In early September 1962, the Pentagon funded a digital network, ARPAnet, which connected the computer nodes of the University of California, Los Angeles, Stanford Research Center, the University of Utah, and California State University in Santa Barbara. The first step was taken in real-time control of the US armed forces.
By the way, since then September 2 is considered the birthday of the Internet.
This was a kind of response from the Pentagon to the successful use of the Soviet missile defense system in 1960, which would have been unthinkable without innovative radio electronics. Then, the new realities in the US army caused a real shock, as a number of experts expressed doubt that the American 15-fold advantage in nuclear charges over the Soviet triad (6000 to 405 at that time) would guarantee overcoming the air borders of the USSR.
Prior to this, the White House believed that in the USSR there were neither electronic computers, nor national production of element base, on the basis of which computers could be assembled in series, all the more powerful computers. However, the S-75 anti-aircraft missile, which shot down the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft with the pilot Francis Powers, indirectly confirmed the report of RAND employees that Moscow already has powerful electronic computers.
Although a year earlier, when the Soviet authorities demonstrated to the Americans the development of Penza scientists from the branch of SKB-245, headed by the deputy for scientific work, Stalin Prize laureate Bashir Rameev, this information was not taken into account. It was about the Ural-2 computer, the serial production of which was launched by the local SAM factory. It was believed that this cannot be, because this can never be.
Meanwhile, the first test of this machine, with a 40-bit processor and RAM with a capacity of 4096x20 bits, passed in 1956. In fairness, “Ural-1” quickly failed, primarily due to poorly soldered contacts. Voltage surges associated with connecting and disconnecting factory consumers, which were also powered from the same mains, also affected the poor performance.
The USSR worked on new computing technology at several research centers, each of which went head to head with leading American firms. Competition of superpowers in computer technology was strategic in nature with a clear military bias.
For Soviet science, the 60s and 70s of the last century were a time for the development of breakthrough technologies. No modern browser and unlimited free vpn - VeePN was not even mentioned, everything was just in its infancy. The Design Bureau of the State Committee on Radio Electronics (subsequently - the Scientific Research Institute "Quantum" of the Ministry of Radio Industry) launched a high-performance «Vesna» general-purpose semiconductor computer. The Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR presented BESM-6, which at that time had the highest productivity in the world - about 1,000,000 op / sec. And in 1968, the Ural-25 multiprocessor computer was already successfully tested.
However, unexpectedly for everyone in December 1969, a meeting was held at the Ministry of Radio Industry and Industry which raised the question of reorienting Soviet computers to the IBM 360 series architecture. The main argument cites the successful experience of engineers from the German Democratic Republic, whose achievements in the USSR were highly respected. This was largely due to the fact that since the time of the war, the Soviet leadership entrenched a stable stereotype of German engineering superiority.
The pragmatic policy of rapprochement with the West also influenced the ministerial decision. Minister of MCI Kalmykov convinced developers that without reorientation to the American standard, the USSR would remain in computer self-isolation. Our scientists, on the contrary, insisted on the development of domestic architectures. Each of the schools - Soviet and American - had its pros and cons. For us there was an advantage in circuitry solutions that allowed us to make more efficient computers, for IBM we had the convenience of programming and better network solutions.
A lot of things happened and influenced the improvements of today's Internet, this is just the tip of the iceberg ...
Event date & time: 23.02.2020 at 00:00
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