In our previous article we had started to tell the history of computing in the Soviet Union. MWhile scientists and the military were clear that being at the forefront of the new field was critical to national security, from the political sector and academic disciplines related to the Social Sciences it was despised as capitalist fantasies.
To avoid problems, The researchers had to be careful with the terminology used, omitting a word that referred to the work of the West on the subject.. Even the phrase logic operationss was risky, because it could be interpreted as that machines could think. Instead of the memory, the researchers used the more neutral technical term storage. Information was changed by data y information theory for the tongue twister statistical theory of the transmission of electrical signals with noise
Despite this, the USSR was able to achieve some important achievements
MESM: Russian acronym for Electronic Minor Calculation Machine was the second programmable computer in Continental Europe and the first in the world to work in parallel. It used fixed-point arithmetic and a 16-bit word plus one for the sign. The instruction format was 3-way. It worked with about 6.000 electronic valves, of which 2.500 were triodes and 1.500 diodes
MESM It was used to solve problems in nuclear physics, construction and design of airplanes and rockets, statistical quality control and calculation of the transport of electrical energy, among other uses..
arrow (arrow) a room-sized computer used in military applications. Strela had 6.200 valves and 60.000 semiconductor diodes. and it worked at a speed of 2.000 operations per second. Its floating-point arithmetic was based on 43-bit words, with a 35-bit signed mantissa and a 6-bit signed exponent. The Williams tube RAM had a capacity of 2.048 words. It had a semiconductor ROM for programs. Data entry was done through punched cards or magnetic tapes. Storage consisted of magnetic tape, punch card, or printer.
BESM: Another acronym in Russian, in this case for Fast (or Large) Electronic Computing Machine. This product line had six different versions. The original version was a binary computer with a 39-bit word. His Arithmetic Logic Unit worked in parallel and used floating point arithmetic. The word structure was 32 bits for the mantissa, 1 bit for the sign of the number, 5 bits for the exponent, and 1 bit for the sign of the exponent. It had the ability to represent numbers in the range 9 ^ -9 to 10 ^ 10 and the accuracy in the calculations was close to 9 decimal places.
It could perform nine arithmetic operations, 8 code transmission operations, 6 logic operations, and 9 management operations.
Like the MESM, from whose design it was derived, it was intended for general purposes and was involved in research fields such as nuclear energy, aerospace development, and economic planning.
Computers in the USSR. Politicians decide to support them
With the death of Stalin and the first Soviet success in the field of nuclear weapons, scientists were able to shake off ideological control and disciplines such as cybernetics, genetics, and the economic applications of mathematics became acceptable to the state.
Starting in the sixties, the government issued a series of resolutions authorizing the construction of new computer factories, and publications aimed at the general public began to promote computers as the "machines of communism."
While in the West the computer network was seen as useful for defense, Soviet researchers proposed to link all Soviet companies through a unified national computer network that would process economic information in real time and optimize the entire economy.
The Kremlin made the same mistake as so many other authoritarian governments. Although he bet on computer technology, It did so without changing the production models, the form of management or the power relations. Had it done so, the end of the Cold War could be different.
This story will continue.
Good articles, I would add more pictures to it
Are you going to talk about the Cybersync project?
The Chilean project?
Now I'm going to have to.
The thing with the images is that there are very few in the public domain. I have to see what's on Wikimedia
"Had it been done, the end of the Cold War could be different" ??? It is the funniest thing I have read in a long time, it sounds to me like a lament of a Lenin widow ????
To say that if something had been done differently, the story would have been different does not mean to be against what happened.
If Hitler had heeded his generals or Napoleon had not tried to invade Russia or Lord Mountbatten had endured Gandhi's pressure for another year, the world would not be what it is today.
The article is very informative and interesting, I would add one or another source.
To fear how ideology can truncate technological and scientific development.
Thanks for your comment.
The sources thing is a good idea, I'm going to start doing it
Now they have understood that computer technology can also be used to spy on ordinary citizens. But they will not achieve something significant. We ordinary citizens only have common problems. What else do you want?.