CER-203

CER (Serbian: Цифарски Електронски Рачунар – Digital Electronic Computer) model 203 is an early digital computer developed by Mihajlo Pupin Institute (Serbia) in 1971. It was designed to process data of medium-sized businesses:

In banks, for managing and processing of accounts, bookkeeping, foreign-currency and interest calculations, amortization plans and statistics
In manufacturing, for production planning and management, market data processing and forecasting, inventory management, financial document management and process modelling
In utilities, to calculate water and electricity consumption, to produce various reports and lists and for technical calculations and design
In construction industry for network planning method design, financial management and bookkeeping
In trading companies for payment processing, market analysis, inventory management and customer and partner relationship management

Specifications

Central Processing:

Type: BMS-203
Number of instructions: 32
Performance:
- one 16-cycle instruction: 20 μs
- one single cycle instruction: 5 μs
- addition and/or subtraction of two 15-digit numbers: 20 μs

Primary memory:

Capacity: 8 kilowords
Speed (cycle time): 1 μs
Complete, autonomous memory error checking
Parity control

Punched tape reader:

Dielectric-based reading
Speed: 500 to 1,000 characters per second
Accepts 5, 7 and 8-channel tapes

Tape puncher:

Speed: 75 characters per second

Parallel Line Printer 667:

"On the fly" printing
128 characters per line
Removable/replaceable printing cylinder
Speed:
- 500 lines per minute for a character set of 63 characters
- 550 lines per minute for a character set of 50 characters
Automatic paper feeder
Two line spacing settings
Programamtic tape for discontinuous paper movement
Maximum number of carbon copies: 6

Independent Printer M 30:

132 characters per line
Speed:
- Prints 25 alphanumeric characters per second
- Prints 33 numeric characters per second
- Tabulation speed: 144 characters per second
- Blank printing speed: 100 characters per second
Maximum number of carbon copies: 6

Magnetic cassettes 4096:

Capacity: 600,000 characters
Variable record length
Transfer rate: 857 characters per second
Tape speed: 10 inches per second

Magnetic Tape Drives:

Data format: 9-track ASCII with inter-record space of 0.6 inches (1.52 cm)
Data density: 556/800 bits per inch
Capacity per tape: c. 10,000,000 characters
Tape speed: 24 inches/s, 150 inches/s fast-forward and rewind
Transfer rate: 19.2 kHz
Tape width: 1⁄2 inch (1.27 cm)
Tape length: 2,400 ft (731.52 m)
Working ambient temperature range: 5 °C to 40 °C
Relative humidity: up to 80%
Integrated circuit control logic
Separate control panel for each drive
Read/Write Capabilities:
- Read and Write forward
- Read forward
- Read reverse

References

M.Momcilovic, D.Hristovic, P.Vrbavac et al.:"Domaci cifarski el.racunari CER", Zbornik Savetovanja AOP u preduzecima, pp. 38–58, Nova Varos YU, May 22, 1969. (in Serbian);
Miodrag Momcilovic, Miladin Dabic:"Domaci el. sistem za obradu podataka CER 203", Proc.of the VI yougoslav Symposium on AOP, Zagreb, 1972. (in Serbian).

CER-203

Specifications

See also

References