Mera-Elzab Meritum

Summary

The Meritum is a Polish home computer of the Zakłady Urządzeń Komputerowych Mera-Elzab in Zabrze, developed together with the company ITM. Presented in autumn 1983 at the trade fair in Poznan, production will begin in summer 1984. The model is the TRS-80 Model I with Level II BASIC, most TRS-80 programs run as long as they do not directly access the hardware.

The processor is a U880D from the DDR, a replica of the Z80, with 2.5 MHz. The Meritum I has about 17 KB RAM, extended versions 32 or 48 KB; the ROM contains the BASIC taken over by the TRS-80 and a monitor. The screen shows only text (64 × 16 or 32 × 16 characters) without small letters and without graphics mode. The Meritum II comes with an external double diskette station, a Meritum III with graphics remains a test series. In 1986 the Meritum I costs about 103,000 złoty. By 1986 approximately 2,500 devices are produced; in 1986 the license goes to Elwro, which ends the production 1987. The computer is considered obsolete even when it appears.