Pravetz (computer)

Range of Bulgarian personal computers

Pravetz is a brand of personal computers produced in Bulgaria from 1979. They were widely used in scientific organizations and schools until the 1990s. Pravets were the first personal computers made in Bulgaria. Before that, various types of large computer systems were used, the size of rooms (60 70), as well as even lamp computers before that. The name of the Pravet computers specifies that these are personal computers "made" (in Bulgarian language: правя, pravja) in Bulgaria. They were manufactured in the town of Pravetz, with some components and software being produced in other towns as Sofia, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora and other Bulgarian cities. Pravetz computers are still in use in some schools for beginner students in computing because they are adapted in manufacturing for educational purposes. Bulgaria was the leading manufacturer, with its leading trademark Pravetz, of computer and peripherals electronics for the socialist economic union COMECON in 20th century.

An early Bulgarian made personal computer was IMKO 1 (its name resembles Bulgarian name ELKA (short name for ELektronen KAlkulator, cirillic ЕЛКА ЕЛектронен КАлкулатор) or calculator, yet the name of the first state manufactured personal computers points to its production as a PC or Pravetz Computers (правя, pravja make, manufacture)). The prototype of the Pravetz computers that were developed by engineer Ivan Vassilev Marangozov, who was rightfully accused of cloning the Apple II. In fact, IMKO 1 was a nearly identical clone of the original Apple II with a few minor exceptions case, keyboard, character table (the lowercase Latin alphabet was replaced with Cyrillic uppercase) and power supply (early models used bulky and heavy linear power supplies). A few early models were produced at the ITKR (pronounced ee teh kah reh, Institute of Technical Cybernetics and Robotics), a section of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Industrial production in Pravetz started shortly after. The line of Bulgarian personal computers at the time of release was prohibitively expensive for individuals and in addition were only sold to different government institutions educational sector, military and administrative sector. Pravetz computers were of major importance in the economy of the Comecon.

The brand was revived in 2014 by Pravetz Computers OOD, a private company that organised assembly of personal computers with Intel based CPU.