This is probably the last PRS-4 computer that worked in the Rockbursts Department of the Wujek Mine until January 29, 2022. The computer dates back to the late 1970s. Polish Mining Group PGG S.A. donated it to the Museum of Computer and Information History in Katowice along with its fully preserved documentation.
PRS-4, also known as the Programmable System Recorder or Programmable Seismoacoustic System (used interchangeably), is a modular 16-bit microcomputer. Only 150 units of these devices were produced at the Mining Electronics Facility in Tychy between 1975 and 1987. They were used in the mining industry to monitor production parameters, monitor the threat of rockburst, and locate and determine the power of rock tremors.
According to the data provided, 90 units of the PRS-4 programmable recorder were used in the Polish coal mining industry in the following modules of the MSD-80 dispatcher system:
- HADES, used for monitoring production parameters (26 mines),
- SAK, used for monitoring rockburst threats through passive seismoacoustic methods (32 mines),
- SYLOK, used for locating tremors and determining their energy (16 mines),
- CMC1/2, used for monitoring the risk of methane explosions (7 mines),
- SWWP, used for early detection of endo- and exogenic fires (2 mines).
- 34 PRS-4 mini-computers were sold abroad. The remaining units were used in copper mining, non-ferrous metal mining, metallurgical complexes, the railway industry, as well as research institutions.
The computer from the Wujek Mine is currently undergoing restoration. At the Museum of Computer and Information History in Katowice, three PRS-4 computers obtained from PKP (Polish State Railways) and one from the Wieczorek Mine can be viewed (on display at the Zinc Rolling Mill in Katowice-Szopienice).
Watch the video of the PRS-4 computer being shut down at the Wujek Mine: