LEBEDEV Sergey Alekseevich (1902-1974)
Founder computer equipment in USSR. Under his leadership, 15 types of computers were created, starting with tube computers and ending with modern supercomputers on integrated circuits.
In 1945, Lebedev created the country's first electronic analog computer for solving systems of ordinary differential equations, which are often encountered in problems related to energy.

Among the world's scientists, Lebedev's contemporaries, there is no person who, like him, would have such a powerful creative potential to cover in his scientific activity the period from the creation of the first tube computers, performing only hundreds and thousands of operations per second, to ultra-high-speed supercomputers on semiconductor, and then on integrated circuits with performance up to millions of operations per second. Lebedev's scientific school, which became the leading one in the former USSR, successfully competed with the famous American company IBM in its results. Under his leadership, they were created and transferred to serial production 15 types of high-performance, most complex computers, each a new word in computing, more productive, more reliable and easy to use.

BROOK Isaac Semenovich (1902-1974)
In 1925 he graduated from the Electrical Engineering Faculty of Moscow Higher Technical University. Since 1935 he worked at the Electrical Engineering Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and since 1956 he headed the laboratory of control machines and systems of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1958 he worked at the Institute of Electronic Control Machines. In 1936 he defended his doctoral dissertation. Under his leadership the following were developed: M-1 (1952), M-3 (1956)

ATANASoff John Vincent (Atanasoff, John Vincent)
(1903-1995), American theoretical physicist, inventor of the first electronic computer.
The invention did not bring Atanasoff any dividends. The patent for the invention was received by the creators of Eniak, to whom Atanasoff demonstrated his machine. Atanasoff's contribution to the invention was only recognized as a result of litigation between the Sperry Rand Corporation, which owned the Eniak patent, and Honeywell, Inc. It has been proven that almost all the main components of the Eniak were borrowed from the ABC and the information that Atanasoff conveyed to John Mauchly in the early 1940s. In 1973, the Eniak patent was invalidated by a decision of the Federal Court.

Atanasoff's machine had a huge impact on the development of computer technology. It was the first computer in which, for operations with binary numbers were applied electronic devices(vacuum tubes). Some of Atanasoff's ideas are still relevant today, such as the use of capacitors in random access memories, including random access memory, capacitor regeneration, and separation of memory and computation processes.

NEUMANN John von (von Neumann)(1903-1957) - American mathematician.
He made a great contribution to the creation of the first computers and the development of methods for their use. In July 1954, von Neumann prepared a 101-page report summarizing plans for the EDVAC. This report, entitled "Preliminary Report on the EDVAC Machine," was an excellent description of not only the machine itself, but also its logical properties.

Military representative Goldstein, who was present at the report, copied the report and sent it to scientists in both the USA and Great Britain.

Thanks to this, von Neumann's "Preliminary Report" became the first work on digital electronic computers, with whom a wide circle of the scientific community became acquainted. The report was passed from hand to hand, from laboratory to laboratory, from university to university, from one country to another. This work attracted special attention because von Neumann was widely known in the scientific world. From that moment on, the computer was recognized as an object of scientific interest. In fact, to this day, scientists sometimes refer to a computer as a "von Neumann machine."

Mauchly John William
(1907-1980), American physicist and engineer, inventor (1946, together with Pr. Eckert) of the first Eniak universal computer (ENIAC).
ECKERT Presper Jr. ( full name Eckert John Presper Junior, Eckert J. Presper, Jr.)
(1919-1995), American engineer and inventor of the first universal computer, which became the prototype for most modern computers.

Mauchly taught electrical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During World War II, together with Eckert, he took up the problem of speeding up the recalculation of artillery fire tables for the US armed forces.

As a result, the design of a universal digital computer was proposed that could operate with encoded data. Using the developments of J. Atanasoff, colleagues by 1946 completed the creation of the ENIAC model, a huge machine that consisted of more than 18 thousand vacuum tubes. The weight of the machine was 30 tons, it required 170 m2 for placement. The machine operated on binary numbers and could perform 5,000 addition operations or 300 multiplication operations per second. This machine was first used in ballistic military research at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1947.

In 1948, Mauchly and Eckert founded a computer company, which a year later introduced the Binary Automatic Calculator (BINAC), which used magnetic tape instead of punched cards. Mauchly proposed an idea for a coding system that would allow a machine to understand algebraic equations written in traditional form.

The third computer of Mauchly and Eckert was UNIVAC I, created specifically for commercial calculations. He could freely process both digital and symbolic information. The first copy of the machine was transferred to the US Census Bureau. Then many were developed various models UNIVAC, which have found application in other fields of activity. Thus, UNIVAC became the first mass-produced computer.

Bardeen John
(1908-1991), American physicist and electrical engineer, together with Walter Brattain and William Shockley, created the first working transistor.
In 1945, Bardeen, while working at Bell, together with William Shockley and Walter Brattain, created semiconductor devices, which could both rectify and amplify electrical signals. Semiconductors, such as germanium and silicon, are materials whose electrical resistance is intermediate between that of a metal and an insulator.

B. shared the Nobel Prize in 1956 with Shockley and Brattain “for research into semiconductors and the discovery of the transistor effect.” “The transistor is in many ways superior to radio tubes,” noted E.G. Rudberg, member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, at the presentation of the laureates. Having pointed out that transistors are much smaller than vacuum tubes and, unlike the latter, do not require electric current for filament heating, Rudberg added that “acoustic instruments, computers, telephone exchanges and much more require just such a device.”

TURING Alan Mathison
(1912-1954), English mathematician. Main works on mathematical logic and computational mathematics. In 1936-37, he introduced the mathematical concept of an abstract equivalent of an algorithm, or a computable function, which was then called the “Turing machine.”

Modern mathematicians, programmers and computer engineers are familiar with the name Alan Turing from their student days: they all had to study the “Turing machine” - the “foundation of the fundamentals” of the theory of algorithms. Not a single serious textbook on mathematical logic and computability theory can do without a “Turing machine”.

At the age of 24, Turing wrote “On Computable Numbers,” which was destined to play an extremely important role in the development of computational mathematics and computer science.

The work dealt with a very difficult problem of mathematical logic - the description of problems that could not be solved even theoretically. In trying to find such a description, Turing used as an aid a powerful, albeit imaginary, computing device in which he anticipated key properties of the modern computer.

Turing called his abstract mechanical device a “universal machine”, since it had to cope with any admissible, that is, theoretically solvable problem - mathematical or logical. Data had to be entered into the machine on a paper tape divided into cells - cells.

Each such cell either contained a symbol or was empty. The machine could not only process the characters recorded on the tape, but also change them, erasing old ones and writing new ones in accordance with the instructions stored in its internal memory. Some of Turing's ideas were eventually implemented in real machines.

Alan Turing participated in the post-war years in the creation of a powerful computer - a machine with programs stored in memory, a number of the properties of which he took from his hypothetical universal machine. A prototype of the ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) computer went into operation in May 1950. Turing was interested in the problems of machine intelligence (he even came up with a test that, in his opinion, made it possible to find out whether a machine could think).

BAZILEVSKY Yuri Yakovlevich(1912-1983) Chief designer of one of the first domestic computers, Strela.
In January 1950, Yuri Yakovlevich was transferred to SKB-245 to the position of head of department No. 3, where the development of one of the country's first computers, the Strela computer, was to be developed. Yu. Ya. Bazilevsky was appointed chief designer of this computer, the creation of which in 1950–1954. became the main activity of SKB-245.

Being older and more experienced than the department employees in organizational, design and technological issues, Yu. Ya. Bazilevsky was able to organize in a short time the development of circuit diagrams of blocks and devices, the preparation of design and technological documentation, the production of blocks at the SAM plant, the setup and testing of computers in general . In 1953, the Strela computer (see Strela computer) passed State tests and its serial production began at the Moscow SAM plant. Seven Strela vehicles manufactured in 1953–1956. were installed in the most important institutes, computer centers, and enterprises of the country engaged in aerospace research and nuclear energy.

In 1954, for the development and creation of an automatic high-speed computer mathematical machine, Yu. Ya. Bazilevsky was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree. It was a stellar year in Bazilevsky’s creative life. In the same year, the head of SKB-245, director of NIISchetmash and the Moscow plant SAM, M. A. Lesechko, was appointed Deputy Minister of Mechanical Engineering and Instrument Making. V.V. Aleksandrov became the head of SKB-245, and Yu. Ya. Bazilevsky became the deputy head for scientific and technical work.

JOBS Steven(born 1955), American computer entrepreneur, co-founder Apple and its interim Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, co-founder of NeXT Software, and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pixar Animation Studios.

Wozniak Stephen(born 1950), American computer designer, co-founder of Apple.

Wozniak attended the University of California, Berkeley. Without finishing his studies, he was hired by Hewlett-Packard. Spent all my free time at the club " Homemade computer"(Homebrew) in the company of the same young enthusiasts in Palo Alto. In 1975, Steve Jobs joined them, inviting Wozniak to start working on a new computer that could sell well. In the garage owned by Jobs's parents, they collaborated to design and build a computer board, the prototype of the Apple I computer. A local electronics dealer ordered them 25 of these devices, and then Wozniak left his job to become vice president of the new enterprise.

On April 1, 1976, Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple Computer, which was incorporated in 1977. Its first product was apple computer I priced at $666.66. This computer, distinguished by its simplicity and compactness, was intended mainly for hobbyists and enthusiasts. A total of 600 of these machines were sold. The Apple II, which appeared soon, became even more compact and easy to use. The company's success was phenomenal, and in 1980 it became a joint stock company.
GATES William (Bill) Henry III(born 1955), American entrepreneur and inventor in the field of electronics computer technology, Chairman and CEO of the world's leading company in the field software Microsoft.

In 1975, after dropping out of Harvard University, where he was preparing to become a lawyer like his father, Gates founded Microsoft with his high school friend Paul Allen. The first task of the new company was to adapt the BASIC language for use in one of the first commercial microcomputers, Edward Roberts' Altair.

In 1980, Microsoft developed the MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operation System) operating system for the first IBM PC, which became the main operating system by the mid-1980s. operating system in the American microcomputer market. Gates then began developing application programs - Excel spreadsheets and word processing. Word editor, and by the late 1980s Microsoft had become a leader in this area as well.

In 1986, by releasing the company's shares to the public market, Gates became a billionaire at the age of 31. In 1990, the company introduced Windows 3.0, which replaced verbal commands with mouse-selectable icons, making the computer much easier to use. In the early 1990s, Windows sold 1 million copies a month. By the end of the 1990s, about 90% of all personal computers in the world were equipped with Microsoft software.

Bill Gates' ability to work, as well as his unique ability to effectively get involved in work at any stage, are legendary. Of course, Gates belongs to the cohort of the most extraordinary businessmen of the new generation. In 1995, he published the book “The Road to the Future,” which became a bestseller.

In 1997 he topped the list of the richest people in the world.

IN The MEPhI machine used a hexadecimal binary-coded system for representing numbers with a floating decimal point. This representation significantly reduced the execution time of order alignment and mantissa normalization operations when performing arithmetic operations.
R The bit grid of the number consisted of 42 digits: one digit is the order sign, three digits are the order code, one digit is the number sign, the remaining 37 digits are the mantissa of the number. To represent (storage) negative orders, an additional code is adopted, and for positive orders and mantissas, regardless of the sign, a direct code is adopted. The latter was done to simplify the operations of multiplication and division.
A The rhymetic device (AU) of the machine, according to the principle of performing operations, was serial-parallel. Reception of the initial data and output of the result were carried out sequentially, the execution of the operation itself was carried out in parallel. This choice was determined by the fact that the first version of RAM was a magnetic drum. The AC included three registers and an adder.
WITH The command system contained 66 commands. Two types of addressing were used: three-address addressing with the possibility of modification and unicast addressing. The unicast system made it possible to work in a mode with an accumulating adder and an AC, as well as to execute commands in a group mode (repeat commands a certain number of times).
R the command's bit grid also contained 42 bits. Among them: 3 bits of signs (for automatic change of the address using a modifier), 6 bits of the operation code, 11 bits per address in a three-address command or 13 bits per address in a unicast command. In the latter case, 2 unicast commands were placed in one word.
A Rithmetic and logical operations performed in the control unit (in unicast and three-address commands):

addition, subtraction, subtraction of modules, multiplication, division, logical addition, logical multiplication, comparison, addition over the entire bit grid, subtraction over the entire bit grid, assigning a number sign to a given one, selecting a whole part addition of orders, subtraction of orders, logical shift.

IN The MEPhI computer command set also included 6 conditional and unconditional jump commands, input commands, output commands, writing to RAM, stopping, and operations with an address modifier.
IN The MEPhI computer adopted a semi-synchronous control principle. The control device is mixed with a floating cycle. The combination of central and local operation control devices was due to the fact that the execution time of a number of micro-operations (normalization, order alignment, etc.) depended on the codes of the original numbers. Those micro-operations whose time is not fixed were controlled by a local control device. This allowed us to reduce the average time to complete operations. The cycle of the central device varied from 1 to 15 cycles depending on the operation and the initial numbers. To perform similar calculations with a group of different numbers, the control device was provided with a mode for automatically changing addresses, for which a special 13-bit address modification register (modifier) ​​was used.
E The MEPhI VM did not have an operating system in the modern sense. Control of the machine during its setup, monitoring of correct operation and debugging of the program were carried out using the control panel. A mnemonic diagram of the machine is mounted on the console panel and an indication of the AC registers and various control device components is displayed. It was possible to operate in the following modes:
- single pulse mode;
- operating mode in cycles (series of elementary operations associated with a separate device);
- operating mode for operations;
- auto mode work.
B It was possible to control a stop at a number or command address. Standard routines were stored on separate punched tapes.
N At the first stage of the creation and operation of the machine, a magnetic drum was used as RAM. By using 6 blocks of read-write heads, the time required to access the drum was significantly reduced. When working with a magnetic drum, the MEPhI computer executed up to 300 three-address commands per second.
IN As an information carrier for the MEPhI computer, 5-track punched paper tape was used, which was used in Teletype telegraph machines. On punched tape, numbers were written in the binary-decimal system. Standard telegraph equipment was used to prepare the data:
- 2 primary input devices - STA telegraph devices, consisting of a STA-35 device, equipped with STAP-type automation attachments, including a puncher and a transmitter;
- reperforator for duplicating punched tapes;
- inspector of the correctness of punching of punched tapes.
WITH The actual input/output devices of the machine included:
- two high-speed input-output devices, made in the form of autonomous mechanisms containing photo-electric reading from punched tape and a BP-20 machine for high-speed printing (printing speed - 20 numbers / s). The reading mechanism and the BP-20 machine were developed and manufactured at EPM MEPhI. The photoelectric input method occurred at a speed of 5040 words/min;
- electromechanical input panel with STA device installed on it. Input speed - 28 words/min;
- I/O rack on which the input control device is mounted.
E The MEPhI VM contained 1160 octal series electron tubes (6N8S, 6P9, n5S, etc.) and several thousand germanium diodes. The occupied area was 100 sq. m.

On December 4, 1948, the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the introduction of advanced technology into the national economy registered number 30 10475 the invention of a digital electronic computer by I. S. Brook and B. I. Rameev.

In Soviet scientific and technical literature, the term “computer science” appeared in 1968, and in schools the corresponding academic discipline appeared in 1985.

At the beginning of 1947, listening to BBC programs, B.I. Rameev learned that the ENIAC computer had been created in the USA, and decided to work on this then new field of science and technology. On the recommendation of A.I. Berga B.I. Rameev turned to Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences I.S. Brook and in May 1948 was accepted as a design engineer at the Laboratory of Electrical Systems of the Energy Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Already in August 1948 I.S. Brook and B.I. Rameev presented the first project in the USSR, “Automatic Digital Electronic Machine”. It contained a description schematic diagram machine, arithmetic operations in the binary number system are defined, control of the operation of the machine from the main program sensor, which reads the program recorded on a punched tape and ensures the output of results on the same tape and the input of the received numbers from it again into the machine for subsequent calculations. Continue joint work with I.S. Brook B.I. Rameev failed due to the fact that at the beginning of 1949 he was again drafted into the army as a radar specialist working at Central Research Institute No. 108 under A.I. Berg, and was enrolled as a teacher at a submariner school in the Far East.

At the beginning of 1950, on the basis of the Moscow SAM plant, SKB-245 was created, which was entrusted with the creation of digital computers. B.I. was invited to the position of head of one of the SKB-245 laboratories. Rameev, returned from the army at the request of the USSR Minister of Mechanical Engineering and Instrument Making P.I. Parshina. At the same time, the minister signed a statement of his personal responsibility for the activities of B.I. Rameev, which was required by the rules for carrying out secret research, which in those years applied to the development of computers.

B.I. Rameev proposed a preliminary design of the machine, using a number of ideas that he had previously put forward together with I.S. Brook. This project, approved by the Technical Council of SKB-245, was the basis for the Strela machine, the first computer mastered in industrial production in the USSR. As deputy chief designer of Strela B.I. Rameev participated in the creation of the machine as a whole. Under his leadership and with his direct participation, the arithmetic device of the machine and the memory on a magnetic drum were developed. Decision on choosing the element base for vacuum tubes(and not on the relay) was proposed by B.I. Rameev.

Computers

Computer represents programmable electronic device, capable process data And make calculations, A also perform other tasks And manipulate symbols.

Electronic computers (computers)– a set of technologies and software designed for automation of preparation and solution of problems users.

Basic information about the design of a computer comes down to its execution the following operations: input information, its treatment using computer programs and conclusion the result of processing in a form suitable for human perception. Responsible for each action special computer block: input device, central processing unit (CPU) and output device respectively.

History of the development of computer technology until the twentieth century

V- VIcentury AD. One of the first devices to facilitate calculations appeared - a special board for calculations called “ abacus».

XV- XVIcentury AD. IN Ancient Rus' when counting during this period of history, a device similar to an abacus was used, which was called “ Russian shot" In the 16th century, it had already acquired the appearance of familiar Russian accounts. The abacus that was used in the 16th century has a special place, since it was first accessory to use decimal, not fivefold number system, like the rest of the abaci. The main merit of the inventors of abacus is creation of a positional system for representing numbers.

XVIIcentury AD. B. Pascal at the beginning of the century, when mathematics became a key science, created summing machine(“Pascalina”), which in addition to addition also performed subtraction. G. Leibniz a little later he created the first arithmetic computer(“mechanical adding machine”), capable of performing all four arithmetic operations.

XIXcentury AD. In 1812 Ch. Babbage began work on creating difference engine, which was supposed to not only perform arithmetic operations, but also carry out calculations using a program that specifies a specific function. For the software of this technique we used punch cards(cardboard cards with punched holes - perforation).

History of the development of computer technology in the twentieth century

The first computer " ENIAC"(tube digital integrator and computer) was created in the USA after the Second World War in 1946. The group of computer creators included one of the most outstanding scientists of the twentieth century - John von Neumann. According to Neumann's principles, the construction and operation of universal programmable computers (computers) forms three main components:

Arithmetic device.

Input/output device.

Memory for storing data and programs.

Devices First generation computer were presented in the form of cabinets that occupied entire machine rooms and were difficult to operate. Their elemental base was electron vacuum tubes. Programming was a very labor-intensive process, and the structure was built according to strict principle.

The development of computers in the USSR is associated with the name of the academician Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev(02.11.1902 – 03.07.1974). In 1950, the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering (ITM and VT AS USSR) organized digital computer department for the development and creation of a large computer. Academician Lebedev led this work, and under his leadership, “ MESM"(small electronic calculating machine) in 1953 and " BESM"(large electronic counting machine).

Under the direction of B.I. Rameeva The first universal tube computers for general purpose were developed in the USSR: “ Ural 1», « Ural 2», « Ural 3" And " Ural 4" In the 60s, the first family of software- and design-compatible general-purpose semiconductor computers in the USSR was created: “ Ural 11», « Ural 14" And " Ural 16" Scientists such as B.I. Rameev, IN AND. Burkov And A.S. Gorshkov.

1959-1967 years of the twentieth century. arise Second generation computer, the elementary basis of which was active And passive elements. Their dimensions were same type of racks, requiring a machine room. Performance was calculated hundreds of thousands - millions of op./With. In addition, their operation has been simplified and algorithmic languages. The structure of the computer was microprogram control method. During these years, the USSR was developing machines for engineering calculations “ Promino" And " World"(predecessors of future personal computers) under the leadership V.M. Glushkova And S.B. Pogrebinsky. In 1960, a multi-purpose semiconductor control machine was created in the Soviet Union. Dnieper" (under the direction of V.M. Glushkova And B.N. Malinovsky). This computer included analog-to-digital And digital-to-analog converters and was produced for 10 years.

1968-1973 of the twentieth century. During this time period, they are created Third generation computer, the elementary base is large integrated circuits (ICs and LSIs). The dimensions of these systems are the same type of racks, requiring machine room, and the performance was in the hundreds of thousands - millions of op./s. This generation demanded operational repair. The programming of these computers was similar to the second generation of computers, and the structure was principle of modularity And trunkliness. Appear displays And magnetic disks.

1974-1990 years of the twentieth century. The elementary base of computers of this generation is fourth generation of computers are very large scale integrated circuits (VLSI). During the same period, it was created multiprocessor computing system, cheap compact microcomputers And personal computers, on the basis of which computer networks developed. In 1971, a US company Intel» creates first microprocessor(programmable logic device based on VLSI technology). In 1981, the American corporation International Business Machines Corporation"introduced the first model of a personal computer" IBM 5150 ", which marked the beginning of the era of modern computers. In 1983, the corporation Apple Computers"built a personal computer" Lisa" (first office computer, controlled by a manipulator – mouse). And a year later the same corporation released a computer “ Macintosh"on a 32-bit processor "Motorolla68000".

1990 – present. This stage is marked transition to the fifth generation COMPUTER. This transition involves the creation of new architectures focused on the creation of artificial intelligence. It is believed that the fifth generation computer architecture will contain two main blocks, one of which (the computer itself), should be located block - smart interface– communicating with the user. The purpose of this interface is to understand the text, written in natural language, or speech, and the condition of the problem stated in this way translate into a running program.

Basic requirements for fifth generation computers:

Creation of a developed human-machine interface(speech and image recognition).

Development logic programming to create knowledge bases and artificial intelligence systems.

Creation new technologies in the production of computer equipment.

Creation new architectures computers and computing systems.

To create programs that provide filling, updating and working with databases, special object-oriented And logical programming languages, providing the greatest capabilities compared to conventional procedural languages. The structure of these languages ​​requires transition from traditional von Neumann computer architecture To architectures that take into account the requirements of the tasks of creating artificial intelligence(AI). The basic principle construction of all modern computers is software control, which is based on presentation of the solution algorithm any task as a calculation program.

Computer program– an ordered sequence of commands to be processed (ISO 2382/1-84 standard).

Program control principle, described by J. von Neumann, states that all calculations prescribed by the algorithm for solving a problem must be represented in the form program consisting of a sequence of control words (teams), each of which contains instructions for a specific operation performed, location (addresses) operands(variable values ​​that participate in data conversion operations) or a number of service characteristics.

Von Neumann computer architecture (the vast majority of modern PCs):

Arithmetic logic unit (ALU).

Control device.

1. Information input device.

   Information output device.

List ( array) everyone variables(input data, intermediate values ​​and calculation results) is an integral element of any program. To access programs, instructions and operands, they are used addresses, which are numbers of computer memory cells, intended for storing objects. Bit sequence presented in a meaningful format field. A sequence consisting of a specific, adopted for a given computer number of bytes, called in a word.

Structural units of computer information:

Bit(smallest structural unit).

Field(sequence of bits).

Byte(field 8 bits long).

Word(a sequence of bytes whose characteristic is that it is written to and read from the operational memory [RAM] in one cycle).

Array(sequence of words with the same meaning).

File(an information array with a name, located in external memory and considered as an indivisible object during shipments and processing).

At the initial stage of its development, the field of computer development in the USSR kept pace with global trends. The history of the development of Soviet computers until 1980 will be discussed in this article.

Computer background

In modern colloquial – and scientific, too – speech, the expression “electronic computer” is everywhere changed to the word “computer”. This is not entirely true theoretically - computer calculations may not be based on the use of electronic devices. However, historically, computers have become the main tool for carrying out operations with large volumes of numerical data. And since only mathematicians worked on their improvement, all types of information began to be encoded with numerical “ciphers”, and computers convenient for their processing turned from scientific and military exotica into universal, widespread technology.

The engineering basis for the creation of electronic computers was laid in Germany during the Second World War. There, prototypes of modern computers were used for encryption. In Britain, in the same years, through the joint efforts of spies and scientists, a similar decryption machine was designed - Colossus. Formally, neither German nor British devices can be considered electronic computers; rather, they are electronic-mechanical - the operations were carried out by switching relays and rotating gear rotors.

After the end of the war, Nazi developments fell into the hands of the Soviet Union and mainly the United States. The scientific community that emerged at that time was distinguished by its strong dependence on “their” states, but more importantly, by a high level of insight and hard work. Leading specialists from several fields at once became interested in the capabilities of electronic computing technology. And governments agreed that devices for fast, accurate and complex calculations were promising, and allocated funds for related research. In the USA, before and during the war, they carried out their own cybernetic developments - the non-programmable, but completely electronic (without mechanical components) Atanasov-Berry computer (ABC), as well as the electromechanical, but programmable for various tasks, ENIAC. Their modernization, taking into account the works of European (German and British) scientists, led to the emergence of the first “real” computers. At the same time (in 1947), the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR was organized in Kyiv, headed by Sergei Lebedev, an electrical engineer and the founder of Soviet computer science. One year after the establishment of the institute, Lebedev opened a laboratory for modeling and computer technology under its roof, in which the best computers of the Union were developed over the next few decades.

ENIAC

Principles of the first generation of computers

In the 40s, the famous mathematician John von Neumann came to the conclusion that computers, in which programs are literally set manually by switching levers and wires, are overly complex for practical use. It creates the concept that executable codes are stored in memory in the same way as processed data. The separation of the processor part from the data storage device and a fundamentally identical approach to storing programs and information became the cornerstones of the von Neumann architecture. This computer architecture is still the most common. It is from the first devices built on the von Neumann architecture that generations of computers are counted.

Simultaneously with the formulation of the postulates of von Neumann's architecture, the widespread use of vacuum tubes began in electrical engineering. At that time, they were the only ones that made it possible to fully realize the automation of calculations offered by the new architecture, since the response time of vacuum tubes was extremely short. However, each lamp required a separate power wire for operation, in addition, the physical process on which the operation of vacuum lamps is based - thermionic emission - imposed restrictions on their miniaturization. As a result, first-generation computers consumed hundreds of kilowatts of energy and occupied tens of cubic meters of space.

In 1948, Sergei Lebedev, who in his directorial post was engaged not only in administrative work, but also in scientific work, submitted a memorandum to the USSR Academy of Sciences. It talked about the need to develop your own electronic computer as soon as possible, both for practical use and for the sake of scientific progress. The development of this machine was carried out completely from scratch - Lebedev and his employees had no information about the experiments of their Western colleagues. In two years, the machine was designed and assembled - for these purposes, near Kiev, in Feofania, the institute was given a building that previously belonged to a monastery. In 1950, a computer called (MESM) made the first calculations - finding the roots of a differential equation. In 1951, the inspection of the Academy of Sciences, headed by Keldysh, accepted MESM into operation. The MESM consisted of 6,000 vacuum tubes, performed 3,000 operations per second, consumed just under 25 kW of energy and occupied 60 square meters. It had a complex three-address command system and read data not only from punched cards, but also from magnetic tapes.

While Lebedev was building his car in Kyiv, his own group of electrical engineers was formed in Moscow. Electrical engineer Isaac Brook and inventor Bashir Rameev, both employees of the Energy Institute named after. Krzhizhanovsky, back in 1948 they submitted an application to the patent office to register their own computer project. By 1950, Rameev was put in charge of a special laboratory, where literally within a year the M-1 computer was assembled, much less powerful than the MESM (only 20 operations per second were performed), but also smaller in size (about 5 square meters) . 730 lamps consumed 8 kW of energy.

Unlike MESM, which was used mainly for military and industrial purposes, the computing time of the M series was allocated to both nuclear scientists and the organizers of an experimental chess tournament between computers. In 1952, the M-2 appeared, the productivity of which increased a hundred times, but the number of lamps only doubled. This was achieved through the active use of managers semiconductor diodes. Energy consumption increased to 29 kW, area - to 22 square meters. Despite the obvious success of the project, the computer was not put into mass production - this prize went to another cybernetic creation created with the support of Rameev - “Strela”.

The Strela computer was created in Moscow, under the leadership of Yuri Bazilevsky. The first sample of the device was completed by 1953. Like the M-1, the Strela used cathode ray tube memory (MESM used trigger cells). “Strela” turned out to be the most successful of these three projects, since they managed to put it into production - the Moscow Factory of Computing and Analytical Machines took over the assembly. Over three years (1953-1956), seven Strels were produced, which were then sent to Moscow State University, to the computer centers of the USSR Academy of Sciences and several ministries.

In many ways, Strela was worse than the M-2. It performed the same 2000 operations per second, but it used 6200 lamps and more than 60 thousand diodes, which in total gave 300 square meters of occupied space and about 150 kW of power consumption. The M-2 was delayed: its predecessor did not have good performance, and by the time it was put into operation, the finalized version of Strela had already been put into production.

M-3 was again a “stripped-down” version - the computer performed 30 operations per second, consisted of 774 lamps and consumed 10 kW of energy. But this machine occupied only 3 sq.m., thanks to which it went into mass production (16 computers were assembled). In 1960, the M-3 was modified, and productivity was increased to 1000 operations per second. On the basis of M-3, new computers “Aragats”, “Hrazdan”, “Minsk” were developed in Yerevan and Minsk. These “outlying” projects, which ran in parallel with the leading Moscow and Kyiv programs, achieved serious results only later, after the transition to transistor technology.

In 1950, Lebedev was transferred to Moscow, to the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Science. There, in two years, a computer was designed, the prototype of which MESM was at one time considered. New car called BESM - Large Electronic Computing Machine. This project marked the beginning of the most successful series of Soviet computers.

BESM, which was refined over another three years, was distinguished by its excellent performance for those times - up to 10 thousand operations per minute. In this case, only 5000 lamps were used, and the power consumption was 35 kW. BESM was the first Soviet “wide-profile” computer – it was initially intended to be provided to scientists and engineers to carry out their calculations.

BESM-2 was developed for mass production. The number of operations per second was increased to 20 thousand, RAM, after testing CRTs, mercury tubes, was implemented on ferrite cores (for the next 20 years this type of RAM became the leading one). Production began in 1958, and in four years from the assembly lines of the plant named after. Volodarsky produced 67 such computers. BESM-2 began the development of military computers that controlled air defense systems - M-40 and M-50. As part of these modifications, the first Soviet computer of the second generation, 5E92b, was assembled, and the further fate of the BESM series was already connected with transistors.

Since 1955, Rameev “relocated” to Penza to develop another computer, the cheaper and more widespread “Ural-1”. Consisting of a thousand lamps and consuming up to 10 kW of energy, this computer occupied about one hundred square meters and cost much less than powerful BESM. Ural-1 was produced until 1961; a total of 183 computers were produced. They were installed in computer centers and design bureaus around the world, in particular, in the flight control center of the Baikonur cosmodrome. “Ural 2-4” were also computers based on vacuum tubes, but they already used ferrite RAM, performed several thousand operations per second and occupied 200-400 square meters.

Moscow State University developed its own computer, “Setun”. It also went into mass production - 46 such computers were produced at the Kazan Computer Plant. They were designed by mathematician Sobolev together with designer Nikolai Brusentsov. "Setun" - a computer based on ternary logic; in 1959, several years before the mass transition to transistor computers, this computer with its two dozen vacuum tubes performed 4,500 operations per second and consumed 2.5 kW of electricity. For this purpose, ferrite diode cells were used, which the Soviet electrical engineer Lev Gutenmacher tested back in 1954 when developing his lampless electronic computer LEM-1. “Setuni” functioned successfully in various institutions of the USSR, but the future lay in mutually compatible computers, which means they were based on the same binary logic. Moreover, the world received transistors, which removed vacuum tubes from electrical laboratories.

US first generation computer

Serial production of computers in the USA began earlier than in the USSR - in 1951. It was UNIVAC I, a commercial computer designed more for statistical processing. Its performance was approximately the same as that of Soviet designs: it used 5,200 vacuum tubes, performed 1,900 operations per second, and consumed 125 kW of energy.

But scientific and military computers were much more powerful (and larger). The development of the Whirlwind computer began even before World War II, and its purpose was nothing less than training pilots in aviation simulators. Naturally, in the first half of the 20th century this was an unrealistic goal, so the war passed and Whirlwind was never built. But then the Cold War began, and developers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology proposed returning to the grand idea.

In 1953 (the same year the M-2 and Strela were released), Whirlwind was completed. This computer performed 75,000 operations per second and consisted of 50 thousand vacuum tubes. Energy consumption reached several megawatts. In the process of creating computers, ferrite data storage devices, RAM on cathode ray tubes, and something like a primitive graphical interface were developed. In practice, the Whirlwind was never of any use - it was modernized to intercept bomber aircraft, and by the time it was put into operation, the airspace had already come under the control of intercontinental missiles.

The uselessness of Whirlwind for the military did not put an end to such computers. The creators of the computer transferred the main developments to IBM. In 1954, based on them, the IBM 701 was designed - the first serial computer of this corporation, which provided it with leadership in the computer market for thirty years. Its characteristics were completely similar to Whirlwind. Thus, the speed of American computers was higher than that of Soviet ones, and many design solutions were found earlier. True, this concerned rather the use of physical processes and phenomena - architecturally, the Union’s computers were often more advanced. Perhaps because Lebedev and his followers developed the principles of constructing computers practically from scratch, relying not on old ideas, but on the latest achievements of mathematical science. However, the abundance of uncoordinated projects did not allow the USSR to create its own IBM 701 - the successful features of the architectures were dispersed across different models, and funding was equally scattered.

Principles of the second generation of computers

Computers based on vacuum tubes were characterized by the complexity of programming, large dimensions, and high energy consumption. At the same time, machines often broke down, their repair required the participation of professional electrical engineers, and the correct execution of commands seriously depended on the serviceability of the hardware. Finding out whether the error was caused by an incorrect connection of some element or a “typo” by the programmer was an extremely difficult task.

In 1947, at Bell Laboratory, which provided the United States with a good half of the advanced technological solutions in the 20th century, Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley invented the bipolar semiconductor transistor. November 15, 1948 in the magazine “Bulletin of Information” A.V. Krasilov published the article “Crystal triode”. This was the first publication in the USSR about transistors. was created independently of the work of American scientists.

In addition to lower power consumption and greater response speed, transistors differed favorably from vacuum tubes in their durability and order of magnitude smaller dimensions. This made it possible to create computing units industrial methods (conveyor assembly of computers using vacuum tubes seemed unlikely due to their size and fragility). At the same time, the problem of dynamic configuration of the computer was solved - small peripheral devices could be easily disconnected and replaced with others, which was not possible in the case of massive lamp components. The cost of a transistor was higher than the cost of a vacuum tube, but with mass production, transistor computers paid for themselves much faster.

The transition to transistor computing in Soviet cybernetics went smoothly - no new design bureaus or series were created, just old BESMs and Urals were transferred to the new technology.

The 5E92b all-semiconductor computer, designed by Lebedev and Burtsev, was created for specific missile defense tasks. It consisted of two processors - a computing processor and a controller. peripheral devices– had a self-diagnosis system and allowed “hot” replacement of computing transistor units. Performance was 500,000 operations per second for the main processor and 37,000 for the controller. So high performance an additional processor was necessary, since not only traditional input-output systems, but also locators worked in conjunction with the computer. The computer occupied more than 100 square meters. Its design began in 1961 and was completed in 1964.

After 5E92b, developers began working on universal transistor computers - BESMami. BESM-3 remained a prototype, BESM-4 reached mass production and was produced in the amount of 30 vehicles. It performed up to 40 operations per second and was a “test sample” for the creation of new programming languages ​​that came in handy with the advent of BESM-6.

In the entire history of Soviet computing technology, BESM-6 is considered the most triumphant. At the time of its creation in 1965, this computer was advanced not so much in terms of hardware characteristics as in controllability. It had a developed self-diagnosis system, several operating modes, extensive capabilities for controlling remote devices (via telephone and telegraph channels), and the ability to pipeline processing of 14 processor commands. System performance reached a million operations per second. There was support for virtual memory, command cache, reading and writing data. In 1975, BESM-6 processed the flight trajectories of spacecraft participating in the Soyuz-Apollo project. Production of the computer continued until 1987, and operation until 1995.

Since 1964, the Urals also switched to semiconductors. But by that time the monopoly of these computers had already passed - almost every region produced its own computers. Among them were Ukrainian control computers “Dnepr”, performing up to 20,000 operations per second and consuming only 4 kW, Leningrad UM-1, also control, and requiring only 0.2 kW of electricity with a productivity of 5000 operations per second, Belarusian “Minsky”, “Spring” and “Snow”, Yerevan “Nairi” and many others. The MIR and MIR-2 computers developed at the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics deserve special attention.

These engineering computers began to be mass-produced in 1965. In a sense, the head of the Institute of Cybernetics, Academician Glushkov, was ahead of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak with their user interfaces. “MIR” was a computer with an electric typewriter connected to it; commands could be given to the processor in the human-readable programming language ALMIR-65 (for MIR-2 the high-level language ANALYTIC was used). Commands were specified in both Latin and Cyrillic characters, editing and debugging modes were supported. Information output was provided in text, tabular and graphical forms. The productivity of MIR was 2000 operations per second, for MIR-2 this figure reached 12000 operations per second, energy consumption was several kilowatts.

US second generation computer

In the USA, electronic computers continued to be developed by IBM. However, this corporation also had a competitor - the small company Control Data Corporation and its developer Seymour Cray. Cray was one of the first to adopt new technologies - first transistors, and then integrated circuits. He also assembled the world's first supercomputers (in particular, the fastest at the time of its creation, the CDC 1604, which the USSR tried to acquire for a long time and unsuccessfully) and was the first to use active cooling of processors.

The transistor CDC 1604 appeared on the market in 1960. It was based on germanium transistors, performed more operations than BESM-6, but had worse controllability. However, already in 1964 (a year before the appearance of BESM-6), Cray developed the CDC 6600, a supercomputer with a revolutionary architecture. CPU executed only the simplest commands on silicon transistors; all “conversion” of data was transferred to the department of ten additional microprocessors. To cool it, Cray used freon circulating in the tubes. As a result, the CDC 6600 became the record holder for performance, surpassing IBM Stretch three times. To be fair, there was never a “competition” between BESM-6 and CDC 6600, and comparison in terms of the number of operations performed at that level of technology development no longer made sense - too much depended on the architecture and control system.

Principles of the third generation of computers

The advent of vacuum tubes speeded up operations and made it possible to realize von Neumann's ideas. The creation of transistors solved the “size problem” and made it possible to reduce power consumption. However, the problem of build quality remained - individual transistors were literally soldered to each other, and this was bad both from the point of view of mechanical reliability and from the point of view of electrical insulation. In the early 50s, engineers expressed ideas for integrating individual electronic components, but it was only by the 60s that the first prototypes of integrated circuits appeared.

Computing crystals are no longer assembled, but grown on special substrates. Electronic components performing various tasks began to be connected using aluminum metallization, and the role of an insulator was assigned to the p-n junction in the transistors themselves. Integrated circuits were the result of the integration of the works of at least four engineers - Kilby, Lehovec, Noyce and Ernie.

At first, microcircuits were designed according to the same principles that were used to “rout” signals inside tube computers. Then engineers began to use so-called transistor-transistor logic (TTL), which more fully exploited the physical advantages of the new solutions.

It was important to ensure compatibility, hardware and software, of various computers. Particular attention was paid to the compatibility of models of the same series - inter-corporate and, especially, interstate cooperation was still far away.

Soviet industry was fully equipped with computers, but the variety of projects and series began to create problems. In fact, the universal programmability of computers was limited by their hardware incompatibility - all series had different processor bits, instruction sets, and even byte sizes. In addition, the serial production of computers was very limited - only the largest computer centers were provided with computers. At the same time, the lead among American engineers was increasing - in the 60s, Silicon Valley was already confidently standing out in California, where progressive integrated circuits were being created with all their might.

In 1968, the “Row” directive was adopted, according to which the further development of USSR cybernetics was directed along the path of cloning IBM S/360 computers. Sergei Lebedev, who at that time remained the country's leading electrical engineer, spoke skeptically about Ryad - the path of copying, by definition, was the path of laggards. However, no one saw any other way to quickly “bring up” the industry. A Research Center for Electronic Computer Technology was established in Moscow, the main task of which was to implement the “Ryad” program - the development of a unified series of computers similar to the S/360. The result of the center's work was the emergence of the ES Computer in 1971. Despite the similarity of the idea with the IBM S/360, Soviet developers did not have direct access to these computers, so the design of the computer began with disassembling the software and logical construction of the architecture based on the algorithms of its operation.

The development of the ES computer was carried out jointly with specialists from friendly countries, in particular the GDR. However, attempts to catch up with the United States in computer development ended in failure in the 1980s. The cause of the fiasco was both the economic and ideological decline of the USSR and the emergence of the concept of personal computers. The Union's cybernetics were not ready either technically or ideologically for the transition to individual computers.