ITC

ITC (Institutul de Tehnică de Calcul, the Computer Technology Institute) in Bucharest was set up officially in 1967 and started work on 1 January 1968 as ICPUEC (Institutul de Cercetare și Proiectare Utilaje Electronice de Calcul), gathering teams that had already built computers at the Institute of Atomic Physics (IFA), the Timișoara Polytechnic Institute, the Cluj-Napoca branch of the Academy and the Ministry of National Defence [1]. Their earlier machines were the CIFA series of IFA, MECIPT at Timișoara and DACIC at Cluj-Napoca [1]. It became ITC only in 1972, when HCM 114 of 2 February 1972 split IETC into ICE and ITC, the latter for computer research and design, with branches in Cluj and Timișoara; its seat was at 167 Calea Floreasca, near the Pipera platform [1]. In 1979–1984 it was united with the automation institute IPA as IPA TCT [2], and in 1985 it merged with the central informatics institute ICI (then ICCI) into ICSIT-TCI, which the book also writes ICSIT-ICI [3].

Felix and Independent

In 1969–1970 many ITC specialists were trained in France, at the manufacturer; back home they installed the first six IRIS-50 systems, delivered fully assembled, and then, with ICE Felix, assembled the first five delivered as kits; ITC staff sat on the acceptance commissions of all the computer centres [1]. In 1970 it set up the first industrial software sector in Romania [1]. Starting from the IRIS-50 licence, which became the Felix C-256, it designed the Felix C-512 and Felix C-1024, with its own large HELIOS operating system, the smaller Felix C-32 and Felix C-64 with the DOS-32 and DOS-64M operating systems, the Felix C32P process computer and the Independent minicomputers (Independent 100, Independent 102 F and Independent 106), made in series at ICE Felix [1]. In 1984 a Chinese delegation led by Jiang Zemin, later president of China, visited the institute; Romania exported many computers to China, and hundreds of Chinese specialists were trained under ITC’s coordination [1].

Branches

The Cluj-Napoca branch worked mainly on software, operating systems and programming languages, and developed an optical character reader that never reached production; the Timișoara branch specialised in memories, a microproduction that became the Fabrica de Memorii Timișoara, and made the first Romanian Z80 microcomputers, the MIC going into series production [1]. Microcomputers based on the 8080 and then the Z80 were developed mainly at the branches: the COBRA went into production at Brașov, the PRAE (PRAE-T, PRAE-L and PRAE-M) at Cluj and the MIC at Timișoara [1]. In the 1980s software branches with 10–20 staff each were set up in Ploiești, Brașov, Constanța, Craiova, Iași and Suceava [1].

Special section (CCAB)

A team of about 50 computer specialists of the Ministry of National Defence, part of ITC from its start, had earlier built the CENA-1S and CENA-2M army computers, drawing on the experience of the MECIPT team [4]. ITC’s special (microproduction) section later took the name CCAB (Centrul de Cercetări pentru Automatică București), with five hardware and software laboratories (30 staff) and 500 people in microproduction, at the ITC seat and in two buildings at 5 and 10 Dimitrie Pompei Boulevard [4]. Funded by the defence industry development programmes PUDIA-1 to PUDIA-3 in 1975–1990, it made the CE-400, CE-100, CE-119, CE-401, CE-752 and CE-802 computers, of its own hardware and software design, for command automation sets mounted on special vehicles [4]. Funding fell after 1989 and stopped in 1991; on 8 January 1990 CCAB became the Research Institute for Computing Equipment and Peripherals, and on 26 July 1991 the company SIAT SA (Sisteme Informatice pentru Automatizări), now fully privatised [4].

Today

The institute is now wholly private and has been part of the Grampet railway group since 2007; it offers IT&C services and was re-accredited in 2008 [1].