Odra (computer)

Odra was a line of computers manufactured in Wrocław, Poland. The name comes from the Odra river that flows through the city of Wrocław.

Odra

Odra model 1304
Manufacturer	Elwro
Type	Mainframe computers
Release date	1959; 65 years ago (1959)
Operating system	SODA (Odra 1204)

Overview

The production started in 1959–1960. Models 1001, 1002, 1003, 1013, 1103, 1204 were of original Polish construction. Models 1304 and 1305 were functional counterparts of ICL 1905 and 1906 due to software agreement.^[1] The last model was 1325 based on two models by ICL.

The computers were built at the Elwro manufacturing plant, which was closed in 1993.

Odra 1002 was capable of only 100–400 operations per second.^[2]

In 1962, Witold Podgórski, an employee of Elwro, created computer game Marienbad on a prototype of Odra 1003; it was an adaptation of a variant of Nim, as depicted in the film Last Year at Marienbad. The computer could play a perfect game and was guaranteed to win. The game was never distributed outside of the Elwro company, but its versions appeared elsewhere. It was probably the first Polish computer game in history.^[3]

The operating system used by the Odra 1204 is called SODA. It was designed to work on a small computer without magnetic storage and can run simultaneous loading and execution of programs.^[4]

An Odra 1204 computer was used by a team in Leningrad developing an ALGOL 68 compiler in 1976. The Odra 1204 ran the syntax analysis, code generation ran on an IBM System/360.^[5]

Up until 30 April 2010 there was still one Odra 1305 working at the railway station in Wrocław Brochów.^{[6][failed verification]} The system was shut down at 22:00 CEST^{[7][failed verification]} and replaced with a contemporary computer system.

The Museum of the History of Computers and Information Technology (Muzeum Historii Komputerów i Informatyki) in Katowice, Poland started a project to recommission an Odra 1305 in 2017.^[8]

• 
  Odra model 1001
• 
  Odra model 1001 development team
• 
  Odra model 1002
• 
  Odra model 1003
• 
  Odra model 1003
• 
  Odra model 1013
• 
  Odra model 1103
• 
  Odra model 1204
• 
  Odra model 1304
• 
  Odra model 1304
• 
  Odra model 1305
• 
  Odra model 1305
• 
  Odra model 1325

Literature

• Bronisław Obirek (1970). Maszyny analityczne organizacja zmechanizowanego obrachunku. Wydawnictwo Naukowo Techniczne, Warsaw.

See also

• History of computing in Poland
• History of computer hardware in Eastern Bloc countries

References

1. "ODRA 1305". Archived from the original on 30 April 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
2. Jadwiga Dutkiewicz (2003). MIECZYSŁAW Warmus. Translated by Dr. Adam Rustowski (1st ed.). Wollongong. pp. 1–149. ISBN 0-646-46844-8.
3. Kluska, Bartłomiej; Rozwadowski, Mariusz (2011). Bajty polskie (in Polish). Łódź: Samizdat Orka. p. 6. ISBN 978-83-927229-1-5.
4. Władysław M. Turski (1968). "SODA—A Dual Activity Operating System". The Computer Journal. 11 (2): 148–156. doi:10.1093/comjnl/11.2.148.
5. retrieved Wed Jun 22 07:18:41 EST 2011
6. Jacek Bomersbach (25 April 2008). "Zabytkowa Odra pracuje na stacji kolejowej". Alert24.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 30 May 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2008.
7. Adam Urbanek (3 May 2010). "Wyłączono ostatni komputer Odra w Polsce!". Computerworld. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
8. "Operation 'Thanasis'" (in Polish). Retrieved 30 July 2019.