Intreprinderea de Calculatoare Electronice FELIX, commonly known as ICE Felix after its logo, is a Romanian electronics and computer manufacturer. Founded in 1970, the company has produced a variety of clones and licensed computers, most notably including mainframes, minicomputers, IBM PC clones, and ZX Spectrum clones, mostly for the Romanian internal market during the communist regime. Many of its products were based on prototypes made at the Politehnica University of Bucharest. Its ZX Spectrum clones commonly equipped Romanian high-schools and computer clubs ran by the Pioneer Organization before the 1989 revolution.
In 1997 it became a publicly traded company on RASDAQ.
Historical products
editFelix C256
editIn the 1960s and 70s, due to the CoCom embargo Romania could not import computers manufactured in the United States and other signatories. Nevertheless, in 1968, during Charles de Gaule visit to Bucharest, a secret agreement was reached with France, which allowed Romania to participate in the development of a third generation computer, the CII IRIS 50, which began manufacturing in Romania under the name Felix C256.[1] (The CII company itself had been setup by de Gaule after he was incensed with the takeover of Bull by General Electric. De Gaulle was keen to preserve an independent French computer industry after he distanced his foreign policy from that of NATO, and was denied sales of American computers for the French military; see "Plan Calcul".) The IRIS 50 was largely based on technology licensed from Scientific Data Systems, but it was incompatible with the SDS product line.[2]
References
edit- ^ http://www.racai.ro/MD75/LucrariSimpozion/art09Guran.pdf
- ^ Kenneth Flamm, Creating the computer: government, industry, and high technology, Brookings Institution Press, 1988, ISBN 0815728492, p. 156