M-1 (electronic computer)

The development of digital machines was preceded by Brook's work on analog devices - mechanical integrators-analyzers. In 1947, it was already known about the creation of the ENIAC computer in the USA, and the idea of ​​creating digital computers was “in the air”. In May 1948, Bashir Iskanderovich Rameev joined the work of Brook, who came to him on the recommendation of Academician A.I. Berg . Three months later, Brooke and Rameev created a document - a project of an automatic digital computer. The patent office of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the introduction of advanced technology in the national economy registered an invention by B. I. Rameev and I. S. Brook of a digital electronic computer (certificate number 10475 with priority on December 4, 1948 ^[1] ).

In early 1949, Rameyev’s work was interrupted by his draft in the army. It was possible to return him to Moscow only a few months later. Upon his return, Rameev accepted the post of head of the laboratory SKB-245 of the USSR Ministry of Mechanical Engineering and Instrument Engineering, created with the aim of developing digital computers. Later, in SKB-245, the Strela computer was designed and developed.

On April 22, 1950, a decree of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences was issued on the development of the M-1 machine, which allowed the formation of a development team. It included Nikolai Yakovlevich Matyukhin (served as chief engineer), Mikhail Alexandrovich Kartsev , Tamara Minovna Alexandridi, Alexander Borisovich Zalkind, Igor Alexandrovich Kokolevsky, Lev Mikhailovich Zhurkin, Yuri Vasilievich Rogachev, Rene Pavlovich Shidlovsky, Vladaleks Vladimirovich Belynsky.

The assembly and commissioning of the machine took place in the laboratory of electrical systems of the Energy Institute (ENIN) of the USSR Academy of Sciences .

Installation of the machine was started in October 1950. The first bits of information M-1 processed December 15, 1950, and MESM-1 - December 25, 1950 ^[2] . The first half of 1951 was work on autonomous debugging of devices. In the summer of 1951, the M-1 was already able to perform basic arithmetic operations. Complex debugging of the machine was completed by the end of the year. In January 1952, trial operation began. The first tasks to be solved on the M-1 were set by S. L. Sobolev, deputy I. V. Kurchatov for scientific work. At that time, M-1 and MESM were the only computers operating in the Soviet Union. M-1 was made in a single copy.

• Number system: binary, 25 bits in a machine word.
• Speed: 15-20 operations per second over 25-bit words.
• Memory: 256 words on a magnetic drum (“slow” memory), 256 words on electrostatic tubes (“fast” memory).
• Command system: two-address.
• Element base: 730 vacuum tubes ; German cuprox rectifiers obtained by reparations .
• Power consumption: 8 kW.
• Occupied area: 4 m².

M-2

In April 1952, in the same laboratory, work began on the design of the M-2 machine, under the guidance of M. A. Kartsev. Already at the end of 1952, a new machine was mounted and went through debugging. In January 1953, the M-2 was already operating. At that time, in the USSR, besides M-2, only MESM , BESM-1 and Strela worked.

The aim of the project was to create a universal computer to solve a wide range of scientific and technical problems. Particular attention is paid to minimizing the number of electronic tubes with the resulting increase in reliability, reduction in size and power consumption.

The productivity of the machine is about 2000 operations per second, the element base is semiconductor diodes and 1676 electric vacuum tubes. RAM consisted of the main electrostatic, 512 words with an access time of 25 μs, and an additional same volume on a magnetic drum. There was an external magnetic tape storage device. The computer occupied 22 m² and consumed 29 kW. A feature of the machine was the ability to work with both floating and fixed point. The machine worked in a binary number system and had a three-address command structure. The M-2 series was never launched. The only copy was operated for about 15 years.

M-3

Almost simultaneously with the M-2, in the same laboratory, under the guidance of N. Ya. Matyukhin, the design of the M-3 machine was started. In 1956, the first M-3 prototype was presented to the state commission; mass production of the machine was supposed.

The documentation for the M-3 was handed out for manufacture on its own. The Yerevan Institute of Mathematical Machines , based on the documentation for the M-3, built Aragats and Hrazdan computers. In addition, the sets of documentation received: Academician V. A. Trapeznikov for the Institute of Management Problems (IPU) of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the Cybernetics Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest (the computer was mounted in 1958), in 1957 the documentation was transferred to China (the computer was collected on Beijing Telephone Plant , with the help of G.P. Lopato).

Since September 1959, the M-3 was mass-produced at the Minsk Computer Plant named after Ordzhonikidze . The machine used 774 vacuum tubes, power consumption - 10 kW, area - 3 m². The first modification had memory on a magnetic drum and a speed of 30 operations per second (16 cars were produced). Then, in 1960, memory was used on ferrite cores with a capacity of 1024 31-bit words, the speed increased to 1000 op / s (10 machines were produced before the end of 1960). Since August 1960, the plant switched to the production of computers of its own design - Minsk-1 .

The most important feature of the machine is that it (for the first time in domestic computer technology) used the asynchronous principle of the central control device. A serious drawback of the machine is the lack of external memory. As a result, all the data necessary for the calculations can only be entered into random access memory.

• Report on the work "Automatic digital computer M1." M., USSR Academy of Sciences. Energy Institute. G. M. Krzhizhanovsky. Laboratory of Electrical Systems, 1951. [1]
• Kartsev M. A., Alexandridi T. M., Knyazev V. D. et al. High-speed computing machine M-2. Ed. I. S. Brook. M., Gostekhteoretizdat, 1957.
• Belynsky V.V., Dolkart V.M., Kagan B.M. , Lopato G.P., Matyukhin N. Ya. Small-sized electronic computer M-3. Series "Advanced scientific, technical and industrial experience." Theme 40, No. P-57-89. M., branch of VINITI, 1957.
• Malinovsky B.N. History of computer technology in persons . - K .: KIT firm, PTOO A. S.K., 1995. - 384 p.
• Alexandridi Tamara Minovna. Automatic digital computer M1 (rus.) - abstracts at the SORUCOM-2006 conference
• Natalya Dubova. Size matters (Russian) // Computerworld Russia. - 1999. - No. 35 of 09/20/1999 .
• under the editorship of I. S. Brook. High-speed computing machine M-2 . - M .: State Publishing House of technical and theoretical literature, 1957. - 111 p.
• Alexander Nitusov. M-3: the first do-it-yourself computer (Russian) // PC Week / RE. - 2008.

• Computer M-1 (Russian) . History of domestic computer technology. The first computers . Virtual computer museum. Date of treatment August 11, 2009.
• Informatics Day (Russian) , December 4 - Day of Russian Informatics (Russian)