The history of the creation of a modern computer does not even have a hundred years, although the first attempts to ease the score were made by a person 3000 BC in Ancient Babylon. Nevertheless, today not every user knows how it looked... It is worth noting that it had little to do with modern personal devices.
An excursion into history
Despite the fact that the first computer was presented to the public only at the end of World War II, work on this began at the beginning of the 20th century. But all computers created before ENIAC did not find practical application, nevertheless, they also became certain stages in the movement of progress.
- Russian researcher and scientist A. Krylov developed the first machine that solves its differential equations in 1912.
- 1927 USA, scientists developed the first analog apparatus.
- 1938 Germany, Konrad Zue created a model of the Z1 computer. Three years later, the same scientist developed the next version of the Z3 computer, which was more similar to modern devices than others.
- 1941 USA, the first automatic calculator Mark 1 is created under a subcontract with IBM. The following models were created successively with an interval of several years: Mark II, Mark III / ADEC, Mark IV.
- 1946 USA, presented to the public the very first computer in the world - ENIAC, which was practically applicable in military calculations.
- 1949 Russia, Sergei Lebedev presented the first Soviet computer on the drawings, by 1950 MESM was built and launched into mass production.
- 1968 Russia, A. Gorokhov created a project of a machine containing a motherboard, input device, video card and memory.
- 1975 USA, the first serial computer Altair 8800 was created. The device was based on an Intel microprocessor
As you can see, the developments did not stand still and the progress was moving by leaps and bounds. Quite a little time passed and massive ridiculous devices were transformed into modern personal computers familiar to us.
ENIAC - the very first computer in the world
I want to pay a little more attention to this device. It was he who was awarded the title of the world's first computer, despite the fact that some models were developed before him. This is due to the fact that ENIAC became the first computer to find practical application. It is worth noting that the machine was put into operation in 1945 and finally disconnected from the power supply in October 1955. Agree, 10 years of continuous service is a considerable period for the first computer that has found practical application.
How the computer was used
Initially the very first computer in the world was created to calculate the firing tables required for artillery troops. The computing teams did not cope with their work, as the calculations took time. Then, in 143, the military commission was presented with a project of an electronic computer, which was approved, and the active construction of the machine began. The process was completed only in 1945, so it was not possible to use ENIAC for military purposes and he was taken to the University of Pennsylvania to carry out calculations in the development of thermonuclear weapons.
Mathematical modeling became a difficult task for the first computer, therefore the formation of models took place according to the most simplified schemes. Nevertheless, the desired result was achieved and the possibility of creating a hydrogen bomb was proved with the help of ENIAC. In 1947, the machine was used for Monte Carlo calculations.
In addition, in 1946, an aerodynamic problem was solved at ENIAC, physicist D. Hartree analyzed the problem of air flow around an aircraft wing at supersonic speeds.
In 1949, von Neumann calculated the constants Pi ande.ENIAC presented data with an accuracy of 2 thousand decimal places.
In 1950, a computer made a numerical calculation of the weather forecast, which turned out to be quite accurate. Despite the fact that the calculations themselves took a very long time.
Machine creators
It is difficult to name the sole creator of the first computing machine. A large team of engineers and programmers worked on ENIAC. Initially, the creators of the project were John Mauchly and John Eckert. Mauchly was a professor at the Moore Institute at the time, and Eckert was a student there. They took up the development of computer architecture and submitted a computer project to the commission.
In addition, the following people took part in the creation of the machine:
- battery development - Jack Devi;
- data input-output module - Harry Husky;
- multiplication module - Arthur Burks;
- division module and root extraction - Jeffrey Chuan Chu;
- lead Programmer - Thomas Keith Sharpless;
- function tables - Robert Shaw;
- scientific advisor - John von Neumann.
Also, a whole staff of programmers worked on the machine.
Device parameters
As mentioned above,the world's first computer was completely unlike modern devices. It was a very massive structure, consisting of more than 17 thousand lamps of 16 types, more than 7 thousand silicon diodes, 1.5 thousand relays, 70 thousand resistors and 10 thousand capacitors. As a result, the weight of the first operating computer was 27 tons. 
Specifications:
- device memory capacity - 20 word-count;
- power consumed by the machine - 174 kW;
- computing power 5000 addition operations per second. For multiplication, the machine used multiple additions, so the performance dropped here and amounted to only 357 operations.
- clock frequency - 100 kHz;
- tabulator of punched cards for input and output of information.
For the calculations, the decimal number system was used, although the binary code was already known to scientists.
It is worth noting that in the process of calculations, ENIAC required so much electricity that the nearest city was often left without electricity for many hours. To change the calculation algorithm, it was necessary to reconnect the device. Von Neumann later improved the computer and added a memory containing the main computing programs, which greatly simplified the process of programmers' work.
ENIAC has become a zero generation computer. In its design, it is impossible to guess the prerequisites for the creation of modern devices. The computational processes were also not as productive as the scientists might have wanted. Nevertheless, it was this machine that proved that it was possible to create a fully electronic computer and gave impetus to further development.
Some details todaythe very first computer in the worldkept in the National Museum of American History. The complete structure takes up too much space to be reviewed. Despite the fact that this was one of the first experiments to create a working machine, the computer remained in working order for 10 years and at the time of its creation played a huge and irreplaceable role in the development of computer technology. 
In the future, the machines became less and less, and their capabilities are more and more extensive. In 1976, the first Apple-1 was released. And the first computer game was released in 1962. Even now, the development of computer technology does not stand still. What do you think awaits us in the future?
Technical and technological progress has finally settled in the daily life of people, one of the most striking phenomena of which are computers, which have become a sign of today. But it was not always so.
How people got along without computers
There was a time (by the way, not so long ago!) When even inventors and scientists got along in their work only with what was always “at hand”: their own knowledge, skills, reference literature and skillful hands. Even the most complex ballistic trajectory calculations were performed manually. It is clear that the probability of errors was enormous, and the calculations themselves took a very long time. There is nothing surprising in the fact that smart people invented the first mechanical calculating devices - adding machines. They could perform only the simplest actions, were controlled manually, but the computational process itself was greatly accelerated.
Today, adding machines can be found only in museums and private collections. And once they were an indispensable accessory to any accounting department. Today it is hard to believe that talented engineers were able to create many wonderful things without a computer - aircraft, cars, electronic devices, they built outstanding architectural monuments, highways and much more. Nevertheless, history only confirms that the main thing in progress is the skills, knowledge and the great enthusiasm with which talented people approached their work. And its result was the creation of the most complex instruments, research of the atomic nucleus and many other achievements.
Even now, a computer is hardly capable of replacing a human head. This is just a smart and reliable assistant, without which it is almost impossible, difficult or time consuming to complete many tasks.
Who Invented the First Computer?
Charles Babbage invented the very first computer in the world, according to many researchers. This man was fascinated by the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a mechanical machine capable of performing complex calculations. In 1822, a small difference engine was designed and built, consisting of a huge number of levers and gears. Even then, she could operate with 18-bit numbers. The calculation accuracy reached the eighth decimal place.
In the same year, the scientist began work on a larger and more perfect machine, but the technologies of that time did not allow this. Only in 1854, the Swiss Schoitz was able to build several such devices according to Charles's drawings, and it weighed 14 tons.
So is Babbage's car the very first computer? Not at all - it was just a prototype, although the idea of \u200b\u200bthe world's first programmable computer also belongs to Babbage. He called his brainchild the Analytical Engine. According to the inventor's idea, the machine was programmable, which means that it was Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine that could be considered the very first computer in the world - if it were built. By the way, the very first programmer in the world is considered to be Ada Lovelace - Babbage's colleague and close friend.
Charles Babbage's ideas haunted inventors and scientists around the world. The very first computer, already more or less close to the modern one, was developed and built by Howard Akson at the request of IBM, with the assistance of four of its engineers. The computer was named "Mark 1", and its official launch at Harvard University (after extensive testing) was carried out on August 7, 1944. The apparatus weighing 4 and a half tons consisted of 765 thousand electromechanical switches, relays and other parts. Mark 1 was designed exclusively on the ideas of the Analytical Engine, but was an improved adding machine.
The truly first programmable electronic computer was the ENIAC. This computer appeared in 1946 and was intended for calculating ballistic trajectories, that is, for use in military and scientific purposes. The full name of this apparatus, which required a huge area (85 square meters), weighed 28 tons and consumed 150 kW of electricity, was Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (electronic digital integrator and computer). It is this fabulous beast 30 meters long, containing 18,000 vacuum tubes, that is considered the first real programmable electronic computer in the world, which became the true ancestor of all computing technology.
True, he only knew how to add and subtract numbers (in 3 seconds), multiply in 6 seconds and divide in 15 seconds, but that was just the beginning. But now computing technology is capable of performing a huge variety of tasks, greatly reduced in size, while being able to fit in your pocket. Today there is a personal computer in every home. And they use it not for military needs, but simply for entertainment, communication and work for purely peaceful purposes.
Here's a story.
Few people know that the mathematical foundations of computer science and computer technology appeared in the Russian Empire. Who invented the first Russian computer, what is BESM, who benefits from a machine instead of the proletariat, and why there is not a single significant computer manufacturer in the country - T&P is publishing a chapter from Lauren Graham's book "Can Russia Compete?" published by the publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber".
The Russians were pioneers in the development of computing devices, electronic computers (ECM), and the mathematical foundations of computer science. In the last years of the existence of the Russian Empire, Russian engineers and scientists made important steps towards the development of computing devices. During the Soviet period, a whole group of mathematicians, among them Vladimir Kotelnikov, Andrey Kolmogorov, Israel Gelfand and others, made a significant contribution to the development of information theory. Soviet scientists and engineers created the first digital electronic computer in continental Europe. When American and Soviet engineers began cooperating in space exploration, in some cases Soviet engineers "counted" tasks much faster than their American counterparts. However, in subsequent years, interest in computers more and more passed into the commercial plane, and the Soviet Union could not stand the competition. Soviet scientists working in the field of computing technology were forced to abandon their developments and adopt IBM standards. Today, not a single significant computer manufacturer from Russia is represented on the international market.
"Few in the West know that two years earlier the Russian logician Viktor Shestakov put forward a similar theory of relay-contact circuits based on Boolean algebra, but he published his work only in 1941"
The Russians began to show scientific activity quite early in the development of computers, information theory and computers. Even before the 1917 revolution, Russian engineers and scientists made significant progress in this area. Russian marine engineer and mathematician Alexei Krylov (1863–1945) was interested in the application of mathematical methods in shipbuilding. In 1904 he created an automatic device for solving differential equations. Another young engineer, Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich (1888–1940), who also worked in St. Petersburg, dealt with vacuum tubes and their use in radio engineering. Around 1916, he invented one of the first two-position relays (the so-called cathode relay) based on an electrical circuit with two cathode tubes.
Claude Shannon was one of the pioneers of information theory in the West. In 1937, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he defended his master's thesis, in which he demonstrated that relay complexes in conjunction with a binary number system can be used to solve problems in Boolean algebra. The results of scientific works by Shannon form the basis of the theory of digital networks for computers. But few in the West know that two years earlier, in 1935, the Russian logician Viktor Shestakov put forward a similar theory of relay-contact circuits based on Boolean algebra, but he published his work only in 1941, four years after Shannon. Neither Shannon nor Shestakov knew anything about each other's work.
The first electronic computer in continental Europe was created in secrecy in 1948-1951 in a place called Feofania near Kiev. Before the revolution there was a monastery, surrounded by oak forests and flowering meadows, teeming with berries, mushrooms, wild animals and birds were found here. In the early years of Soviet power, a psychiatric hospital was housed in the monastery buildings. The transformation of religious institutions into research or medical institutions was a fairly common practice in the Soviet state. During World War II, all patients of the hospital were killed or missing, and buildings were destroyed. In spring and autumn, the road to this place was transported so that it was impossible to drive along it. Yes, and in good weather I had to shake over bumps. In 1948, the dilapidated buildings were handed over to the electrical engineer Sergei Lebedev to create an electronic computer. In Feofaniya, Lebedev, 20 engineers and 10 assistants developed the Small Electronic Computing Machine (MESM), one of the fastest computers in the world with many interesting characteristics. Its architecture was completely original and did not resemble the architecture of American computers, which were the only ones in the world to surpass it at that time.
"He used to take his papers and candle to the bathroom, where he spent hours writing ones and zeros."
Alisa Grigorievna Lebedeva about the life of her husband, the founder of computer technology in the USSR, Sergei Lebedev, in Moscow in 1941 during the bombing of German aircraft.
Sergei Lebedev was born in 1902 in Nizhny Novgorod (later renamed Gorky; not so long ago, his former historical name was returned to him). His father was a school teacher, he was often transferred from place to place, so Sergei spent his childhood and youth in different cities, mainly in the Urals. Then his father was transferred to Moscow, and there Sergei entered the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School, now known as the Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman. There, Lebedev became interested in high voltage technology, an area that required good mathematical training. After graduation, he worked as a teacher at Bauman University, was engaged in research work at the Laboratory of Electrical Networks. Lebedev was an avid climber and later named one of his computers after the highest peak in Europe, Elbrus, which he successfully conquered.
In the late 1930s, Lebedev became interested in the binary number system. In the fall of 1941, when Moscow was plunging into complete darkness, fleeing the raids of fascist aircraft, his musician wife recalled that "he usually took his papers and a candle to the bathroom, where he spent hours drawing ones and zeros." Later, during the war, he was transferred to Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), where he worked for the military industry. Lebedev needed a computing machine capable of solving differential and integral equations, and in 1945 he created the first electronic analog computing machine in Russia. At the same time, he already had the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a digital computer based on a binary number system. Interestingly, as far as we know, at that time he was not familiar with scientific developments in this area, either by his compatriot Shestakov, or by the American Claude Shannon.
Mastering the first personal computers at the Department of Electrical Systems and Networks, SPbSPU
In 1946, Lebedev was transferred from Moscow to Kiev, where he began work on a computer. In 1949, Mikhail Lavrentyev, a leading mathematician, member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, who was familiar with Lebedev's work, wrote a letter to Stalin asking him to support work in the field of computing, while emphasizing their importance for the country's defense. Stalin instructed Lavrentiev to create a laboratory for modeling and computer technology. Lavrentyev invited Lebedev to head this laboratory. Lebedev got funding and status. At the same time, Stalin's order demonstrated the role of political power - in fact, the importance of one person - in advancing technology in the Soviet Union.
Lebedev developed MESM just three or four years after the creation of the world's first electronic computer, ENIAC, in the United States and simultaneously with the British EDSAC. By the early 1950s, MESM was being used to solve problems in the fields of nuclear physics, comic flight, rocketry, and power transmission.
In 1952, following the creation of MESM, Lebedev developed another computer - BESM (short for Large (or Fast) electronic calculating machine). It was the fastest computer in Europe, at least for some period, capable of competing with the best world developments in this area. It was a triumph. BESM-1 was produced in a single copy, but already the following models, especially BESM-6, were produced in hundreds and used for different purposes. The production of BESM-6 was discontinued in 1987. In 1975, during the joint Soyuz-Apollo space project, Soviet specialists processed the parameters of the Soyuz orbit on BESM-6 faster than the Americans.
But after such a promising start in computing, Russia is now lagging behind the industry leaders. The reason for this failure can only be understood by analyzing the history of the industry, taking into account the social and economic factors that influenced its transformation. In the leading Western countries, the field of computing after World War II was shaped by three main driving forces: the scientific community, the state (in terms of military applications) and the business community. The role of academia and government was especially important in the early stages, the role of business emerged later. The field of computing in the Soviet Union was successful as long as the development of these devices was largely dependent on the achievements of scientific thought and government support. State support for computing technology was limitless if it was used for the needs of air defense or research in the field of nuclear weapons. But then business became the main driving force in the West. Symbolically, this transition point is General Electric's decision in 1955 to purchase IBM 702 computers to automate payroll and other documents at its Schenectady plant and Bank of America's decision in 1959 to automate processes (using an ERMA computer built at Stanford research institute).
"The concept of cybernetics contradicts Marx's theory of dialectical materialism, and characterized computer science as a particularly damaging attempt by Western capitalists to make more profit by replacing workers."
These decisions marked the beginning of large-scale computerization of banking and business. In the 1960s and 1970s, electronic computers became a commercial product, resulting in lower costs and improvements in ease of use that the market demanded. The Soviet Union, with its planned economy, centralized non-competitive market, could not keep up with the ongoing technological improvements. As a result, in the 1970s, the USSR backed away from its initially impressive attempt to develop its own independent course in computing and adopted IBM standards. From that moment on, in the field of computer technology, the Russians found themselves and continue to remain in positions of catch-up and have never again become leaders. Sergei Lebedev died in 1974. Another leading scientist, the developer of the first Soviet computers, Bashir Rameev, deeply regretted the decision to take over the IBM architecture until his death in 1994. The Soviet computing industry was not let down by a lack of knowledge in this area; it was crippled by the irresistible power of the market.
Another factor, although not decisive in this particular case, was ideology. In the 1950s, Soviet ideologists were very skeptical about cybernetics, calling it the "science of obscurantists." In 1952, a Marxist philosopher branded the field as "pseudoscience," challenging the notion that computers can help explain human thought or social activity. In another article, published a year later, entitled "Who Does Cybernetics Serve?" profits by replacing salaried workers with machines.
Although such ideological accusations could theoretically have a negative impact on the development of computer technology in the USSR, the development of computers, given the interest in them of the military-industrial complex, continued at the same pace. As one of the Soviet scientists in this field told me in 1960, "we were engaged in cybernetics, we simply did not call it cybernetics." Moreover, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union experienced a 180-degree turn in relation to cybernetics, it began to be extolled as a science serving the goals of the Soviet state.
In 1961, a collection was even published called "Cybernetics - at the Service of Communism." Cybernetics departments have opened in many Russian universities. A more serious political threat to the development of computing in the USSR arose with the advent of personal computers. The Soviet leadership liked computers while they were huge blocks in central government, military and industrial departments, but they were much less enthusiastic about the fact that computers moved to private apartments and ordinary citizens were able to use them for the uncontrolled distribution of information. In an attempt to exercise control over the transfer of information, the state has long banned ordinary citizens from owning printers and copiers. A personal computer with a printer was like a small printing press. But what could the Soviet authorities do about it?
The most heated debate among members of the Soviet leadership over computers took place in the mid to late 1980s. In 1986, I discussed this problem with the leading Soviet scientist in this field, Andrei Ershov. He was outspoken in agreeing that the Communist Party's desire for control of information was holding back the computer industry. Then he said the following: “Our management has not yet decided what a computer is like: a printing press, a typewriter or a telephone, and a lot will depend on this decision. If they decide that computers are like printing presses, they will want to continue to control the industry in the same way that they now control all printing presses. Citizens will be prohibited from buying them, they will only be in institutions. On the other hand, if our leadership decides that computers are like typewriters, they will be allowed to citizens, the authorities will not seek to control every apparatus, although they may try to control the distribution of information that is produced with their help. And in the end, if management decides that computers are like phones, most citizens will have them, and they can do whatever they want with them, but online data transmission will be checked from time to time.
"Today in Russia there is not a single computer manufacturer that would be a significant player on the international market, despite the fact that Russians can rightfully claim to be among the pioneers in the field."
I am convinced that in the end the state will have to allow citizens to own and control personal computers. Moreover, it will become apparent that personal computers are not like any previous communication technology: neither printing presses, nor typewriters, nor telephones. On the contrary, they are a completely new kind of technology. The time will soon come when any person anywhere in the world will be able to communicate almost continuously with any other person anywhere in the world. This will be a real revolution - not only for the Soviet Union, but for you too. But here its consequences will be the most significant. "
This statement clearly confirms what a difficult problem computers were for the Soviet state. However, this issue quickly lost its relevance. Five years after our conversation with Ershov, the Soviet Union collapsed, and at the same time control over communication technologies ceased (however, this did not affect control over the media, in particular over television). In modern Russia, the computer industry never caught up with the lag it experienced in the last years of the Soviet state. As we have seen, this lag was due more to the inability to compete in the marketplace than to political control, although the latter played a role. Today, there is not a single computer manufacturer in Russia that is a significant player on the international market, despite the fact that Russians can rightfully claim that they were among the pioneers in the development of computing technologies.
The term the world's first computer can be understood as several different models. On the one hand, these are gigantic machines created in the middle of the 20th century.
On the other hand, humanity became directly acquainted with computers, and even got the opportunity to use them in everyday life, much later.
And the history of the first personal computers begins in the mid-1970s.
In our material, we will tell you about the creation of the first prototypes of modern computers and huge computers, which scientists call the first computers.
The first "giants" of computing technology
At the very beginning of the era of computers, in the 1940s, several independently developed models of huge computing devices were created at once.
All were designed and assembled by scientists from the United States and occupied tens of square meters of area.
By modern standards, such equipment can hardly be called a computer.
However, at that time there were no more powerful machines for performing computations at speeds much higher than the average person's.
Figure: 1 One of the first computers, UNIVAC, is brought into the assembly room.
Mark-1
The programmable device "Mark-1" is rightfully considered the world's first computer.
The computing machine, developed in 1941 by a group of 5 engineers (including Howard Aiken), was intended for military purposes.
After completing the work, checking and adjusting the computer, it was handed over to the US Air Force. The formal launch of the Mark-1 took place in August 1944.
The main part of the computer, the total cost of which exceeded 500 thousand dollars, was located inside a metal case and consisted of more than 765 thousand parts.
Equipment length reached 17 meters
Height - 2.5 m, as a result of which a huge building at Harvard University was allocated for it. Among other parameters of the device:
- total weight: more than 4.5 tons;
- length of electrical cables inside the building: up to 800 km;
- length of the shaft synchronizing the computing modules: 15 m;
- the power of the electric motor driving the computer: 5 kW;
- calculation speed: addition and subtraction - 0.33 s, division - 15.3 s, multiplication - 6 s.
"Mark-1" could be called a huge and powerful adding machine - this version is adhered to by those who consider the ENIAC model to be the ancestor of computer technology.
However, due to the ability to execute user-defined programs in automatic mode (which, for example, the German Z3 computer, created a little earlier, could not do), it is the Mark-1 that is considered the first computer.
Working with punched tape, the machine did not require human intervention.
Although due to the lack of support for conditional jumps, each program was recorded on a long and looped tape roll.
After the power of the device became insufficient to fulfill the new tasks that the customers set for the developers, one of the authors of the computer, Howard Aiken, continued working on new models.
So, in 1947 the second version, "Mark-2", was created, and in 1949 - "Mark-3".
The last version, called the Mark IV, was released in 1952 and was also used by the American military.
Figure: 2 First computer Mark-1.
ENIAC
Computing machine "ENIAC" was designed to perform approximately the same tasks as "Mark-1".
However, the development resulted in a truly multitasking computer.
The first launch of the device took place almost at the end of 1945, so it was too late to use it for military purposes in World War II.
And the most complicated computer at that time, which worked, in the opinion of contemporaries, "at the speed of thought", participated in other projects.
One of them was the simulation of the explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
The frequency of operation of these elements reached 100 thousand impulses every second.
In order to increase the reliability of such a number of devices, the developers applied a method designed for the operation of musical electric organs.
After that, the accident rate decreased several times, and out of 17 thousand lamps in a week no more than two burned out.
In addition, an equipment safety control system was developed, which included checking each of 100 thousand small parts.
Computer parameters:
- total development time: 200 thousand man-hours;
- project price: $ 487 thousand;
- weight: about 27 tons;
- power: 174 kW;
- memory: 20 alphanumeric combinations;
- speed of work: addition - 5 thousand operations per second, multiplication - 357 operations per second.
For input and output of data to ENIAC, a tabulator with a speed of 125 and 100 cards per minute was used, respectively.
During the tests, the computer processed more than 1 million punched cards.
And the only serious disadvantage even for its time of the machine, which accelerated the computation process hundreds of times compared to its predecessor, was its size - almost 2 times larger than that of the Mark-1.
Figure: 3 The world's second computer "ENIAC".
EDVAC
The improved EDVAC computer (also created by Eckert and Mosley) could carry out calculations not only on the basis of punched cards, but also with the help of a program contained in memory.
This possibility appeared as a result of the use of mercury tubes, which store information, and the binary system, which greatly simplified the calculation of the number of lamps.
The result of the work of a group of American scientists was a computer with a memory of about 5.5 KB, consisting of the following elements:
- devices for reading and writing information from magnetic tape;
- oscilloscope for computer control;
- a device that receives signals from control elements and transmits them to computing modules;
- timer;
- devices for carrying out calculations and storing information;
- temporary registers (in modern terminology - "clipboards"), storing one word at a time.
Computer covering an area of \u200b\u200b45.5 square meters. m., spent about 0.000864 seconds on addition and subtraction and 0.0029 seconds on multiplication and division.
Its mass reached only 7.85 tons - much less compared to ENIAC. The power of the device is only 50 kW, and the number of diode lamps was only 3.5 thousand pieces.
Figure: 4 Computer "Edvak".
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Domestic developments
Domestic science in the 1940s also carried out developments for obtaining electronic computers.
The result of the work of the S. A. Lebedev laboratory was the first MESM model on the Eurasian continent.
After her, several other computers appeared, no longer so well-known, although they made a significant contribution to the scientific activity of the USSR.
MESM
The abbreviation MESM, a computer created from 1948 to 1950, stands for "Small Electronic Counting Machine".
The computer received this name due to the fact that at first it was just a model of a "large" device.
However, the positive test results obtained led to the creation of a full-fledged computer, assembled in a two-story monastery building.
The first launch took place in November 1950, and the first serious problem was solved in January of the following year.
Over the next 6 years, MESM was used for complex scientific calculations, then it was used as a teaching aid, and finally, in 1959, it was disassembled.
The operating parameters of the device were as follows:
- number of lamps: 6 thousand;
- three-address command system with 20 binary digits;
- memory: constant for 31 numbers and 63 commands, operational of the same size;
- speed: 5 kHz frequency, 3 thousand operations per second;
- area: about 60 sq. m .;
- power: up to 25 kW.
Figure: 5 Soviet entry-level computer MESM,
BESM-1
Work on another Soviet computer was carried out at the same time as on MESM.
The device was called the Large Electronic Counting Machine and worked at three times the speed - up to 10 thousand operations per second - with a decrease in the number of lamps to 730 pieces.
The number of digits for numbers operated by the computer was 39 units, and the accuracy of calculations reached 9 digits.
As a result, the machine could work with numbers from 0.000000001 to 1,000,000,000. Just like the MESM, a large device was produced in one copy.
The car, which was also designed by S. A. Lebedev, was considered in 1953 the fastest in Europe. While the best computer in the world was recognized by the American IBM 701.
The first commercial computer of the IBM company produced up to 17 thousand operations per second.
Figure: 6 The first full-fledged computer in the USSR BESM-1.
BESM-2
An improved version, BESM-2, became not only the next fastest computer in the country, but also one of the first serial Soviet devices of this type.
From 1958 to 1962, Soviet industry produced 67 computer models.
On one of them, the calculation of the rocket was carried out, which delivered the pennant of the Soviet Union to the moon. The speed of BESM-2 was 20 thousand operations per second.
At the same time, the RAM reached, in terms of modern units, about 11 KB and worked on ferrite cores.
Figure: 7 Soviet computer BESM-2.
First mass production models
By the early 1970s, computer technology had evolved to the point where it was possible to afford computers for personal use.
Previously, only large organizations could do this, since the cost of equipment reached tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the United States and about the same amount in rubles for the USSR.
Computers become truly personal as they shrink.
And the first among them can be called a prototype that did not leave a big mark in history, but still released in the amount of several thousand copies - Xerox Alto.
The release date of the first model is 1973.
Benefits included a decent 128KB memory (and expandable to 512KB) and a 2.5MB storage device.
The disadvantage is a huge "system unit" the size of a modern A3 format.
It was the dimensions that prevented the production of enough mass, although the computer was acquired by organizations because of the convenient graphical interface.
Figure: 8 The Xerox Alto computer is powerful but expensive.
On the territory of the USSR, in 1968, they also tried to create a prototype of the PC.
Omsk engineer Gorokhov patented a computing device, the functionality of which roughly corresponded to the first personal machines of the 1970s.
However, not a single actually operating model was created, not to mention mass production.
And the first mainstream PC (albeit with limited functionality) was the Altair 8800, produced since 1974.
It can be called a prototype of the first modern computers with - it was Intel's chipset that was installed on the mainboard of the computer.
The cost of the assembled model was a little over $ 600, disassembled - about $ 400.
This low cost led to massive demand and Altair sold in the thousands.
At the same time, the device was just a system unit without a monitor, keyboard, or sound card.
All these peripherals were developed later, and buyers of the first Altair 8800 models could only operate it using switches and lights.
Figure: 9 Altair 8800 model with combined monitor and keyboard.