Romanian Marvels at High-Tech Trade Show : Computers: A scientist from that conflict-ridden country “oohs” and “ahhs” over the equipment on display at an annual conference in Anaheim.

Following the December revolution in his country, Romanian computer scientist Mihai Bocarnea was happy just to have the freedom to write a letter to the National Computer Graphics Assn.

The “old regime of fear, darkness, and stupidity,” he wrote, had left Romanian electronics in a sorry state, and he hoped that the American group might send him some technical papers from its annual conference in Anaheim.

To his astonishment, the NCGA executive committee responded by offering to pay his way to the show and helped arrange a visa through the American embassy in Bucharest.

The bearded, soft-spoken Bocarnea has been walking the show floor this week like any other visitor, except that he’s probably the only one who feels as if he’s in a wonderland.

“It’s a miracle, of course, that I am here,” said Bocarnea, 30, who works at the Romanian Electronics Research Institute in Bucharest. His only previous trip abroad had been to East Germany. He said he had never conceived of actually attending a U.S. computer show, which began Monday and ends Thursday.

“To put your hands on these high-class, brand-new machines is like touching the untouchable,” Bocarnea said. “It’s astonishing. Everything we knew from the books is really true.”

In Romania, Bocarnea explained, computer technology is 10 years behind the times--a virtual millenium in the fast-paced electronics industry. The country doesn’t import any equipment, and the computers it makes are mostly based on imitations of the old Z-80 microprocessor that’s used in antiquated machines, such as the Commodore 64.

The political situation in Romania remains in flux after the popular uprising that led to the overthrow and execution of longtime dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in December. But Bocarnea is hopeful that he and his colleagues may begin to close the technical gap. He said he is not a political person and has never been a Communist party member and added that institute was relatively immune from the current political turmoil.

To Bocarnea’s amazement, Romanian authorities were enthusiastic about his trip and issued him a passport immediately.

“We have to know what’s going on in the outside world, and they were very glad about this opportunity,” he said, observing with an impish grin that “opportunity” was a word he had heard a lot since coming to the United States. But he has no illusions about the difficulties ahead: “We have to start from the beginning--there’s inertia, and there’s the problem with money.”

Bocarnea said it’s not yet clear whether scarce hard currency will be available to import computer equipment and make the desperately needed transition to IBM-compatible computers. He emphasized that he’s not a businessman and isn’t here to negotiate deals, but said he hoped to help arrange a program allowing Romanian engineers to study in the United States.

Victor Parra, the NCGA executive vice president who invited Bocarnea to the show, also said there was no special business agenda for his visit.

“It was a chance for us to get a better sense of what they’ve been going through,” Parra said. “There’s a satisfaction just in seeing the guy walk the floor.”

The invitation came as a result of Bocarnea’s moving letter and was “more of an emotional decision than a strategic one,” Parra said. But he also noted that the association was trying to establish a presence in Europe and hoped eventually to have contacts in Eastern Europe as well.

For Bocarnea, of course, seeing the fancy graphics workstations and other products on display at the show was just one of the highlights of his trip.

“When I arrived, I felt like I was in a film,” he said, explaining that most Romanians’ impressions of American life come from movies. The Hilton Hotel, where he is staying, was “another miracle--excellent, super, first-class,” he said. And he was struck by what he considered the general friendliness of Americans.

Bocarnea said he was grateful to the NCGA and the people who arranged his trip. He has only one lament--that his 5-year-old daughter wasn’t with him when he spent the weekend at Disneyland.