What systems were used for car construction at Škoda when you joined in 1993?
At that time we used Silicon Graphics workstations running on Unix. The ICEM DDM system was used as a design platform. In 1993 we had our first workstations, and at that time the construction was switching to them. Later we had dozens of them.
So the workstations were used to design components, run calculations on materials, or even design entire cars?
This was the direct of travel, yes. The limitations and possibilities were determined by how quickly the construction department could be equipped with the workstations, the performance of the machines and the capabilities of the ICEM system, i.e. to what extent it was possible to make a 3D model and then generate the necessary diagrams from it.
In the 1990s the Škoda Octavia was largely designed and modelled on computers.
Is it possible to say which model was the first whose construction or design was predominantly created on a computer?
At the time I joined, the Felicia was being developed from the Favorit, which had already been developed with the help of computers. After the Felicia, the Octavia started to be built in the 1990s, and that car was already largely designed and modelled on computers.
The IBM 360 computer and one of its first operators in 1970
What other areas, apart from car design and construction, were powerful computers and workstations used for?
Mainly for materials calculations and simulations of impact and deformation or vibration and noise, for example. In those days, the possibilities were trivial compared to today, but the software already existed. It was mainly used for subsequent calculations to compare how well the test results matched the assumptions.