The history of computing hardware in the
Eastern Bloc is somewhat different from that of the
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. . As a result of the
CoCom
The Cocom or Cocomes were a Maya family or dynasty who controlled the Yucatán Peninsula in the late Postclassic period. Their capital was at Mayapan. The dynasty was founded by Hunac Ceel
Hunac Ceel Cauich (fl. late 12th and early 13th centu ...
embargo, computers could not be imported on a large scale from
Western Bloc
The Western Bloc, also known as the Free Bloc, the Capitalist Bloc, the American Bloc, and the NATO Bloc, was a coalition of countries that were officially allied with the United States during the Cold War of 1947–1991. It was spearheaded by ...
.
Eastern Bloc manufacturers created copies of Western designs based on intelligence gathering and
reverse engineering.
This redevelopment led to some incompatibilities with
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...
standards, such as spacing
integrated circuit pins at of a 25 mm length (colloquially a "metric inch") instead of a standard
inch of 25.4 mm.
This made Soviet chips unsellable on the world market outside the
Comecon
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (, ; English abbreviation COMECON, CMEA, CEMA, or CAME) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc#List of s ...
, and made test machinery more expensive.
History
By the end of the 1950s most
COMECON
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (, ; English abbreviation COMECON, CMEA, CEMA, or CAME) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc#List of s ...
countries had developed experimental computer designs, yet none of them had managed to create a stable computer industry.
In October 1962 the "Commission for Scientific Problems in Computing" (Комиссия Научные Вопросы Вычислительной Техники, КНВВТ) was founded in Warsaw and modelled after the
International Federation for Information Processing
The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing.
Established in 196 ...
.
Computer design and production began to be coordinated between the Comecon countries in 1964, when the
Edinaya Sistema mainframe (Unified System, ES, also known as RIAD) was introduced.
The project also included plans for the development of a joint Comecon computer network.
Each COMECON country was given a role in the development of the ES: Hungary was responsible for software development, while East Germany improved the design of
disk storage devices.
The ES-1040 was successfully exported to countries outside the Comecon, including India, Yugoslavia and China. Each country specialized in a model of the ES series: R-10 in the case of Hungary, R-20 in Bulgaria, R-20A in Czechoslovakia, R-30 in Poland and R-40 in East Germany.
Nairi
Nairi ( classical hy, Նայիրի, ''Nayiri'', reformed: Նաիրի, ''Nairi''; , also ''Na-'i-ru'') was the Akkadian name for a region inhabited by a particular group (possibly a confederation or league) of tribal principalities in the Armen ...
-3, developed at the Armenian Institute for Computers, was the first third-generation computer in the Comecon area, using
integrated circuits.
Development on the Nairi system began in 1964, and it went into serial production in 1969.
In 1969 the Intergovernmental Commission for Computer Technology was founded to coordinate computer production.
Other cooperation initiatives included the establishment of joint Comecon development facilities in Moscow and Kiev.
The
R-300 computer, released in 1969, demonstrated the technical and managerial skills of
VEB Robotron
VEB Kombinat Robotron (or simply Robotron) was the biggest East German electronics manufacturer. It was based in Dresden and employed 68,000 people (1989). It produced personal computers, SM EVM minicomputers, the ESER mainframe computers, se ...
, and established a leading role for East Germany in the joint development efforts.
The relative success of Robotron was attributed to its greater organizational freedom, and the profit motive of securing export orders.
In 1970, Cuba produced its first digital computer, the
CID-201.
By 1972 the Comecon countries had produced around 7,500 computers, compared to 120,000 in the rest of the world.
The USSR, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania had all set up computer production and research institutes.
Collaboration between Romania and the other countries was limited, due to the autarkic policies of
Nicolae Ceaușescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He ...
.
The availability of western computing hardware differed considerably between communist countries; in the early 1970s they were most common in Czechoslovakia, where a licensing agreement was signed with the French
Groupe Bull.
Non-Soviet Eastern European countries had more access to Western technology, which allowed them to manufacture more sophisticated computer equipment.
In 1983 the representatives of the national academies of sciences of the Comecon countries met in
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...
to discuss the development of a new generation of computer systems.
In June 1985 the “Conception of a new generation of computer systems” was approved in Prague, with the objective of creating a socialist response to the Japanese
fifth generation computer
The Fifth Generation Computer Systems (FGCS) was a 10-year initiative begun in 1982 by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to create computers using massively parallel computing and logic programming. It aimed to create ...
initiative.
The document planned the development of the IT industry in socialist countries up to the year 2010.
In 1985 Ukrainian researchers managed to reverse-engineer the
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.
Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...
chip and built a hardware clone using readily available parts.
Over 50 different versions of the Spectrum were created in Eastern Bloc countries over the next few years, including the
Hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien. About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, ...
,
Baltica
Baltica is a paleocontinent that formed in the Paleoproterozoic and now constitutes northwestern Eurasia, or Europe north of the Trans-European Suture Zone and west of the Ural Mountains.
The thick core of Baltica, the East European Craton, ...
,
Pentagon,
Scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always en ...
,
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
,
Didaktik
The Didaktik was a series of 8-bit home computers based on the clones of Intel 8080 and Zilog Z80 processors produced in former Czechoslovakia.
Didaktik Alfa
Didaktik Alfa was produced in 1986, as a "more professional" clone of PMD 85. It fe ...
(Czechoslovakia),
Spectral
''Spectral'' is a 2016 3D military science fiction, supernatural horror fantasy and action-adventure thriller war film directed by Nic Mathieu. Written by himself, Ian Fried, and George Nolfi from a story by Fried and Mathieu. The film stars ...
(East Germany) and
Cobra (Romania).
In 1985 the
computer industry of Bulgaria exported computer hardware to over 20 countries, manufacturing personal computers, word processing terminals and memory tapes and disks. At its peak, the country provided 40% of computers in the Comecon area.
After the collapse of Comecon in 1989, the computer hardware sector in its former member countries could not compete with foreign manufacturers, and virtually disappeared.
Tens of thousands of IT scientists and engineers migrated to Western Europe for employment, not always in fields related to their expertise.
Unified System project
ES EVM
The ES EVM (russian: Единая система электронных вычислительных машин (ЕС ЭВМ), translit=Yedinaya sistema electronnykh vytchislitel'nykh mashin (ES EVM), "Unified System of Electronic Computers"), o ...
(ЕС ЭВМ, Единая система электронных вычислительных машин, meaning "Unified System of Electronic Computers") was a series of
clones
Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to:
Places
* Clones, County Fermanagh
* Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland
Biology
* Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massive presence of which may indicate a pathologi ...
of IBM's System/360 and System/370 mainframes. The objective of the project, which was also known as Ryad ('series'), was to create a
general purpose computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These program ...
for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Initially announced as a Soviet venture in 1967, in 1969 it became an international project, involving Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland.
Romania and Cuba joined the project in 1973.
The first models entered serial production in 1972.
According to CIA sources, by 1975 the Comecon countries had managed to build only 10% to 15% of the anticipated number of ES computers.
Production continued until 1995. The total number of ES EVM mainframes produced was more than 15,000.
In the period from 1986 to 1997, a series of PC-compatible desktop computers, called ПЭВМ ЕС ЭВМ (Personal Computers of ES EVM series), was also produced; the newer versions of these computers are still produced under a different name on a very limited scale in Minsk.
Small Machines System project
SM EVM SM EVM (СМ ЭВМ, abbreviation of Система Малых ЭВМ—literally System of Mini Computers) are several types of Soviet Union, Soviet and Comecon minicomputers produced from 1975 through the 1980s.
Most types of SM EVM are clone (co ...
(СМ ЭВМ, Система Малых ЭВМ, meaning "System of Small Electronic Computers") was an intergovernmental program for creating
minicomputers, run by the
Ministry of Instrument Making.
The program initially included two major architectural lines based on
DEC PDP-11 architecture and
HP 2100
The HP 2100 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers that were produced by Hewlett-Packard (HP) from the mid-1960s to early 1990s. Tens of thousands of machines in the series were sold over its twenty-five year lifetime, making HP the fourth largest mi ...
architecture. Later the program included a family of DEC
VAX
VAX (an acronym for Virtual Address eXtension) is a series of computers featuring a 32-bit instruction set architecture (ISA) and virtual memory that was developed and sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the late 20th century. The V ...
compatible computers and
Multibus
Multibus is a computer bus standard used in industrial systems. It was developed by Intel Corporation and was adopted as the IEEE 796 bus.
The Multibus specification was important because it was a robust, well-thought out industry standard with ...
based microcomputers. Minicomputers developed within the framework of the program were intended for use as computer based control systems, measuring and computing systems and workstations for
CAD
Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...
systems.
As in the case of ES EVM, the program began as a Soviet venture and in 1974 became an international project involving Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
TPA
TPA (Tárolt Programú Analizátor,
meaning "Stored-Program Analyser") was a Hungarian product line of computers. It could not be referred as a computer, though, as computers were meant to be produced by the Soviet Union. The project started based on the freely available manuals of
DEC PDP-8
The PDP-8 is a 12-bit minicomputer that was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the first commercially successful minicomputer, with over 50,000 units being sold over the model's lifetime. Its basic design follows the pioneer ...
in 1966 and products made available in 1968. TPAs were 100% software compatible with their original counterparts. The project remained highly popular for about 25 years.
PDP-11 compatible TPAs appeared in 1976,
VAX-11
The VAX-11 is a discontinued family of 32-bit superminicomputers, running the Virtual Address eXtension (VAX) instruction set architecture (ISA), developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Development began in 1976. In a ...
compatibles in 1983.
Due to CoCom restrictions 32 bit computers could not be exported to the Eastern Bloc. In practice 32-bit DEC computes and processors were available. Those were rebranded as TPA.
See also
*
History of computer hardware in Bulgaria
This article describes the history of computer hardware in Bulgaria. At its peak, Bulgaria supplied 40% of the computers in the socialist economic union COMECON. The electronics industry employed 300,000 workers, and it generated 8 billion rubles ...
*
History of computing in Poland
The history of Polish computing ( informatics) began during the Second World War with breaking the Enigma machine code by Polish mathematicians. After World War II, work on Polish computers began. Poles made a significant contribution to both the ...
*
History of computing in Romania
This article describes the history of computing in Romania.
HC family
The Romanian computers (HC 85, HC 85+, HC 88, HC 90, HC 91 and HC 2000) were clones of the ZX Spectrum produced at ICE Felix from 1985 to 1994. HC 85 was first designed at I ...
*
History of computing in the Soviet Union
The history of computing in the Soviet Union began in the late 1940s, when the country began to develop its Small Electronic Calculating Machine (MESM) at the Kiev Institute of Electrotechnology in Feofaniya. Initial ideological opposition to ...
*
History of computer hardware in Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was a socialist country that existed in the second half of the 20th century. Being socialist meant that strict technology import rules and regulations shaped the development of computer history in ...
References
External links
Soviet calculators and computers collection by Sergei FrolovPioneers of Soviet ComputingMuseum of Soviet Arcade Machinesat the
Moscow State Technical University
The Bauman Moscow State Technical University, BMSTU (russian: link=no, Московский государственный технический университет им. Н. Э. Баумана (МГТУ им. Н. Э. Баумана)), some ...
.
Steal The Best a
micrograph
A micrograph or photomicrograph is a photograph or digital image taken through a microscope or similar device to show a magnified image of an object. This is opposed to a macrograph or photomacrograph, an image which is also taken on a m ...
of a
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president un ...
CVAX
The CVAX is a microprocessor chipset developed and fabricated by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) that implemented the VAX instruction set architecture (ISA). The chipset consisted of the CVAX 78034 CPU, CFPA floating-point accelerator, CVAX cl ...
microprocessor used in the
MicroVAX
The MicroVAX is a discontinued family of low-cost minicomputers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The first model, the MicroVAX I, was introduced in 1983.(announced October 1983) They used processors that implemen ...
and
VAX 6200 systems. It contains "VAX — when you care enough to steal the very best" translated in broken Russian as a message to Soviet reverse engineers.
Soviet Bloc computers with references to RomaniaComputing in East Germany(in German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:History of computer hardware in Eastern Bloc countries
Eastern Bloc countries
Comecon
Eastern Bloc