ICE Felix

ICE (Întreprinderea de Calculatoare Electronice, the Electronic Computer Enterprise), later known as ICE Felix, was the Romanian computer manufacturer, based on the Pipera platform in Bucharest [1][2]. It should not be confused with ICE, the electronics research institute.

It started production in 1970 on the basis of Western licences, together with a group of related units: FEPER, Conect, IIRUC, the Timișoara memory factory, a special section of IPRS and, later, Rom Control Data [1]. In its founding year it acquired licences from the Dutch firm Friden and from the French Compagnie internationale pour l’informatique (CII) [2]. In 1971 it put into production the first Romanian third-generation computer, under a French licence [1]: the FELIX C-256, derived from the CII Iris 50 [2] and first shown in October 1970 [3].

Later products included the Felix MC microcomputer (1974, based on the Intel 8008), the CORAL minicomputers with PDP-11 architecture, the HC home computers compatible with the ZX Spectrum, and the Felix PC series [2]. After 1989 the company worked with IBM, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard, but could not compete with Western manufacturers; by 2004–2008 it had about 200 employees [2].

The site after 1989

Unlike most factories on the platform, the computer factory had no multi-storey administrative building; around 2011 its main building still stood on George Constantinescu Street, divided among many firms, while much of the surrounding land had been sold [5].

In 1989

In 1989 the enterprise was listed as Întreprinderea de Calculatoare Electronice (ICE-Felix), within the Industrial Central for Electronics and Computer Technology (CIETC) of the Ministry of the Electrotechnical Industry. Its entry shows both logos used on this page: the ICE mark and the „ice felix – Data Processing Systems” mark [4].