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What Were Soviet Computers Like?

Posted by Cliff on from the differences-in-technology-due-to-nationality dept.

kwertii asks: "Does anyone have any information on computing in the former Soviet Union? A Google search turned up this virtual museum, which has some good historical background on the development of early Soviet computer technology (a lot only in Russian, unfortunately) but not much on later systems. What sorts of architectures did Soviet computers use? Were there any radically different computing concepts in use, like a standard 9-bit byte or something? What kind of operating systems were common? How has the end of the Cold War and the large scale introduction of Western computer technology affected the course of Russian computer development?"

3 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. The Old-Fashioned Way by fm6 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Let's see, so far we've got one offtopic post, one bigoted and ignorant post from the Tom Clancy crowd, and the usual noise. I don't think you'll get much help here. Sometimes all you can find online is opinion and rumor.

    Now, don't get me wrong. I love the Web in general and Slashdot in particular. Both are invaluable resources for obscure little questions like the one you're asking. I know I used to write technical documentation without having the net as a reference source -- but I'm damned if I remember how.

    Still, information you can get through this kind of informal research is limited in scope. There's a lot of stuff online -- but a lot more that's not. A lot of texts exist only in proprietary databases, not on the web. Not to mention the the much larger document base that simply doesn't exist in eletronic form.

    You need to find a good library, probably one at a university or in a major city. They all have web sites (librarians love the web) and usually have their catalogs online. But searching a library catalog is not as simple as typing a few content words into Google. You probably need to interface with one of those old-fashioned access nodes that are only available onsite -- the ones with comprehensive heuristic and associative search features. I refer, of course, to reference librarians.

    1. Re:The Old-Fashioned Way by duffbeer703 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's very politically correct of you. You show a tendency common to most PC types -- Don't let the facts get in the way of feel-good politics.

      The Soviet Union didn't do very much independent computer design after the early 1960's. Various Soviet agencies and front organizations obtained IBM, Burroughs and Sperry-Univac mainframes and setup factories to manufacture spares and even a few backward-engineered copies.

      The Soviet Union did not embrace information technology. It was a society that was essentially living in the 1930's. Heavy industry was the priority of the USSR, not semiconductors.

      If you looked on the desks of Soviet desk jockeys in the late 80's, you'd find most offices to be non-computerized (like many western offices). The ones with computers had green screens, IBM or Apple clones. Engineers had Intergraph or Apolla stuff.

      The truth isn't bigoted or ignorant.

      --
      Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
    2. Re:The Old-Fashioned Way by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The Soviet Union did not embrace information technology. It was a society that was essentially living in the 1930's. Heavy industry was the priority of the USSR, not semiconductors.

      If you looked on the desks of Soviet desk jockeys in the late 80's, you'd find most offices to be non-computerized (like many western offices). The ones with computers had green screens, IBM or Apple clones. Engineers had Intergraph or Apolla stuff.

      The USSR was indeed behind behind the west regarding advanced semiconductor technologi, but your anectdotical evidence can be misleading, since the USSR soviet economy was sharply devided into a civilian part (who got almost nothing) and a military who had first priority.
      So even though the standard USSR office was pen-and-paper, the military complex would have access much more advanced technology.
      IMHO, soviet military equipment since WWII to until the eighties, was often on par, if not better, than US equipment (especially missilies, tanks, infantery weapons, airplanes, though perhaps not avionics).
      OTOH, civilian USSR equipment was always decades behind, what could be found in the west.

      The truth isn't bigoted or ignorant.
      I believe that a famous USSR newspaper was called "Pravda", meaning "The Truth" ;-).