Company:Daewoo Electronics

Daewoo Electronics

Type	Public (Korean: 대우전자)
Industry	Conglomerate
Founded	1987 (1987)
Founder	Jinkyun Choi, CEO
Headquarters	Seoul, South Korea
Area served	Worldwide
Products	List Electronics Shipbuilder Financial Chemical Retail Entertainment Flash memory Aviation Optical storage Mobile phones Smartphones Hard disk drive
Net income	US$ 10.7 billion (2008)
Total assets	US$ 252.5 billion (2008)
Total equity	US$ 90.5 billion (2008)
Number of employees	276,000 (2008)
Website	Daewoo Electronics UK Daewoo Electronics USA

Daewoo Electronics is a home electronics company and a member of Dayou Group. Established in 1971, it has since grown into a global business with more than 64 production sites, research and development and sales centres in more than 40 countries worldwide. Daewoo Electronics Sales UK (DESUK) was established in November 1993. It is the third largest electronics firm of South Korea after Samsung and LG. The company manufactures a range of high value electronics and home appliances. The company went through a bankruptcy in 1999 after Asian financial crisis and is currently owned completely by a group of creditors. Beside its business of manufacturing consumer goods, it has been contracted by different parties to set up local manufacturing units producing air-conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines. In October 2010, it was announced that the creditor group owning the company is to sell it to an Iran-based electronic company. Entekhab Industrial Group of Iran offered to buy the firm for 529 million dollars in November 2010 from its creditors.

Entekhab industrial Group competed with Electrolux of Sweden for the acquisition. In June 2011, it was reported that the creditors of Daewoo decided to drop the deal with Entekhab group over funding uncertainties; Entekhab Group threatened to take legal actions in response. After years of trying, in January 2013, Dongbu Group (now known as DB Group) agreed to take over Daewoo Electronics for $270 million in order to attain synergies with DB families (Especially DB Inc., DB Hitek and Dongbu Steel). Daewoo Electronics became the family of DB Group by ending its workout status.

In 2018, Dayou Group acquired Daewoo Electronics from DB Group.

Venture into computers

Daewoo CPC-300E.

The Daewoo CPC-300 was a home computer based on the MSX standard, and produced by a Korean company Daewoo Electronics Co. Ltd. as one of several models of series of MSX computers. It also has the logo IQ 2000 on top of the case.

The computer was made in the form of a keyboard. All the circuits of the computer are in the keyboard case. Two possible color versions exist - black with gray keys, and white with gray and blue keys. Both have a built-in power-supply. This version of an MSX computer does not have a floppy drive, and only one slot for cartridges on the top of the case.

Two varieties of this computer exist - the CPC-300 and the CPC-300E. The CPC-300E is a cut-down version of the CPC-300 for educational purpose, so it doesn't have joystick port.

The CPC-300 also exists in two regional versions - Korean, and an export version (no information about export variant for CPC-300E is known). The Export version does not have a special name.

Korean version

The keyboard contains symbols of Hangul and a special key (with the label «Hangul» in hangul), which switches input mode between English and hangul. This key has a LED indicator (similar to the CAPS LOCK key).

The power-on splash screen is different from the standard MSX splash screen, and displays the label "IQ 2000" in hangul. In the case of the CPC-300, which does have a real-time clock, the current date and time is also shown. After the splash screen, the MSX BASIC version screen appears. It contains the labels MSX BASIC version 2.0 Copyright 1985 by Microsoft (in English) and MSX Hangul version 3.00 Copyright 1986 by Daewoo (where Hangul and Daewoo written in hangul). After that, the MSX BASIC prompt appears on the screen (there is no standard prompt with version strings).

MSX-BASIC on this computer has a special monochromatic high-resolution display mode, for displaying hangul symbols. This mode can be enabled by the command SCREEN 9. Technically, this mode is a software-modified SCREEN 6 mode. So, VDP of this computer is a standard Yamaha V9938. The Mode SCREEN 9 in many Korean computers is a reason for rumors that they used a custom VDP, unofficially named the "V9948".

Export version

The keyboard does not have hangul symbols. Instead diacritic marks are used. The input mode key in this version does not have an LED and is lettered 'CODE'.

No information about the power-on splash screen for the export version is known.

Technical specifications

These specifications are the same for all versions:

• TV standard: NTSC
• Outputs for connection with a TV set or computer display:
  • RF modulator output
  • Audio and video connector (sound output is mono)
  • RGB
  • «Monochromatic/Colour» switch
  • RF modulator channel switch
• Connectors:
  • Printer port
  • Cartridge port
  • Tape recorder in/out port
• Power supply voltage: 110/220 V, 60 Hz (voltage switch on the underside of the case)
• Power consumption: 21 W

CPC-300

• RAM: 128 KB
• VRAM: 128 KB
• Other features:
  • Real-time clock with battery backup
  • Two joystick ports
  • one Light pen port
  • A built-in tutorial program called "MSX-TUTOR"

CPC-300E

• RAM: 64 KB
• VRAM: 128 KB
• Other features:
  • No real-time clock
  • No joystick ports
  • No light pen port

MSX-TUTOR

The Korean modification of the CPC-300 has a built-in tutorial program (아이큐 교실 in the Korean language, means "IQ Tutorial"), named MSX-TUTOR. This program starts automatically after the computer powers on. The program can be exited manually by pressing the SELECT key, after that the MSX BASIC prompt appears. To disable MSX-TUTOR, the command SET SYSTEM 1 can be used. This setting is stored in the real-time clock memory. To re-enable MSX-TUTOR the command SET SYSTEM 0 can be used.

The CPC-300E does not have the MSX-TUTOR SET SYSTEM command with any parameter the use of which just causes the message 'Syntax error' to be displayed.

Usage in Russia

A modified version of the Daewoo CPC-300E was one of the types of MSX-computers which were distributed in Russia. At the present time, in some cities, 10-15 new and sealed computers can be found (some owners sell them at Russian online auctions). These computers were a property of some schools. These computers were bought to replace older MSX-based computer in classes which used the Yamaha YIS503 and Yamaha YIS805 (Yamaha distributed these computers in the USSR during the mid-1980s). For example, the Daewoo-based computers were used in the schools of Primorsky Krai. However, Daewoo computers, used for this purposes, were the standard Korean versions, and they do not contain Russian letters on the keyboard, as Yamaha's models did. Also an English manual is packaged with these computers.

Resources

• http://www.daewooelectronics.co.uk/about-daewoo.aspx

External links

• Daewoo Iran
• Daewoo Electronics Korea
• Daewoo Electronics UK
• Daewoo Electronics Germany-Deutschland
• Daewoo Electronics Russia
• Daewoo Electronics Chile
• Daewoo Electronics Spain
• Daewoo Electronics Peru
• Daewoo Electronics Mexico
• Daewoo Electronics USA
• Daewoo Electronics JAPAN