAM, 21MB Hard Drive ST-225, CGA compatible graphics and 2x360kB floppy drive.

What is interesting, is the inside.

IMG_1739.jpg

It is not very usual concept of XT computer. Why? This PC dont have normal motherboard and normal ISA cards, actually, it doesnt have any ISA slots :)

The inside consist of 1. Motherboard card, 2. Memory card, 3. Graphics card, 4. Floppy disk controller and 5. Hard drive controller
All this cards are inserted into pasive bus, which contains only special "PP06" slots and power supplying cables.

Motherboard card, ROM chips, some main circuits, CPU, place for coprocessor, keyboard connection and hard reset button, that two zinc sheets are pc speaker connection

IMG_1747.jpg

Memory card, 2x 256kb and 2x 64kb, also I/O connection

IMG_1746.jpg

Graphics card, CGA compatible, with also composite output

IMG_1745.jpg

Floppy disk controller with another I/O connection

IMG_1744.jpg


Continue on next post..
 
That's very interesting! It looks like they have almost reinvented the wheel to make this! I wonder why?? Maybe to make use of the backplane thus saving money?

I doubt that would have ever passed proper electrical safety regulations.
 
Hard drive controller, this is normal XT MFM controller, with some reduction to PP06 slot

IMG_1748.jpg

Power supply is situated under hard and floppy drives

IMG_1761.jpg

PP06 ROM Basic

pp06rombasic1985.jpg

Power swtich on the back of case

IMG_1741.jpg

Original PP06 keyboard with DIN connector

IMG_3187.jpg
 
Some historical photos of PP06 manufacturing

In fact, there was strictly prohibited to make any pictures from manufacturing back in times...

1u9Ub2Tx.jpg

xVMCdkWu.jpg
 
That is a fascinating design. Thanks for posting. There is something very satisfying about nicely laid out cards.

One small follow up question: Do other Czechoslovakian systems use the same backplane?
 
Looks like they had trouble sourcing molex connectors...that PSU is crazy.

"PP 06 ROM BASIC" looks suspiciously similar to IBM's...down to the same version number and bytes free.
 
romanon said:
yes, no so pretty like on IBM CGA, but yes it does :)
Click to expand...

That's really cool actually! Do you think you could make a video of that machine running 8088 MPH (and/or some other popular PC software)?
Just a simple handheld phone cam would be fine :)
 
anormal said:
Any idea of how many units were built?
Also, what kind of DOS it runs?
is this in MESS? :D
Click to expand...

It was supplied with also special "PP-DOS" but work like normal XT with all PC/MS-DOS's currently with PC-DOS 3.30
How many were built? No idea :)
 
romanon said:
so here is 8088mph on PP06, i have only RGB monitor so i cant try composite video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3uY4cABzLE
Click to expand...

Well, that looks perfect, and that's even the less compatible party-version of the demo :)
Quite amazing that this weird machine is actually more compatible than even some original IBM machines :)

For composite you can probably just take any random TV (modern LCDs are fine). They will either have composite in via cinch connector, or they have SCART. You can get SCART-to-cinch converters, like this:
scartto3rca_1400252383.jpg

It's a bit of luck whether the TV will properly decode 60 Hz NTSC image and colour data. But if you try a few TVs, you're likely to find one that works. I used a Samsung LCD TV myself during development, which did both PAL and NTSC properly over composite.
 
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