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Concept
Galaksija (computer)
Summary
The Galaksija (Галаксија; galǎksija, meaning "Galaxy") was a build-it-yourself computer designed by Voja Antonić. It was featured in the special edition Računari u vašoj kući (Computers in your home, written by Dejan Ristanović) of a popular eponymous science magazine, published late December 1983 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Kits were available but not required as it could be built entirely out of standard off-the-shelf parts. It was later also available in complete form.
In the early eighties, restrictions in SFR Yugoslavia prevented importing computers into the country. At the same time, even the cheapest computers available in the West were nearing average monthly salaries. This meant that only a relative minority of people owned one – mostly a ZX Spectrum or a Commodore 64, though most Yugoslavs were only familiar with a programmable calculator.
According to his own words, some time in 1983, Voja Antonić, while vacationing in Hotel Teuta in Risan, was reading the application handbook for the RCA CDP1802 CPU and stumbled upon CPU-assisted video generation. Since the CDP1802 was very primitive, he decided that a Zilog Z80 processor could perform the task as well.
Before he returned home to Belgrade, he already had the conceptual diagrams of a computer that used software to generate a video picture. Although using software as opposed to hardware would significantly reduce his design's performance, it also simplified the hardware and reduced its cost.
His next step was to find a magazine to publish the diagrams in. The obvious choice was SAM Magazine published in Zagreb, but due to prior bad experiences he decided to publish elsewhere. Near the same time that Antonić made his discovery, Dejan Ristanović, a computer programmer and journalist was entrusted with preparing a special edition of the Galaksija magazine that would be focused on home computers. After Ristanović and Antonić met, they decided to collaborate and publish the computer's diagram in a special issue of the magazine entitled Računari u vašoj kući (Computers in your home).
Official source
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