Page 17 - Kotov
P. 17

Crucial Dilemma: To Copy or To Invent
       Time Frame
       By mid-60s computers started their rapid expansion from their birthplac-
       es - science, high-education, and defense institutions - to banking, com-
       merce, and industrial design and manufacturing. Large-scale production,
       maintenance, and use of computers required also to move from a variety of
       non-compatible machine and devices to system families designed to cover
       the complete range of applications, from small to large, both commercial
       and scientific. One could expect that in the Soviet Union, with its state econ-
       omy, the variety of computer models was small and some unification  was
       already in progress by that time. That was not the case. Dozens of organi-
       zations were developing their proprietary architectures without any serious
       attempts  to unify interfaces, software, and applications. When IBM created       The IBM S/360
       an entire series of computers System/360 (S/360) of the “third generation”
       from small configurations to large ones, all using the same instruction set,
       customers were able to buy cheaper models and then upgrade them to larger systems as their needs increased
       without the time and expense of rewriting software.


       Dilemma: to copy or not to copy

       In 1966 the Soviet government requested that new computers for the use in the growing national economy should
       be built on a unified architecture and microelectronic technology and their system software should be compat-
       ible. However, there was no consensus how to reach this goal quickly. Some proposed to start new proprietary
       compatible computer family from scratch or developing some elements of hardware compatibility that had  been
       demonstrated by  some domestic families, for example “Ural” (Ural-11, Ural-14, Ural-16) . Others argued that
       was better to copy some well-tested and widely popular western families.  The acquisition of licenses from
       Siemens (Germany) and ICL (UK) that produced their own compatible computer families was considered. How-
       ever, the required amount of hard currencies was not available. And it was not possible to get a license from the
       American government to reproduce the IBM S/360 system.What was possible was to create the Soviet computers
       programmably compatible with the IBM S/360 system.


        Arguments against copying                             Arguments for copying
        Copying  IBM S/360 will put the Soviet Union sev-     It was impossible to say with certainty how long it
        eral years behind  the USA and other countries (the   would take  to build  the  domestic  third-generation
        IBM S/360 was launched in 1964).                      computers.
                                                              The IBM  software was the most rich, well-document-
        Switching  to  copying  would destroy  the  creativity   ed, and advanced by that time. Creating IBM-com-
        and innovation in the domestic computer communi-      patible machines promised quick computerization of
        ty and kill just recently emerged domestic computer   the USSR economy.
        R&D institutions.

        Copying  the American system will make the Russian
        computers vulnerable to the “cyber attacks” of that
        time by the American military or CIA.



       After a long and heated debate, the Soviet government followed the Solomon judgment: the defense industry
       would mainly rely on the development of proprietary domestic computer architectures  (with a support from the
       research institutions) and the national economy would embrace the computer families patterned on the most pop-
       ular American architectures. The first thread was represented by the Elbrus and specialized military computers.
       The second  one was represented  by the Unified System and the System of  Small Computers.







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