A “COMPANION” in our collection
During soviet times many computer clones were created, most of them were manufactured in Bulgaria and then exported to the USSR. But many other computers were made inside the USSR, mainly ZX Spectrum clones. In our example, the computer is manufactured from the beginning of the end of the USSR to until 1995.
“Компаньо́н 2” (Companion 2) is an 8-bit clone of the popular Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It is designed and manufactured by the experimental department “Arsenal” of the “Ijevski” mechanical factory (Ижевского механического завода). The design is base on the T34VG1 (Т34ВГ1) which is clone chip of the original ULA of the ZX Spectrum. The keyboard is a membrane type, same as the original with an additional numerical block. It has an integrated SECAM encoder located on the left side of the board and support for Kempston and Sinclair controllers. The computer needs an external power brick with 5V output voltage to run.
Some of the specs are:
CPU: Zilog Z80 running at 3.5mhz
RAM: 48k
ROM: 16k
VIDEO OUT: RGB and RF out
I/O PORTS: tape in/out and joystick
We took apart our compnion to clean it and to do a general overview of the hardware. Here are the results.
