'micro­computer kit') was an East German single-board computer produced by VEB Robotron Riesa, which was primarily intended for private use and educational institutions.

To purchase it, buyers had to send a postcard to the Robotron shop in Erfurt and wait six to twelve months and then to pick the kits up in person.

The package contained the assembled and tested motherboard, a membrane keyboard, various small parts and detailed technical documentation.

[citation needed] Despite the Cold War and the associated high-technology embargo CoCom, the government pushed for an ambitious program to keep up with international development in engineering and microelectronics.

[citation needed] With production yield of a few percent, a significant amount of integrated circuits failed to pass the acceptance criteria.

[2] Following the concept of selling rejects for a fraction of the original price, the computer design would only consist of the cheapest and easiest available circuits.

[1]: 48– The state planning targets for the mostly young engineers and employees from the corresponding group of developers ("youth research collective") of VEB Robotron Riesa envisioned an expandable single board computer with a minimum of material and manufacturing costs.

Also, the computer had to utilize existing home electronics such as television sets and tape recorders already present in East German households.

In addition to display unit and tape recorder, the user also had to provide an appropriately sized power supply and to solder the connecting cable for the keyboard onto the mainboard before commissioning.

Economic disadvantages due to elaborate test procedures and subsequent repairs could no longer be outweighed by the low price of rejects and led to a rethinking by persons in charge.

[1]: 51 Due to the interim relaxation of the CoCom embargo, and with it associated falling prices in late 1988, a more modernized version of the Z 1013 series was added.

Such modern realization was done for the first time in 2013 - like with other home computer systems too - as implementation via programmable gate array (FPGA), inclusive its development environment.

Replica using FPGAs were initially intended only as a technical feasibility study, but in retrospect proved also its practical utility: Due to miniaturization and possibility to run in battery mode, it is an easily stowable, reliably working and portable alternative to the preserve-worthy original technology.

The system software often simply referred to as "machine language monitor" is either flashed on a 2KB or 4KB ROM chip, depending on computer model.

The monochrome image is fed to a built-in RF modulator and then transmitted through the coaxial antenna port for use by standard TV; an upgrade to color output is possible.

[8] A disk drive for the Z 1013 was never planned by the Robotron designers because of its hobby character and therefore its low economic priority, especially so as appropriate control electronics had to be imported expensively until 1987.

[9] The prevailing shortage in the GDR, especially in the field of drive mechanisms, made it almost impossible to obtain them, and thus to build a disk system for the economically insignificant Z 1013 so that instructions for construction were published only after reunification.

[1]: 53 Services to set up the computer hardware, to control the cassette interface, and to write and read memory are provided by the operating system contained in ROM.

[19][26][18] Models with RAM disk allow running CP/M alike system software Single User Control Program (SCP) [de].

On one hand it describes hardware and monitor program in detail, and on the other it contains further software in form of assembler and BASIC code listings.

Many magazines such as Funkamateur, Jugend + Technik [de], MP Mikroprozessortechnik and practic regularly published news, reports, handicraft instructions for self-construction of additional hardware or upgrading, and conversion of computers as well as programs for typing.

Even after German reunification, the exchange of experience within advocates for GDR computer technology continued in publications with small circulation, and from late 1990s, also in Internet forums, up to the creation of corresponding emulators.

A single modern system with images from relevant programs is sufficient to play old classics from a wide variety of home computers with the help of emulators.

Among other things, the emergence of emulators triggered an increased transfer of otherwise lost software to modern storage media, which is an important contribution to the preservation of digital culture.

[28] In contrast to computers of the KC series, the Z 1013 was available even to private consumers - but only after ordering, a long waiting time and personal pickup in Erfurt or Riesa.

[3]: 95– From state-controlled magazines such as Radio Fernsehen Elektronik and Funkamateur, the appearance of the computer, however, was welcomed: "As close to the hardware [relative to KC 85/1], a reasonably priced and well documented system", perfectly suited to the "experimental appropriation of skills in the field of applied microcomputer technology".

[32] The computers developed and produced in the GDR, including in particular microcomputers and [chess] game machines, have been increasingly noticed in the media - above all on the Internet - and also are exhibited in dedicated museums.

In contrast to GDR microcomputers from Dresden and Mühlhausen, the Z 1013 was "available in an open design in various variants as consumer good over the entire production period, but without being able to meet demand."

It was well suited to explore the internal workings of microcomputer technology, to learn programming, to build one's own computer for creative hobby applications and for development of various hardware and software improvements and enhancements."

[1]: 13– [3]: 96 The German reunification changed the situation abruptly: the sudden free availability of Western home computers resulted in compete decline of demand and therefore in oversupply, despite considerable selling price reductions in 1989 and 1990.