TVC (computer)

The TV computer (short TVC) of the Hungarian company Videoton (short VT ) was a small computer based on a clocked at 3,125 MHz Z80 CPU, which in 1988 bought mainly by government agencies such as schools. In the device it was a licensed adaptation of the enterprise home computer for which the rights have been acquired and secured in the year 1984.

The case design was similar to other systems of its time, such as the C64. The device was available in two basic versions with 32 or 64 kB of RAM, and later as a bug-fixed version, the TVC 64k , which was prepared for operation with a floppy drive. From the basic model about 3000 were produced by the second basic model it was about 9000th

All units come with RF modulator to output to a TV and an RGB output, which could be controlled eg VGA monitors. With 16 KB of video RAM text modes were 64 × 24 characters, each with 8 × 10 pixels possible or graphics modes with 128 × 240 pixels with 16 colors up to 512 × 240 pixels with 2 colors. The operating system offered a graphic interface that conjured permanent resolution of 1024 × 960 pixels.

The system design was complemented by ports for tape drive, Centronics printer ( a printer of this was offered by Videoton itself), two joysticks and various expansion ports for ROM modules and add-on cards.

In the basic version, the device was equipped with 20k ROM, which is a TVC -BASIC V1.2 and an operating system included. For the Plus version TVC BASIC V2.2 was enclosed as well as an operating system called VT- DOS, which had a MS- DOS compatible instruction set and was able to use the FAT12 disk format for 360-720 kB formats. Full compatibility with the PC format was not given due to the implementation of national characters. Programs for IBM-compatible PCs were in principle not run. About the national distribution channels approximately 40 to 50 programs of all kinds were offered as an accessory.

The device was produced over a period of approximately three years and then was due to high prices and a lack of efficiency instead of Commodore Plus4 imported as an inexpensive substitute object from the West.

Today there are several different system emulators technology and maturity, for example, for the PC platform or for the Java VM for the device.