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Life cycle of the "JUKU" school computer

By the early 1980s, the Estonian SSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Cybernetics' Special Design Bureau of Computing Technology — for short EKTA — had experience with microprocessors, including system software for the union-wide SM-1800 based on the KR580VM80A chip and with developing networks of distributed-control systems / industrial computers. The processor of Estonia's first microcomputer MIKI, built at EKTA around 1977 — the 8085 — was technically compatible with JUKU; during the 1980s microcomputers were designed and produced based on 8080A clones, and according to EKTA's scientific director Harry Tani, by 1985 seven of their developed devices had been put into series production under codenames like MORAAL, SATELLIIT and others. For the bureau's employees, designing microcomputers was a passion, a hobby and an academic calling, and so the school computer JUKU — finished at record speed in half a year — did not appear out of thin air.

1985 — Prototype born of "second literacy"

  • The first JUKU prototype is built, along with software such as TERM, QDISK, QRUN, MTEST, and so on
March CPSU resolution declaring computer skills as a "second literacy"
May Meeting at the Institute of Cybernetics, voicing the wish to "do something in the republic itself"
November Two "working samples" promised in spring are demonstrated

1986 — E5101, the series-production base model

  • School-computer competition; production is planned (unsuccessfully) as a cooperation between RET and ESTRON
January It is announced that a universal microcomputer has been built at EKTA for teaching informatics
March RET receives the documentation needed to manufacture JUKU
March "On the way to a second literacy" presents TARTU and JUKU as candidates for the school computer
April EKTA designers Tõnu Tõnspoeg and Tõnu Arulaane introduce JUKU to Vikerraadio listeners
May At the school-computer competition conference it is noted that foreign companies show "greater interest" in manufacturing our school computers "than our own do"; ENTEL has joined the contest
June At the Popov Scientific and Technical Society competition, first prize goes to JUKU and TARTU
July "With JUKU or..." — the early-year promise of 40 school computers, with the number to exceed 1000 the following year
July "JUKU microcomputer user manual" goes to typesetting
November RET re-acquires the technical documentation that had been lost in the meantime
November The first JUKU is set up — built at ESTRON, which was originally supposed to produce the cases

1987 — The lost models E5102 and E5103
January "The JUKU microcomputer" brochure
March Russian-language drawings of the tape-system JUKU
April Noorte Hääl article series "JUKU, this school-friendly computer"
September FORMAT, DOSGEN, PIP, SED, GTR, JBASIC, MTPLUS are ready for release
September "JUKU microcomputer user manual" finally goes to print
October Diagnostic tools MTEST, MTEST2, CPU, TERM, QRUN, QDISK, TTEST
November JUKU's official game SNAKE (XONIX the same year)
December RomBios 3.4

1988 — E5104, the school computer with a disk system
January EKDOS 2.29 (and in parallel at some point, RomBios 3.43m)
May "JUKU's bumpy road" to production receives coverage in the party's mouthpiece
September–October High-level languages and programming tools PASCAL, B80, BASCOM, F80, L80, SID, ASM
October Demos, printer drivers, network OS
November The Baltijets factory in Narva receives the JUKU technical documentation; the task of producing JUKU comes down from the USSR Council of Ministers
December The first 40 JUKU school computers finally come off the Baltijets production line

1989 — JUKU reaches the schools
April The EKDOS 2.30 source code is finished
August Final formatting of Baltijets E5104 documentation
December The EKDOS utilities DISK #4 squeezes the last bit out of the machine — 80x25 mode, the CF/JCM/FDMAINT copy tools, the games BUGABOO, CHESS, CATCHUM, LADDER and more

1990 — The school computer steps into the teacher's role

  • Teaching materials begin to be prepared, but students on their own JUKUs are moving ahead too fast
  • Indrek Jentson publishes the PASCAL/MT+ extension-library package, which finds wide use
  • EKTA and Baltijets plan a PC/AT-compatible 16-bit JUKU
  • The last known version of RomBios, with a PC/AT keyboard and serial number #0043

1991 — JUKU's golden age

1992 — The Tiger gets ready to leap

See also