Blast-From-The-Past: Russian Apple II Clone, The Agat 4

Via Wikipedia

The Apple II was one of the most successful personal computers of all time, and it was a computer that was, and still is, considered to be the very first real personal computer that ever was, and the very computer that launched the personal computer industry as we know it today.

Not surprisingly, many would try and emulate it, and it launched a whole list of Apple II clones. Some of them I've have known about for years, while others not so much, including the one above, the 1983: AGAT 4.

The Agat was Commissioned by the USSR Ministry of Radio, and initially built by the Soviet car manufacturer LEMZ, and it was sold for around $600 - $1,000, which was a lot at the time and especially for the citizenry of the former communist empire. Despite its cost, the Agat was still considerably cheaper than most other Soviet made computers and thus the Agat became widely adopted in schools and other educational institutions across both the Soviet Union, and, as well, other communist Eastern Bloc countries. Mind you, the Agat was still way out of the reach for most of the citizenry and it was available for only the most privileged of private individuals. No wonder, the Agat 4 cost as much as twenty times the monthly salary of the average worker.

At the time,  most of the Agat 4's software was limited to an educational nature and it included a BASIC interpreter, as well as basic text editing programs, and was designed primarily to assist teachers in the classroom, and Wikipedia states that  it features included:

Media Cassette tapes, 5¼-inch floppy disks
Power Internal Power Supply (220V, 60W)
CPU UMC UM6502 [1]
Memory 64KB, 128KB or 256KB RAM, 32KB ROM
Display 64x64 (16 colors), 128x128 (8 colors), 256x256 (black & white)
Input Keyboard
Dimensions 460 x 350 x 160 cm
Weight 9kg 

Via: www.leningrad.su

The Agate 4 was followed by other models such as the Agate 9, shown above and below, and was a part of Russian computing history that included others interesting Russian computers to be found here.

Via: www.leningrad.su

In conclusion, the Russian Agat 4 might have been an Apple II clone, but interestingly, and for various reasons, it was only partially compatible with the Apple II, but it is nonetheless was a very interesting piece of history, though little of it was known about here in the west.




And that's my 2 cents on old Soviet computers 4 this glorious Monday day, June 18, 2012