Many of Brook's employees went on to work in computing projects for the military. Alexander Zalkind shared with me some of his intimate knowledge of formerly top-secret projects completed at the Scientific Research Institute of Automatic Equipment. The following is an excerpt from Zalkind's account:
In 1957 we – O.V. Rosnitsky, A.I. Shurov, our leader Nikolai Matyuhin, and I – decided to move to the Research Institute of the Radio Industry Ministry to develop the Soviet version of SAGE.[1] The Scientific Research Institute of Automated Equipment was founded in 1956. Dr. G.L. Shorin was the director and chief designer of the projected air defense system. In 1958, our group became engaged in developing the 'Earth' System.
The Earth system began with the ordinary telegraph equipment. The information about moving objects was transmitted through a telegraph network. Telegraph operators formatted the messages and delivered them to digital board operators, who coded them into discrete data; this data from the boards was passed on to the data calculation equipment to obtain the coordinates and trajectories of moving objects. The output data was kept on a magnetic drum that acted as a buffer. Then the data was transmitted from the magnetic drum to a secondary processing computer and workstation that used a special cathode ray tube. The letters, figures and logical symbols were drawn on the screen of the tube by electronic beam masking.
All of the equipment was built very fast to meet a deadline. In the second quarter of 1960, the State Commission reviewed our equipment and concluded that the system was not reliable due to the insufficient dimension-mass performance of the units employing electronic vacuum tubes. The Commission decided to prohibit the usage of electronic tubes in all future projects.
One of the reasons we mention the Earth system here is to offer some perspective on our team's subsequent successes. Within fifteen years, our institute had created a fully operational global network that included more than twenty regional switchboard centers. This network provided around-the-clock information exchange with the Air Defense System. During this period, the system was virtually failure-free. Tetiva, the first model of Soviet semiconductor computer, was conceived in 1960 for this specific purpose.[2]
The Tetiva was the first Soviet computer that used a micro program kept in the binary storage memory matrix [in Russian: Dvoichnoe Zapominaushchee Ustroistvo, or DZU]. Later, this micro program control system was used in the Armenian Nairi computer developed in 1964, the Mir, and the ES-1020 computers. Tetiva's arithmetic unit used only direct operand codes. This kind of arithmetic unit was more expensive than anything previously developed, but it was the fastest and had the best self-controlling processor.
The Minsk Computer Factory manufactured the Tetiva series and by 1962 eight of them were placed at various national defense installations. The initial information input for Tetiva was carried out with the help of a special mechanical switch that took the objects' coordinates from a cathode ray tube screen. The computer program semi-automatically provided information about the location of the missile.
In order to guarantee the function of the air defense system around-the-clock, two Tetivas operated simultaneously to create a 'failure-free computer complex.' If a problem appeared in one computer, the system automatically switched to the other machine. This computer complex faithfully served the Soviet Air Defense for over thirty years and in 1987 caught Mathias Rust's flight into Soviet air space. The development of a Tetiva based system was still in progress when the work began on the first series of mobile variations of the computer, 5E63 and 5E63.1. In 1967, after successful tests, the computers went into mass-production. Since then, hundreds of them have been manufactured.
Also in 1967, we began to work on the first ES-compatible computer using the execution module of the 5E76. The first 5E76 was used as part of a six-computer complex.
In 1969, we started working on the 'Global-Scale' air defense control system, intended to serve the area from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific. Its main feature was a guaranteed connection through the regional message switchboard centers and constant twenty-four hour, three-hundred and sixty-five day reliability in automatic operation mode. Physical workspaces for manual operation were built into the system allowing for a "man-machine" connection if necessary, but they were intended only for auxiliary control.
Due to space limitations and reliability requirements of the switchboard center computers, we developed a dual-computer system made up of two 5E76-B computers – modernized 5E76s. This new system was called 65s180, and between 1972 and 1992, thirty-two of these had been manufactured.
All of these machines were developed under Matyuhin's management and designed by him and his colleagues solely for the Soviet air defense systems. This topic itself awaits exploration by other scholars and researchers.
[1] Editor's Note: SAGE was the acronym for Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, the computerized air defense system designed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
[2] Editor's note: In Russian, Tetiva means bowstring.
The M-3 was one of the first small computers to be mass-produced. It was so simple to operate that a number of organizations could independently assemble and employ it using only the documentation provided by the Institute of Electro-mechanics. In 1958, M-3's blueprints were delivered to the Minsk computer factory for a small production run, and the first model was completed in September 1959. Its operational storage was on a magnetic drum (2048 31-bit length words), which limited its productivity to 30 operations per second, despite the fact that the arithmetic unit had parallel operation.
This computer earned a good reputation and the government decided to modernize it. Ferrite cores were added to the storage device on the magnetic drum memory, which increased the computer's productivity to 1500 operations per second. Earlier-manufactured M-3s were also given this ferrite core supplement.
One year later, the SKB was given an order to design a new computer that would be inexpensive, simple to install and operate, and easily adaptable to customer's requirements. George Lopato supervised this project, producing the Minsk-1, a two-address machine with a performance speed of 3000 operation per second. Its structure was made up of autonomous functionally completed modules. When its simple logical schemes and modular construction were combined with the great enthusiasm of its developers and factory workers, the first Minsk-1 was completed in only 14 months.
This machine's modular unit construction significantly reduced the debugging time and considerably simplified the safety measures needed for its users. Beginning in 1961, Minsk machines went through a period of rapid development, with a series of modifications based on end-user needs: Minsk-11, for work with communication channels; Minsk-12, with extended storage; Minsk-14 for communication channel work with expanded memory; and Minsk-16 for processing telemetric information from space satellites.
These models were the most popular first-generation small computers in the Soviet Union. They were used in higher education institutes, colleges, research institutes, and construction bureaus. Some of them were employed in factories for solving engineering problems.
The second generation of Minsk computers was divided into two groups. The first group included the basic computer Minsk-2 and its derivative models Minsk-22 and Minsk-22M. The second group included the Minsk-23 and Minsk-32. Two additional variants, Minsk-26 and Minsk-27 were also created in order to broaden the applications of the Minsk system capabilities. The Minsk-26 was used for processing meteorological information gathered from the Meteor earth satellites. Minsk-27 was used for processing telemetric information from the high altitude balloon probes in the atmosphere. Both of these models were the first in the Soviet Union to combine magnetic tape transport mechanisms and telemetric data processing.
Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences – George Pavlovich Lopato – made the greatest contribution in the field of computer development in Minsk. Lopato was born on August 23, 1924 in Ozershina village in the Gomel region of Belarus. His father, the son of a peasant, graduated in 1916 from the Goretska Agricultural Academy and served in the Russian Civil War as a soldier in the First Red Army Cavalry. After the war he worked as a land surveyor. In 1924, he was admitted to the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1929. He worked as a Chief Engineer at a Moscow factory and later became a lecturer at the Moscow Institute of Agricultural Mechanization and Electrification.
George Lopato started elementary school in 1931. In the summer of 1941, after graduating from high school, he helped build defense fortifications near Moscow to protect against the invading Germans. In October of that year he was drafted into the Red Army and became a Private in the 314th Squad Battalion of Moscow's Air Defense District. In 1946, he was demobilized and entered the Electro-Physics Department of the Moscow Energy Institute. He graduated in 1952 with a degree in Electro-mechanics. Subsequently, Lopato began working at the Gosplan's Electro-mechanic Scientific Research Institute [in Russian: Nauchno-Isledovat'elskii Institut Electropromishlenosti Gosplana] in Moscow, where he designed electro-mechanical devices. In 1954, he was sent to work at the Control Machines and Systems Laboratory for several months. There, under Matyuhin's management, Lopato became involved with the development of the M-3 computer.
Lopato participated in the calibration of the M-3 after it was assembled at the Institute of Electro-mechanics. At the end of 1957, the Soviet government sent the M-3's technical specs to both the Hungarian and Chinese Academies of Science. Using those specs, the Chinese assembled a model of the M-3 computer in a telephone factory in Peking, and Lopato was sent to China to help put the machine into operation. It was a difficult job, but Lopato handled it successfully. After returning to the Soviet Union, he was invited to become a Senior Engineer at the Special Construction Bureau at the Minsk computer factory, and started working there in April of 1959. Five years later he was appointed as the manager of the Special Construction Bureau and in 1969, as the manager of the Minsk branch of NISEVT. In 1972, when the branch was modernized and renamed the Scientific Research Institute for Computing, Lopato became its director.
Under Lopato's twenty-eight years of management, the Institute created fifteen models of first and second-generation Minsk computers; eleven models were mass-produced and four models were special orders. Lopato's Institute also produced five ES series models, several personal computers, six special computing complexes, a series of operating and software systems, and more than fifty types of peripheral devices.
Lopato was the chief designer of the Minsk-1, the multi-computer system of homogeneous machines including Minsk-222, and the Naroch dual-use system, which combined 12 ES computers and was employed at the Schetmash to design hardware and software systems. Lopato was the Deputy Senior Designer of the 70K1 system, and later the Senior Designer of several transportable computers for the military.
Lopato was one of the founders of the Minsk school of computer design. It emphasized practicality, placing special importance on cost reduction, reliability, and compatibility of computer technology resources. The work at the Minsk school was time tested; their computers were rapidly placed into mass-production. For example: the Minsk-32 and IBM clone ES-1020 were rolling off the assembly line only two months after the completion of their designs.
Over the course of his engineering career, Lopato emphasized personnel education and training programs. He founded the Computers and Systems Department at the Minsk Radio-Technology Institute and managed it for ten years. He defended his Ph.D. thesis in 1969 and became a Doctor of Technical Sciences in 1975. In 1979 he was elected Corresponding Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He published more than one hundred and twenty scientific works and received forty-five invention certificates. George Lopato received the Order of the October Revolution in 1972, the Red Banner of Labor in 1976, the Soviet Union State Prize and the Order of Lenin in 1983, the Sign of Honor, nine other medals, and four Certificates of Honor from the Belarusian Parliament. He died in 2003.
Mikhail Kartsev belongs to the category of scientists whose discoveries and contributions, for some incomprehensible reason, were fully acknowledged only after their death. The academic elite never presented Kartsev with any special awards or recognition for his work. Not until ten years after his death was the Moscow Scientific Research Institute of Computer Complexes [in Russian: Nauchno-Isledovatel'skii Institut Vuichislitel'nikh Kompleksov, or NIIVK], the institute that he himself had founded, renamed in his honor. Computer science and technology was his calling in life, bringing him both happiness and sorrow. He dedicated all of his time to it - at work, at home, and even on vacation.
His son Vladimir remembers:
Every time I think about my father, I remember him being completely immersed in his work. He had no hobbies to speak of, and if he had spare time, he preferred to read. Occasionally, we went to the movies. He never played sports, and was an active opponent of both dachas and cars. However, as he got older and began to experience leg pain, he purchased a Volga and fell in love with it. Learning how to drive at his age was difficult, but he knew Moscow's streets like the back of his hand and got around the city very well. My father never complained or discussed his problems. It was nearly impossible to get him to talk about the war. He lived in the future, not the past.
Mikhail Kartsev was born in Kiev on May 10, 1923. After his father died that same year, the family moved several times. Kartsev lived with his mother in Odessa and Kharkov, eventually moving back to Kiev in 1941, where he finished secondary school. In the summer of 1941, he was sent to Donbas to work on fortifications. In September, he was drafted into the Soviet army where he served until February 1947. During the Second World War, tank operator Kartsev fought in the south and southwestern areas of the Soviet Union, in the Northern Caucasus and on two Ukrainian fronts. He participated in the liberation of Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. The Soviet government awarded him a medal for bravery, the Red Star Order, and medals "For the Conquest of Budapest," and "For Victory over Germany." In November 1944, while still at the military front, he was accepted as a candidate for membership in the Communist Party of Soviet Union, and in May 1945 he became an active member.
After demobilization, Kartsev studied at the Moscow Energy Institute in the Radio-technology department. At the end of his third year he passed all examinations without ever attending any of the lectures. In 1950 – by then a 5th year student – he began working part-time at the Laboratory of Electrical Systems at the Academy of Sciences Power Engineering Institute, where he worked side-by-side with Brook developing the M-1. In 1952, he was appointed to the permanent position of junior scientific assistant. During the design phase of the M-2 computer, he demonstrated exceptional talent – his small team finished the machine in just one and half years (by comparison, the BESM took twice as long and was developed by a larger and much more experienced team). Although the M-2 was not as powerful as BESM, Kartsev called it as a "solid machine."
In 1957, the director of the Radio-Technology Institute, academician Alexander L'vovich Mints, asked Brook to design an electronic control computer for a new experimental radar-tracking complex. To be more exact, Brook accidentally initiated this process himself by bumping into Mints while on vacation at the Kislovodsk resort. While discussing the projects he was working on at his laboratory, Brook mentioned the possibility of using control computers for radar tracking. Together, they came up with a proposal and in 1957 the technical order for the M-4 computer was approved. Kartsev was appointed as the project manager, marking the beginning of his service in designing computer systems tailored for the use in early warning missile defense systems and space observation. At that time, these were the hardest problems to solve because they needed a large quantity of data to be processed. Plus, they demanded the highest calculation speeds, enormous memory, and highly reliable equipment.
In 1957 the first Soviet transistors were beginning to be mass-produced. Thus, Kartsev decided to base the M-4 design on semi-conductors.
For this project, Special Laboratory No. 2 was set-up under Kartsev's management at the newly founded Academy of Sciences Electronic Control Computer Institute. In March 1958, the government approved the draft for the M-4, and in April, the Soviet Cabinet of Ministers issued a special order for manufacturing the machine and assigned a factory already experienced in computer production to Kartsev's laboratory. In April 1958, Kartsev gave the completed construction blueprints to the factory and it began preparing for production; the M-4 designers were present during all stages of manufacturing and adjustment. In 1959, the factory finished the production phase of the two M-4 units and began their fine-tuning. By the end of 1960, the first complex was put into operation and was turned over to the Radio-Technology Institute.
In November 1962, the government issued an order to begin the mass-production of the M-4. However, Kartsev, backed by his team, proposed another new computer for mass-manufacturing. He wanted to eliminate the 'bugs' still present in the current model, hoping to make it more technically efficient during production and adjustment. At this time Kartsev's group had just developed a new system of logical elements using high frequency transistors that could make the units operate with greater speed. With the appearance of powerful transistors in the Soviet Union, vacuum tubes were no longer needed.
Kartsev and his team members completed the construction blueprints for the new M-4M very quickly. In March 1963, they delivered design plans for the computer's arithmetic unit to the factory and in August of the same year they finished the rest of the plans for the overall machine design. Exactly one year later, the factory completed the first two models of the computer. The M-4M's adjustment and interface matching required only two months. In October 1964, both models passed technical tests and were accepted by their purchasers. Instead of just meeting the original requirement of one hundred thousand operation per second, the M-4M performed at two hundred twenty thousand operations per second. The computer was technically advanced and required practically no calibrating. The M-4M continued to be manufactured up to 1985; several hundred of them were built.
The M-4M series was eventually produced in three models, designated 5E71, 5E72, 5E73. All differed in operational storage volume. To enhance their capabilities, remote systems AS-1, AS-2, AS-3, etc and an external calculator 5E79, were developed. With the M-4Ms functioning as the base, multi-computer complexes were built and connected in a powerful computer network that operated in real time.
Kartsev recalled this period with excitement and pride:
25 years ago, in 1957, one of the first Soviet transistor computers that worked in real time – the M-4 - began its development.
In November 1962, the government issued an order to mass-produce the M-4. However, we clearly understood that this type of computer would not be easy to mass-manufacture because its design was based on transistors and it would be difficult to calibrate. We were fortunate though, that during the period from 1957 to 1962, semiconductor technology took a gigantic leap forward, allowing us to build a machine that would be much better than the M-4 plus more powerful than any computer produced in the Soviet Union up to that point. During the winter of 1962–1963 we argued continuously with the Electronic Control Computer Institute because they were firmly against the development of a new machine. They claimed that we would never finish it in the allotted time, it was a huge gamble, and the project would surely fail.
The Military-Industrial Commission of the Presidium of the Soviet Cabinet Ministers resolved the argument in our favor in March 1963. That same month we gave the prepared design plans for the computer's arithmetic unit to a factory managed by V.A. Kurochkin. In August 1963 we finished all of the design plans and one year later the factory completed the first two working models of the computer, ready for adjustment. In October 1964 the first two models were delivered to their customers, and in December 1964 the factory completed five more M-4Ms. These computers were manufactured for over 15 years and are still operating.
Kartsev completed a doctoral dissertation based on his M-4M work, and in 1967 was awarded the State Prize of the Soviet Union.
It would have seemed appropriate for Kartsev to take it easy, or to at least take a short break after working so hard, but it just didn't happen that way. Back in 1966, Kartsev proposed a plan for a multi-computer complex consisting of machines that were especially designed to work together. Preliminary research showed that such a complex could achieve an operational speed of one billion operations per second. At the time, no machine in the world was capable of reaching that speed. That goal inspired Kartsev and his subordinates, and by 1967 they had completed a draft for the design of the M-9 Computing Complex. The Defense Ministry quickly approved the project.
The M-9 Complex consisted of a control processor and four types of computers: a functional-operator, a numerical computer, as associative computer, and a peripheral calculator. The M-9 was supposed to work not just with single numbers, but with groups of numbers that were the approximate representations of functions, or multi-dimensional vectors. In other words, Kartsev designed the M-9 to analyze more in-depth relationships between the data than the contemporary machines were able to do at that time.
The main distinction between this machine (Kartsev named it the functional operator) and the typical computer was in the structure of the arithmetic units' interface, which were timed by the sameclocked circuit. At the end of every operation - each computer performed its command during one or two clock cycles - and beginning of the next, the exchange of information between the output from an arithmetic unit and the input into a memory unit (writing down previous commands), and between input into an arithmetic unit and the output from a memory unit (reading the next set of data), occurred without a significant loss of time.
The numerical vector machine, which was part of the M-9 complex, carried out operations on partial functions and multidimensional vectors. The high performance associative machine carried out most of the routine work of sorting and organizing information arrays. The numerical computer worked with an independent program and also with the programs that were synchronized with other computers in the M-9 complex. It coordinated the work of multiple computers and allowed the complex to maintain high productivity while processing heterogeneous information and creating a universal digital means for solving a wide class of problems that demanded very high performance computers.
Unfortunately, the M-9 complex was not mass-manufactured, although its design and the successful demonstration of the prototype were important achievements for Kartsev's team. 1967 was an excellent year for the M-9's designers because NIIVK was founded. Kartsev was appointed as its director and his department became the backbone; it was an official endorsement of Kartsev's scientific school.
In 1969, the Soviet government ordered the construction of the M-10 electronic computer, which was to be based on the already proven M-9 vector computer. Doctor of Technical Sciences Leonid Vasilievich Ivanov recalled, "The event was preceded by a compelling meeting to consider the future of two projects already in the making: the Elbrus, managed by Lebedev, and the M-10, managed by Kartsev. Lebedev vigorously argued against a multi-processor version of the Elbrus, insisting on a single processor version for maximum productivity. Academician Glushkov supported both directions, and they were approved."[3]
Early in 1970, the production factory began setting up to assemble its first M-10 model. Later that same year the construction blueprints were finalized and by August 1971 the prototype of M-10 had been manufactured and ready for adjustment. At the same time, the construction plans for the industrial model of the computer were undergoing revision in preparation for their mass-manufacture. 1971 turned out to be a very hard year for Kartsev and the strenuous work took its toll: a heart attack left him bedridden for several months. Fortunately, he recovered.
By June 1973, every system component of first M-10 model was assembled and tested according to the technical specifications, and the machine finally came together as a complete unit. In September, the first industrial model of the M-10 successfully passed all technical tests and was placed into trial operation for additional software debugging.
By December, the factory had finished testing the second model and begun its mass-manufacture; the M-10 was produced for more than 15 years. Dozens of these computers were made and many of them are still in service today. Several powerful computer complexes had been built using the M-10 computer as the base. In 1976, an M-10 model from one such computer complex, and its software, successfully passed the rigorous state testing.
A group of NIIVK specialists and the factory were awarded the Soviet Union's State Prize for the M-10 in 1977. Among those from the NIIVK receiving the prize were Deputy Senior constructor Leonid Ivanov, Alexander Alexandrovich Krupsky, Leonid Yakovlevich Miller, Yuri Rogachev, Rene Shidlovsky, and software designer Alexander Karasik, along with Senior Engineer Anatoly Shishilov and Deputy Senior Constructor Valeri Alexandrovich Mushnikov from the factory. As chief of the project, Kartsev was awarded the Order of Lenin. Over a hundred of NIIVK specialists and factory workers were awarded other special Soviet orders and medals.
The M-10 computer was actually a synchronized multi-processor system and was part of the third generation of Soviet computers: its basic logic elements consisted of the 217-series Posol microprocessors. The computer was intended to support complex automated control systems in real time and to solve a variety of scientific problems. Having inferior microelectronics for its technological construction base, it did not perform as fast as the CRAY-1, which appeared at about the same time. Yet the M-10 possessed some architectural potential advantages in terms of the average number of processor cycles per single executed operation. The lower the number, the better the computer's architecture: the M-10's average number of processor cycles per single operation ranged from 0.9 to 5.3. The Cray-1's ranged from 0.7 to 27.6. The minimum values for both computers were close, but the M-10's maximum value was significantly less than that of the Cray-1.[4]
The M-10's value becomes even more apparent when considering why it was originally built: Kartsev and his colleagues designed the M-10 in absolute secrecy for the Soviet Missile Attack Warning System [in Russian, the Sistema preduprezhdeniya o raketnom napadenii, or SPRN] and for general outer space surveillance.[5] The system provided the Soviet Union's military leaders with comprehensive information regarding a possible threat of missile attacks and continuous observation of the cosmos. In space, via satellite, the SPRN detected missiles launches. On the ground, the system was composed of nine powerful radar-tracking stations located along the Soviet Union's borders near Riga, Murmansk, Pechera, Irkutsk, Balkhash, Mingechaur, Sevastopol, and Mukachevo, which were supported by a network of M-10–based computing complexes.
Up until the early 1980s, the M-10 reigned as the highest-performing computer in the Soviet Union in speed (it ran at about 20-30 millions operations per second), internal memory capacity, and data transmission in a multiplex system. For the first time in the world, its design allowed for seven computers to be connected and have a direct information interchange (without multiplex channels) between individual computer programs. Also, the system featured automatic reconfiguration of a field of processors, a second level internal 4 megabyte random access memory, and external access to both levels of internal memory.
These innovative technical features received eighteen invention certificates and five industrial model certificates. Beginning in 1980, Kartsev and his team gave the system new storage devices and renamed it the M-10M. The M-10 and M-10M computers had fully compatible software and hardware. In his presentation at the NIIVK's 15th anniversary, Kartsev discussed these memorable years:
In 1967, we made an audacious proposal – to build the M-9 computing complex. Because it was the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, I nicknamed the complex "The October." The Ministry of Devices building, where we were set up, was too small for us, but the officials told us: 'Since you already work for Kalmykov, go see him.'[6]
The M-9 project was never realized. But in 1969, we started the M-10 project, and it was up and running by 1973. For many years, it was the most powerful computer in the Soviet Union. This complex is also responsible for some unique scientific discoveries, particularly in the field of physics. Yet, the project was not greeted with open arms, and frankly speaking, the authorities told us that we were crazy, that we could never make a computer out of a heap of metal, and that the whole thing would never work. Only now we've got them convinced, and subconsciously they understand that a big computer needs a huge amount of equipment. But back then, nobody could picture it. The work was extremely difficult; our team had to work at a number of sites around Moscow: at the Sokol-1 enterprise and on Great Pochtovaya Street, plus in a number of sub-basements: on Great Vasilevsky Lane, on Burdenko Street, Plyushchikha, and on Shchukina Street.
After the establishment of the Electronic Control Computer Institute, the team acquired 590 square-meter premises of a former cabinet-maker's shop at Sokol square. In order to accommodate the whole team, we still had to lease other premises – mainly sub-basements – all around Moscow. The Institute constructed a separate building for us in 1975, and then added the laboratory wing as a special project, but not until 1985 through 1986. Nevertheless, the Ministry's managers were always friendly and supportive, as were our customers. They helped us get down to business and we came of age.
It was not difficult to understand the skeptics' position, especially considering some numbers: the BESM-6 computer operated with 60 million transistors, 180 thousand semiconductor diodes and 12 million ferrite rings. The M-10 computer used 2 million microchips, 1.2 million transistors and 120 million ferrite rings. It was not a "heap of metal" as Kartsev called it, but an unimaginable number of electronic elements that was supposed to be seamlessly integrated with complex circuitry. When all of the bugs were finally worked out and the machine became operational, its total annual loss of productivity amounted to only 10 minutes!
[3] Ivanov's article appeared in the Russian-language journal Questions of Radioelectronics [Voprosii Radioelektronniki], Vol. 2, 1993.
[4] Author's note: For more on this, see B.A. Golovkin, "The Evolution of Parallel Architectures and the M Series Computers," in Questions of Radioelctronics, No. 2, 1993.
[5] Editor's note: The first public information about this was disclosed only on April 1, 1990 in Pravda, with the publication of A. Gorokhova's "Stoyanie pri Pestryalove," or "The Problem at Pestryalov." Pestraylov was a top secret Soviet military site.
[6] Editor's note: Valeri Dmitrievich Kalmykov was Minister of Minradioprom, the Soviet All-Union Ministry of the Radio Industry, or Obschesoyuznoe Ministerstvo Radio Promishlennosti.
In 1978, Kartsev began developing a multi-processor vector computer, calling it the M-13. By 1981, his team delivered the blueprints for its separate units to the manufacturers. The M-13, whose main purpose was real time large data processing, marked the fourth generation of Soviet computers and used large integrated circuits as its elemental base. Architecturally, it contained four general units: a central processor, hardware equipment for operational system support, remote equipment interfaces, and a special processor.
The M-13's special processor was used for working with large arrays of relatively short digit-length, such as Fourier transformations, correlation function calculations, threshold comparisons, etc. The operational speed of the M-13's special processor at its maximum performance capacity could reach up to 2.4 billion operations per second.
Kartsev finished his May 1982 speech at the Institute's 15th anniversary ceremony with the following words:
...It seems to me that we have never completed a project as successfully as we have now,[7] nor have we ever had a project as difficult as this one, where we encountered so many problems. But I just wanted to remind you, that we have fallen in love with every project that we have ever attempted, and the problems were always staggering. Again and again I wake up in a cold sweat because our 'brain child' is going through production problems. Of course, it is probably just insomnia of an old man. On the other hand, only two years and eight months have passed since we received the order from the government to build the computer. It is simply not possible for our group, which consists not only of the seasoned gray-haired veterans, but the highly energetic educated youth, to fail our 'brain child.'
Someday, when we think of this moment, we won't believe that it really happened to us, but for now, all we need is this victory, just this one single victory, and we would gladly give up anything to achieve it.[8]
Kartsev's words became a living testament among specialists at the Institute that he had founded. He died on April 23, 1983. Rogachev succeeded Kartsev as the director of the Institute and completed the M-13 project; in 1984 it went into mass production.
[7] Author's Note: Kartsev was referring to the M-13.
[8] Translator's and Editor's note: This last sentence Kartsev quoted from Bulat Okudzhava's song, known by heart by most Soviet citizens and first heard in the 1970 film The Belorussian Railway Station [in Russian: Belorusskii Vokzal], directed by Andrei Smirnov and produced at the Mosfilm studios. It is an epic tale of victory at the end of the Second World War and wartime camaraderie. Kartsev, who had served as a tanker on the front lines in the Great Patriotic War, had been awarded a medal for bravery and the Red Star Order at age twenty for his heroism.
Some specialized M-series computers designed under Kartsev's direction were employed for weaponry-related calculations by the Soviet Army. The M-4M computers known under the army codes 5E71, 5E72, and 5E73 were ten times more powerful than their contemporary civilian models, M-220, BESM-4 and others, and operated at military facilities from 1967 to 1981. The M-10 computer, known by its army code 5E66, significantly exceeded other contemporary domestic models such BESM-6 and the ES-1060. Using computer models 5E71 through 5E73 and 5E66, the Soviet Union's largest multi-computer complex was formed. Operating around the clock, its 76 computers functioned on a common algorithm and were connected by data transmission channels spanning tens of thousands of kilometers.
Kartsev understood that computers designed at NIIVK were not only capable of serving the military air defense warning system, but could produce significant results in scientific research that required complicated calculations, which were not solvable on any other Soviet computers of that period due to their slow operating speed and small internal memory. Despite the military leadership's resistance, Kartsev got permission to publish the technical documents on the M-10 computer and actively pursued establishing connections with the scientific research organizations that were in need of high-performance computers. Because of his initiative, a variety of extremely complex scientific calculations were completed, including plasma collapse simulations that could not be done on the American CDC-7600 computer.[9]
Kartsev wrote five books and fifty-five articles on the theory of computer technology and held 16 invention certificates. His Arithmetic Units of Electronic Digital Computers, published in the Soviet Union in 1958 and later abroad, and Digital Computer Arithmetic (1969) provided the theoretical base for arithmetic units and its conclusions have been widely used in textbooks. His last works, Digital Computer Architecture and Computing Systems and Synchronous Arithmetic (1978) were the first attempt to establish a scientific base for computer architecture and parallel calculation design.
Kartsev was one of the few who initiated computerized optical-electronics research in the Soviet Union, and his Institute built a fiber-optic system for a multi-computer complex of six M-10 computers. For his achievements, Kartsev was awarded the "Medal of Honor" Order in 1966, a medal "For Valiant Labor" and the State Prize of the USSR in 1967, the Order of Lenin in 1978, and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1971. In 1993, his institute was renamed the Kartsev Institute of Computer Complexes. The author finishes this section on Mikhail Kartsev with an excerpt from a letter he received from Kartsev's son, Vladimir:
The few pages that I am sending you are, of course, much less than what my father deserved.
The more I think about him, the harder it is for me understand what kind of person my father really was. Without a doubt, his work was his life. Nevertheless, he would have enjoyed success in any other field, had destiny led him away from computer design.
My father valued talent and skill above all other individual qualities, regardless of whether it was the ability to solve theoretical problems or to drive a car. Unfortunately and quite frequently, he was forced to place the fate of his work in the hands of the people who lacked such qualities, which generally resulted in him having to do most of the work. He once said, 'Every project manager must be ready to do the whole project with his own hands. It's not that easy, but it's worth it!'
Father disliked incompetence, regardless of the reason. I remember his indignation when he tried to put together a children's radio-set kit, in which none of the parts matched the diagram. On the other hand, he was extremely patient in overcoming problems that he considered worthy of his attention. When he was doing what he loved, he was extraordinarily calm.
In addition to his regular work during the day, my father gave evening lectures at the university. He even became a professor, almost as an afterthought. When his students took his exams, it was always open book, and they were allowed to bring any books they wanted. Of course, and I firmly believe that, he did not require them to know as much as he did. Nevertheless, his exams were considered difficult. He never asked them to memorize the information, but instead wanted them to understand the subject. How many people can say that?
Father's intellect remained in his books and in the work of his followers. But the essence of his being, his personality, his style and his elegance, remained only in the memory of those who knew him. My father's intellectual demeanor made him vulnerable when he needed to assert himself or to gain support from the authorities, but without it, like without a sense of humor, the person we all remembered would not have existed.
My father's favorite books were The Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf by Ilf and Petrov. Together, we also read their One-Storied America, and The Two Captains by Kaverin.[10] Father could recite Pushkin's Eugene Onegin by heart. Books, and not just scientific books but literature in general, was his great passion. He easily read in English also, but mostly scientific works, and once was lucky enough to practice his conversational English with two Arabs, who happened to be sitting next to us in café.[11] When I was learning German in school and was cramming for a test, my father, who memorized the passage by listening to me read it over and over, suddenly began speaking to me in German. Formally, he only studied English, but long ago, when German was a popular foreign language to study, he read every textbook his school had and apparently retained most of it.
One of father's favorite movies was the Soviet film The Taming of Fire.[12] It seemed that father was not a stranger to romanticism, and I would even go as far as to say that in general, intellectuals are often prone to be romantics. He must have seen something familiar and close to his heart in the movie. It must have been for the same reason he loved Viktor Nekrasov's In the Trenches of Stalingrad, although he usually did not read books about the war, considering them to have little in common with his personal war-time experience.
He never worried about his health. He probably would have lived longer if he exercised and took regular vacations. But then, he would not have been true to his nature. He wanted to live and die on his own terms; to be a real director of the Institute he had established and to continue to lead computer technology in the direction that he pioneered.
He was dear to everyone he came in contact with; not just as an authority figure, or a leader, or a great worker, but as a kind man who cared about people, was very honest and unassuming. If he had any shortcomings, there was only one—he was too trusting and considered others to be just as fair, honest, and compassionate as he was. Mikhail Kartsev was and remains one of the world's greatest figures in the history of computer science and technology.
[9] Author's note: Some of these results were published in the Soviet Academy of Sciences reports in volume 245, 1979, No. 2, pages 309-312; and in the Proceedings of the XV International Conference for Ionized Gas Phenomena held in Minsk, July 1981.
[10] Editor's note:Ilya Ilf and Eugene Petrov were Soviet witty satirical writers well known by all Russians. Veniamin Kaverin was a socialist-realist Soviet writer who published this novel in 1947.
[11] Translator's Note: Today it is difficult for westerners to understand how problematic it was for Russians to meet foreigners who spoke English. Living in the closed society, particularly for a scientist employed by the military, provided little chance for free and informal communication with foreigners. That was why Kartsev had limited practice in his foreign language skills.
[12] Editor's note:This film was produced by director Danil Khrabrovitskii in 1972. It celebrates those who developed the Soviet rocket and space program.
Only a handful of people know that in November 1953, half a year after Lebedev and his team completed BESM, the first sequential computer, TsEM-1 [in Russian: Tsifrovaya Elektronnaya Mashina-1], went on-line at the Institute of Atomic Energy in Moscow and operated until 1960. The decision to develop this machine was almost accidental. At that time, Sergey Sobolev was Kurchatov's assistant director at the Institute of Atomic Energy, and in 1950 he happened to come across the description of the ENIAC in an American magazine. Being aware of the Strela and BESM projects, Sobolev handed the American magazine to the supervisor of the institute's measurements laboratory, N.A. Yavlinsky. The magazine then turned up in the hands of a young specialist, Gennady Alexandrovich Mikhailov, who had graduated from the Ivanovsk Power Institute just three years prior. Among the scarcely available foreign publications, he was able to find only a couple more articles in British journals about the EDSAC computer, which was constructed at the Cambridge University. Unfortunately, these journals presented only the flowchart and operational features of the machine. The binary system, as well as programming, was not widely known at that time, and there were no textbooks on solving problems using numerical methods. There was yet another difficulty: the team that designed and assembled the TsEM-1 consisted of only four people – two engineers and two technicians – Mikhailov included.
Just like the MESM and BESM's designs are attributed exclusively to Lebedev, the TsEM-1's scheme belongs entirely to Mikhailov's.
The TsEM-1 contained an operating memory of 128 binary 31-bit digits on 32 mercury delay lines; each one had 16 digits with a sequential retrieval rate of 512 kilobytes per second. The memory capacity was later extended to 496 digits – 4096 digits on a magnetic drum. Data input and output were performed using as ST-35 telegraph apparatus. Digital print-outs on telegraph tape were copied onto 5-track perforated tape, and data input from the same perforated tape was sent through a photographic reader at high speed. The machine's operational modes were observable on an oscilloscope – a precursor of our modern digital displays. The average addition and subtraction speed of the TsEM-1 was 495 operations per second, 232 operations per second for multiplication and division. It contained 1900 electronic vacuum tubes, consuming roughly 14 kilowatts of power per hour. The machine was housed in six metal racks measuring 80 x 180 x 40 centimeters each. The main physical limitations of the TsEM-1 were found in its mercury delay lines: because of its 1000 millimeter long, 18 millimeter diameter quartz acoustic radiator, it was necessary to constantly check for sharply focused ultrasonic rays and for the reflection levels from the receiving quartz. Luckily, weekly preventive maintenance guaranteed consistently reliable operation of the TsEM-1.
Like MESM and BESM, TsEM-1 was an original project, based on ingenuity and imagination of its creators, and it was substantially different from EDSAC. For example, multiplication was carried out by rounding off; division was done without recovery of a remainder; and a two-address instruction system replaced the previous one-address unit. Lebedev proposed these improvements during the TsEM-1's construction. In addition, the command modification system by means of "control characters" was unique. It facilitated program compression, which in view of the computer's limited immediate access memory was very important.
Even within the Atomic Energy Institute TsEM-1 was not acknowledged in its early years. The supervisor of one the institute's branches, physicist Lev Andreevich Artsimovich, was initially quite skeptical about this kind of technology. After some time, he changed his mind and found the computer to be useful and powerful when he saw what it could produce: at the end of 1954 Mikhailov had programmed and solved an equation on the TsEM-1 that described the process of plasma filament compression in experiments on controlled nuclear fusion. S.M. Osovtsev, who was a member of the theoretical physics team headed by Mikhail Alexandrovich Leontovich, had set up the equation. At first, Artsimovich rejected the result of the accelerated plasma filament compression with oscillations overlaid on it. However, after three or four days of theoretical analysis, he obtained the same results. A great number of calculations on nuclear reactors functions and dosimeters were made on the TsEM-1; Lebedev, M.D. Millionshchikov and others became quite familiar with the machine. Mikhailov adds some new touches to the portrait of Lebedev:
In the 1950s, working as a staff engineer at the Kurchatov Atomic Energy Institute, I was fortunate to meet many of our distinguished scientists. Some of them I only saw from afar at lectures and seminars, people like Kurchatov, Kikoin, Tamm, Ioffe, Timofeev-Resovskii, and Sakharov. Others, such as Sobolev, Artsimovich and Leontovich, I developed closer, more personal relationships with.[13]
When I defended my Master's thesis, the test administrators for computer technology were academicians Artsimovich and Lebedev. It still gives me a great pleasure to think about being in the company of those two brilliant scientists, plus remembering many other talented scientists of the 1950s and 1960s. My only worry is that if Sergei Alexeevich were to be judged solely by his appearance, he would have looked ordinary compared to his colleagues; he had neither a remarkable statue nor a determined face. But it was his humility along with his immeasurable talent which made Sergei Alexeevich stand out above the rest.
I heard of him for the first time from my lab colleagues, who referred to him as an exceptionally talented scientist. Our team, headed by N.A. Yavlinsky, moved to the Nuclear Power Institute where Lebedev was working. Yavlinsky and Lebedev were friends and their families spend a lot of time together until 1962, when Yavlinskii perished in an airplane crash along with his wife and son. Thanks to that friendship, I had the pleasure of seeing Sergei Alexeevich at family parties as well. Even then, he remained unobtrusive and plain, without a hint of self-flattery or false modesty.
In 1959, Mikhailov moved to Kiev and became a department head at the Ukraine Academy of Sciences Computer Center. He continues:
Summer of 1961 was the last time Sergei Alexeevich visited Kiev, which had always been dear to him. He visited our computer center that had already moved from Feofania to Lisogorsk. We organized a trip to Feofania so Sergei Alexeevich could once more see the place where he started his work. By that time, he had achieved almost everything: he had become an Academician, a Lenin prize-winner, a Hero of Socialist Labor... it seemed to be the time for honors. But Sergei Alexeevich was rather modest and would never allow grand meetings, banquets, or celebrations to be held for his arrival. There was no secret about his coming, but only a few of us knew about it.
Once, at his anniversary celebration at the Institute for Precision Mechanics' conference hall, he looked very embarrassed and uncomfortable dressed in an Uzbek robe and tyubeteika [an embroidered Central Asian skullcap], while great fuss was made over the entire procedure.
I never heard a bad word about him. But, at the same time, it would not be true to call him an infinitely kind soul. On the aforesaid Masters' examinations, Sergei Alexeevich quietly gave a deserved "two" (equivalent to an "F") to his own graduate assistant. I remember when we discussed defending the theses, he made an ironic remark: 'In our institute we have a division of labor: some people make machines, others defend dissertations.'
Having visited our laboratory and scrupulously tested TsEM-1, Sergei Alexeevich surprised us with this question: 'Don't you bang it with a hammer?' It turned out that a rubber mallet was a common laboratory tool used on the BESM, and banging it on the machine's solid-state metal frame was typical machine maintenance! No less surprising would be an order not to work on a problem longer then fifteen minutes, unless it required recalculation, so as not to waste the machine's time.
Everything mentioned above relates to the first generation of computers with vacuum tubes. Second-generation machines were developed without them, and Lebedev's first semiconductor machines were the BESM-3 and BESM-4. These machines emerged as a result of youthful enthusiasm: these developments came about at SKB and at the Institute for Precision Mechanics outside of the state "plan" – at the initiative of the young engineers and technicians.
Lebedev's team member, A.A. Gryzlov, recalled that a relatively small group of young coworkers – engineers, technicians and self-taught inventors – was commissioned to master the first semiconductor components in 1964 in order to prepare the SKB staff for the upcoming BESM-6 project. First, they were given the task of developing prototypes for the computer's main units to gain some design experience. The final prototype was named BESM-3M. Inspired by their success, the young coworkers proposed a daring idea: to develop a new machine based on the available prototype which would repeat the block-logic diagram of the M-20 computer, only using new components. SKB's head at that time, O.P Vasiliev, supported the young workers' ideas, and Lebedev raised no objections to the "unproven" youth and thus, BESM-4 was born in the creative and friendly atmosphere that pervaded Lebedev's institute.
The State Committee headed by Dorodnitsyn noted the high performance and innovative features of the first Soviet multi-purpose semiconductor computer. The machine was characterized by its reliability, small size, and low price; it quickly became popular among users. When a BESM-4 was installed in the Soviet Academy of Sciences Computing Center and people inquired about it, the always answer was: "Your machine demoralizes young engineers. They don't have to do routine maintenance checks because the machine is error-free. It is too reliable." Nothing else needed to be said.
[13] Editor's note: Mikhailov is referring to the famous Soviet physicists Igor Tamm, Isaak Kikoyin and Abram Ioffe, and biologist Nikolai Timofeev-Risovskii.
After the work on the vacuum tube-based computers BESM-2 and M-20 was finished, the design of the second-generation supercomputer BESM-6 – the semiconductor based masterpiece – commenced at the Institute for Precision Mechanics. Two of his former students – Vladimir Andreevich Melnikov and Lev Korolev – assisted Lebedev with this project. Melnikov and Korolev both became Lebedev's operations managers and famous young scientists in their own right. They studied and analyzed everything they could get their hands on that was published about designing high-speed computers. Lebedev led the mathematical modeling of the machine. As a result, they developed a machine with an original system of commands that made programming user-friendly, had a simple internal structure, reliable system of elements, and a design that simplified maintenance.
The BESM-6 became the first Soviet computer that was approved by the State Committee with a complete software package, and many leading Soviet technical specialists were involved in its development. However, Lebedev was the first one to realize the effect of the joint efforts by the mathematicians and engineers on the creation of computer systems. The development of computer technology evolved from a purely engineering to a mathematical problem, which could only be solved by the pooling of resources.
Finally, and this is also important, Lebedev formulated all diagrams of BESM-6 with Boolean algebra, which opened vast horizons for the automation of design, and preparation of assembly and operational documentation. Later, the design was further streamlined by Gennady Grigorievich Ryabov, creator of the Pulse System for which he was awarded the Soviet State Prize.[14]
BESM-6 featured: 1) a pipeline control system, or as Lebedev called it in 1964, "plumbing," according to which the flow of commands and operands were simultaneously processed (up to 8 machine commands at each stage); 2) the use of associative memory on super-speed registers that reduced the number of retrieval calls to the ferrite memory, thus optimizing calculations; 3) a stratification of operating memory into autonomous modules, which enabled simultaneous, multi-directional calls to memory units; 4) a multi-program operational mode for real-time work on several problems with specified priorities; 5) a hardware mechanism for transformation of mathematical addresses to physical ones, which made it possible for dynamic distribution of the operating memory in the computational process; 6) a page system of memory that in turn developed protection mechanisms for numbers and commands; and 7) an up-to-date interrupt system that facilitated the automatic transfer from one computational task to another, accessing external units and controlling their operation.
BESM-6 contained 60,000 transistors and 180,000 semiconductor-diodes. Its element base was brand new at the time and became the foundation of circuit engineering for third and fourth-generation computers. The principle of dividing complex machine logic built on diode blocks using single transistor amplification guaranteed a simplified manufacturing process and reliable operation. BESM-6 achieved average speeds of up to one million operations per second.
The BESM-6 prototype was tested in 1965; in 1967, the first manufactured model had its trial run. Three additional models were made at the same time; because of joint collaboration with the manufacturer, there was virtually no lag time to prepare the computer for mass production.
The State Committee headed by Keldysh, who was still the President of the Academy of Sciences in the 1960s, understood BESM-6's importance. With this technology, the Soviet Union established computing centers that facilitated real-time control systems and coordination of data tele-processing systems. BESM-6's were used for simulating complex physical processes and control processes, and also for development of new computer software in computer aided design systems. The basic technical design that Lebedev and his colleagues had employed during BESM-6's development gave the computer an enviable service life: BESM-6 was manufactured for over seventeen years. Their users loved these machines, and by the 1970s BESM-6 set the standard for high-speed computers in the Soviet Union.
The 1975 Apollo-Soyuz space mission was controlled from a new computer complex that included a BESM-6 and other domestic high-speed computers developed by Lebedev's students. Prior to this, the space mission telemetry data processing would have taken approximately thirty minutes. Using the new computer complex, the work was performed in one minute. Soviet scientists completed all of the Apollo-Soyuz mission's data processing one half hour earlier than their American colleagues. This marked Lebedev's real triumph: his school and his students developed a first-class computer that was capable of competing with the best machines in the world. For their work on BESM-6, Lebedev and his team won the State Prize.
While writing this manuscript, I came across the work of the German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche. One of his statements caught my attention: "The ability to show the way is a sign of genius." Immediately, I thought of Lebedev.
[14] Editor's note: Ryabov became Director of the Institute for Precision Mechanics in 1984.
From the very beginning, Soviet computer technology was employed for military purposes. Lebedev's role as a chief computer designer for the Soviet Union's anti-missile defense system was considered top secret, and his work was shrouded in secrecy. In 1990, sixteen years after his death, Lebedev's participation in the development of the Soviet Union's first anti-missile defense systems was finally revealed in Sovietskaya Rossia [Soviet Russia] newspaper article, August 5 issue, "Money for Defense" by Grigorii Vasilievich Kisunko.
BESM-2, M-20, and BESM-6 enhanced the rapid development of scientific solutions to the most complex anti-missile defense problems in the postwar years. They became the foundation for the huge computing complexes that supported the anti-missile defense systems. Other nations were able to solve the same problems, but many years later. Such military developments were the result of the Cold War, and Sergei Alexeevich could not separate himself from the demands of that time: the backing from the Soviet military greatly improved the economic position of the Institute for Precision Mechanics and accelerated research on universal high-speed computers that would eventually support defense computing centers in the Soviet Union. This was the Institute for Precision Mechanics' main function throughout the Cold War.
Lebedev anticipated all of this. While still in Kiev, he sent a letter to the Ukraine Academy of Sciences Presidium on January 15, 1951:
The Ukrainian Academy of Sciences is developing a prototype of a high-speed computer. This computer will be capable of solving problems with unmatched speed and accuracy. For example, it would be able to solve problems in such areas as intra-atomic processes, jet technology, radar location, the aircraft industry, structural mechanics and others. Tremendous speed and accuracy would enable us to develop missile control devices for accurate targeting through continuous in-flight corrections of guiding missiles' trajectories.
The Ukrainian Academy's Presidium could not support Lebedev's idea because there was no money available for it: Ukraine's national economy was devastated after the Second World War. Moreover, Ukraine's leaders did not understand the computer's importance. After moving to Moscow and becoming the director of the Institute for Precision Mechanics, Lebedev implemented his long-term plan to integrate computing into national defense when the work on the BESM was almost finished. During this period, Sergei Alexeevich mentored the young specialist Vsevolod Sergeevich Burtsev, who had distinguished himself by calibrating the original BESM. Having lost his parents during the war, Burtsev became very attached to Lebedev. Earlier, he had worked at one of Moscow's scientific-research institutes devoted to developing radar systems and applied that knowledge to his projects at the Institute for Precision Mechanics: Between 1952 and 1955, the Institute developed two special computers, Diana-1 and Diana-2, for automatic data reading and radar air target tracking. Subsequent research led to the design and development of a whole generation of computers for use in the anti-missile defense system.
Lebedev appointed Burtsev as his chief assistant, responsible for integrating computers with the defense sector. Sergei Alexeevich's trust in Burtsev inspired the young specialist, who contributed significantly to the M-40 vacuum tube computer. It began operating in 1958 at 40,000 operations per second, several months ahead of the M-20. Soon after, the Institute produced the M-50, which featured floating-point arithmetic. These machines were supplied with a channel multiplexer that enabled them to receive data asynchronously from six directions. The first Soviet anti-missile defense system incorporated them. The government appointed 35-year old Grigorii Kisunko as lead designer of the first soviet anti-missile defense system.
Even though some of the experts laughed at his idea, claiming that shooting down a flying missile with another missile was pure fantasy, Kisunko was undeterred by their ridicule. He firmly believed in the potential of combining the latest radar technology with the new computer technology – the two developing scientific fields that could became the basis of a new defense system. Kisunko headed a group of enthusiasts who developed and substantiated the principles of the anti-missile defense system. Over the course of a year, the group solved several complex problems: How to detect and effectively track small, fast moving ballistic missiles? How to set up automated connections between distant anti-missile defense installations? How to rapidly process data and make appropriate decisions? How to successfully shoot down a target? To solve these problems, they came up with the idea of developing an experimental system – the "System A."
West of Lake Balkhash in the Kazakhstan Republic, a desert area inhospitable to humans stretches out for hundreds of kilometers. Temperatures rise to forty degrees Celsius during the summers, and the only living creatures are poisonous spiders, snakes and scorpions. In 1956, first workers arrived there to begin construction of the Polygon, an anti-missile experimental test site. Manufacturers and military researchers followed, and eventually thousands of people were employed there. The desert became "imaginary Moscow," surrounded by the anti-missile defense system in preparation for a missile attack from Kapustin Yar and Plesetsk.[15] Workers were supposed to set up the experimental equipment to detect incoming missiles and then shoot them down over the test range, which was unofficially called Sari-Shagan, after the nearest populated area. Everyone worked under wartime-like conditions: builders lived in dug-outs and there was a dire shortage of water. Dust storms were common. Construction on railroad tracks, highways, and electric power lines was carried out simultaneously. A military base was erected along with civilian housing and a research complex, followed by a communication network.
Kisunko, Lebedev, and Burtsev displayed tremendous foresight and courage, even though their task seemed impossible and the vacuum tube computers they depended upon were not always reliable. When Kisunko first viewed the BESM he thought that this "home made" machine would never be mass-produced, so decided to concentrate on the Strela. He signed a contract with SKB-245 to build a special computer for the Polygon based on the Strela, and as a backup made a similar arrangement with Lebedev's Institute. Work continued at the Polygon complex, and a large hall where both machines were supposed to be located was divided into two sections. The general contractor for this project quickly realized that half of the hall allocated to SKB-245 would remain unoccupied, while the M-40 quickly materialized on the other side. Thus the scientists at the Institute for Precision Mechanics were able to demonstrate that they could write scientific papers just as well as solve complex anti-missile defense problems with their M-40 computer, which was based on the BESM.
Within a year, the first successful experimental missile-detection radar system in the Soviet Union was in operation. Two years later anti-missile launch tests commenced, using the fully completed computer-based System A. The system's components were new at that time: high-quality radar, an automatic control system based on the M-40 high-speed computer, fast and maneuverable antimissile devices with precision guidance capabilities and electronic digital coding. Things did not go smoothly at first because some Communist leaders overseeing the project remembered that Kisunko was the son of a repressed kulak.[16] But eventually, the test day arrived, and everyone remembered for the rest of their lives...
...As soon as the dummy missile was launched, it immediately appeared on the radar locators. Then, the anti-missile launch command was given and the operator pressed the launch button. The instant the target mark became visible on the screen, the anti-missile device was launched. Minutes later, an indicator sign lit up: "Target Destroyed." The following day, recorded footage of the event proved that the anti-missile defense system was indeed successful - the ballistic missile's warhead was completely destroyed.
This event marked a breakthrough in military might, in science, and even in politics: Nikita Khrushchev casually remarked about it at a press conference, "One may say that our missiles can hit a fly in outer space." At the time, many world leaders were not sure whether Khrushchev was serious or not. Other nations had not considered non-nuclear means for destroying ballistic missiles, and Soviet progress in anti-missile defense systems forced the United States to sign the anti-ballistic missile defense system restriction treaty in 1972.
Once, one of Sergei Alexeevich's daughters asked him: "Why do you make computers for the military?" He replied: "To avoid a war."
Behind these accomplishments stands a colossal body of work by many teams of scientists, including the ones Lebedev supervised. They spent a great deal of time at the Polygon. The creators of the first anti-ballistic missile defense system were awarded the Lenin Prize. Among them were Kisunko, Lebedev, and Burtsev. Their vacuum tube machines employed at the Polygon were eventually converted to semiconductor computers. One of them was a three-processor computer that performed 1.5–2 million operations per second. This was the first Soviet computer based on integrated circuits. Eventually Soviet scientists and engineers oversaw the development of a reliable, miniature multi-purpose computer that took up only 2 1/2 cubic meters. The experience of building the first third-generation computer served as the base design of the Elbrus* supercomputers.[17]
[15] Editor's note: Kapustin Yar and Plesetsk were top secret Soviet missile bases.
[16] Editor's note: Kulaks were landowning peasants who, in the 1930s were brutally repressed, arrested, and stripped of their land and societal status by Stalin.
[17] Elbrus is the highest mountain in the Caucasus and Lebedev was an amateur mountain climber.
Lebedev's scientific school was the culmination of his life's work. It came as the result of his monumental dedication and the creative contributions that his colleagues made during the development of the most complex classes of computers: universal high-performance and specialized. Leading technological progress in a new direction, plus establishing a new scientific school is an intricate and innovative process, and the creation of Lebedev's scientific school is definitely a classic example of such process. From the beginning, Lebedev adopted and consistently practiced one core principle of computer construction—the process of early computational parallelization. The arithmetical units in both the MESM and BESM were equipped in parallel, as were the M-20 and M-40. The BESM-6 used a kind of pipeline calculation method, and subsequent computers were built on a multiprocessor basis.
Every new computer was the result of a radical reworking of the preceding one, with a critical overview of everything new in the world of computers, both in the Soviet Union and abroad. In the Soviet Union however, the inferior technological and industrial capacity significantly undermined the speed of development. To simply exchange one elemental base for another, only slightly improved one, did not bring creative satisfaction: the semiconductor-based BESM-4 was an advanced machine that clearly went beyond its proposed plan, but it still incorporated the structure and commands of the M-20, and Lebedev did not give it high marks. He unquestionably supported the initiatives of the young scientists who created the first semiconductor computer, yet, together with his able assistants Alexander Tomilin and others, he was already building a prototype of the future BESM-6, trying to theoretically substantiate the structure and parameters of a new machine. "Before developing a computer, one has to design it," Lebedev noted immediately after developing the original BESM. He consistently upheld this principle.
Lebedev had the ability to take a well-planned idea and make it a reality, and he cultivated this quality in his students. In order to teach them how, he played all the roles: designer, constructor and assembler, adjustment engineer, technician, operator, and so forth. In other words, he taught through living, setting his own example. Later, when qualified specialists appeared, Lebedev entrusted them with the majority of the work, leaving only the most complex tasks of theoretical substantiation of innovations, computer structure, and parameters for himself.
It is not hard to believe, given Sergei Alexeevich's skill as a scientific supervisor, that his staff was highly motivated and reached phenomenal output during the 1950s and 1960s. What qualities did Lebedev possess that inspired them, gave them strength, and got their creative juices flowing during a period when working conditions were far from ideal? First, like no other person at that time, Lebedev was an expert in this new field of science and technology and was able to set very clear goals for teams of designers; then, with a complete understanding of the work, he actively participated in the projects. Second, Lebedev possessed enormous engineering experience and intuition, which allowed him to convince himself and others that it was possible to coordinate the operation of thousands of vacuum tubes. Third, Lebedev set an example of dedication to science by never avoiding tedious or menial work, for him no job was too small. Lastly, he was always able find common ground with the people he worked with.
Lebedev also had a gift for selecting the best personnel and effectively organizing the work. In Kiev and in Moscow, Lebedev had two or three able assistants who had decent creative and organizational abilities. The rest of the teams he hand picked from the recent graduates of top technical institutes, attracting them with the novelty and grandeur of his ideas.
The thrill of creating digital technology, with its future prospects, was an important factor. Computer technology was developing rapidly, holding the promise of new, more efficient applications for many branches of science that would promote technological progress and the growth of creative research. Lebedev's numerous publications played a great role in fostering these ideas. No less important was the creative rivalry that arose between the various organizations that were working on computer development and their desire to be on the same level with similar institutions abroad.
In Kiev, Lebedev had a laboratory with a large group of specialists. In Moscow, the Institute for Precision Mechanics became a leader in computer science carrying out Lebedev's plan to promote diverse research in the field of computer technology. On Lebedev's initiative, a department of computer technology was set up at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology to prepare teams of specialists. Upon completion of their training, these teams were sent to the Institute for Precision Mechanics, which Sergei Alexeevich headed until 1973.
Even though the MESM and BESM never received proper recognition or timely support, they still became basic building blocks in the field of computer technology and contributed to the growing prestige for Lebedev and his students; the Institute for Precision Mechanics became famous worldwide. Gradually, though belatedly, Lebedev began receiving official recognition. Despite his indifference to rewards and interference from his opponents, Lebedev received many awards, such as the Order of Lenin in 1954, 1962, and 1972, the Lenin Prize in 1966, the State Prize of the Soviet Union in 1969, and the Order of the October Revolution in 1971. Many of his colleagues also received prestigious awards.
Many of Lebedev's students turned out to be great scientists as well. In Moscow, Sergei Alexeevich mentored Melnikov, a participant in the BESM-2 project who also helped with the manufacture of the first computers in China. After becoming convinced of Melnikov's remarkable abilities, Sergei Alexeevich appointed him as the operations manager at the start of BESM-6's development. After the work on the BESM-6 was finished, Melnikov, Lebedev, and Sokolov were appointed as chief designers of the AS-6 computing system, compatible with BESM-6's software. The AS-6 computing system was developed in a short time and embodied many ideas that would be the basis of future supercomputers. Along with BESM-6 it was used in the Apollo-Soyuz space program and subsequent space vehicle launches. Melnikov was chosen as a corresponding member and, later, a full member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Order of Lenin Prize in 1956, the Order of Red Labor Banner in 1971 and 1976, the State Prize in 1969 and 1980, and laureate of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Presidium's S. A. Lebedev Prize. Starting in 1976, he served as the director of the Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics and as chief designer of the Electronika SBIS supercomputer. He died suddenly in 1993.
Burtsev, known as the "Adjustment Ace," turned out to be a scientific whiz. When he presented his Master's thesis for his Candidate of Technology degree (the thesis incorporated his experience in building the Diana-1 and Diana-2 computers), the scientific council unanimously nominated him for a doctoral degree. Burtsev became Lebedev's trustworthy assistant in the development of high-speed control and information complexes for the anti-missile defense system and space flight control centers. After Lebedev's death, Burtsev served as Director of the Institute for Precision Mechanics until 1984. He was elected a corresponding member, and later a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The Elbrus Soviet supercomputer, using the latest principles of optical data processing in multi-machine and multi-processor complexes, was developed under Burtsev's supervision. The principle of calculation paralleling proposed by Lebedev, found a logical development in Burtsev's work for which he was awarded four special orders: a Lenin Laureate Prize, two State Prizes, and the S.A. Lebedev Prize.
Dozens if not hundreds of specialists trained in Lebedev's school remain true to its principles. Some of them have retired; others are still working, but the majority of them are still connected with the Institute for Precision Mechanics. Unfortunately, it is impossible to describe all of their work in detail within the scope of this book.
The S.A. Lebedev Institute for Precision Mechanics and Computer Technology did not yield its leadership position during the Soviet years: after the supercomputers Elbrus-1 and Elbrus-2 were completed in the 1980s, the subsequent supercomputer Elbrus 3-1 was completed in 1991.
Corresponding member of Russian Academy of Sciences Ryabov and the chief designers of the complex's main machines, Andrey Andreevich Sokolov and Mark Valerianovich Tiapkin, have remained at the Institute for Precision Mechanics since 1986, through the unstable period that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, according to unanimous opinion, they are the highest ranking specialists – the "gold stock" of the institute.
Sadly, the majority of other Soviet computing organizations have experienced a different and declining fate during the decades after the war. I will discuss this in greater detail in the subsequent chapters.