I > ISKRA DELTA  > PARTNER   

The computer has an integrated monitor and separated keyboard. It was used as main business computer in Slovenia and also in schools, standing next to Commodore C64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum series; and normally equipped with Turbo Pascal 3.x and Wordstar.

Iskra Delta was one of the biggest producers of computer systems in former Yugoslavia. Their systems could be found in almost all large companies in Yugoslavia where they were able to connect to VAX/VMS and IBM systems.

More detailed information from Alex Ruben:
There were two main versions of the "Partner". The older model was capable of text only (MDA like) display that was VT100 compatible and with a fixed Yougoslavian "YUSCII" character set in ROM. It was somewhat difficult to type programs and CP/M commands since the "YUSCII standard" was practically a patched "ASCII" by removing some of the special characters with Yugoslavian specific characters - there were no "[" ,"{","^", "~", "\", "|" "`" and "@" characters since they were replaced with YU-latin symbols. There were also two character intensity modes together with inverse and blink attributes.

The newer model (a.k.a. Graphic Partner) was capable of the additional 132 x 26 text mode and two monochrome graphics modes (32K Video RAM): 1024x256 (noninterlaced) and 1024x512 (interlaced) together with a full ANSI terminal emulation with multiple programmable character sets.

It was possible to switch between multiple languages via the terminal setup program which was also easily reprogrammed via software - on some occasions the students even changed the "SETUP" title of the program into their own names - which leads to conclusion that the terminal setup program was not in ROM but in some sort of battery supported RAM, similar to the CMOS RAM in the PCs.

Both versions were equipped with a full size 5.25" floppy drive and an optional 10 MB harddrive. The floppy drive was similar to the standard IBM floppy drive that shipped with the original IBM PC and was capable of writing 720 KB on a standard Double Side / Double Density 5.25 diskettes (by using 80 tracks with 9 512-byte sectors per track). The drive was also capable of reading and writing standard MS-DOS 360 KB formatted diskettes by using a software utility.

Both versions of the "Partner" had a beeper that was used as a console bell but could be programmed to output sounds similar to IBM PC's beeper.

Interesting note from Ivan Pepelnjak:
We developed file-sharing networking for Partner (add-on to CP/M), first on RS-232 interfaces (obviously, pretty slow), later on a dedicated add-on board (still based on serial interface chip, Ethernet was science fiction in those times).