4) COMPUTER HARDWARE IN SOVIET COUNTRIES

The history of computing hardware in the former Soviet Bloc is somewhat different from that of Western countries. Computers were not imported in a large scale from the West. All computer hardware was either designed locally or tacitly studied and reproduced. This redevelopment led to some incompatibilities with Western standards, such as Integrated circuit pins on 2.5 mm spacing instead of 2.54 (0.1 inch) spacing. This made Soviet chips unsaleable on the world market, and made test machinery more expensive.



SOVIET COMPUTERS



1- MESM
2- Strela
3- Micro-80
4- Radio-86RK
5- Specialist
6- UT-88
7- Orion-128
8- Vector-06C

MESM


One of the first universally programmable computers in continental Europe was created by a team of scientists under the direction of Sergei Alekseyevich Lebedev from the Kiev Institute of Electrotechnology in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine).

The computer was known as MESM (МЭСМ, Малая Электронно-Счетная Машина, Small Electronic Calculating Machine), and became operational in 1950. It had about 6,000 vacuum tubes and consumed 25 kW of power. It could perform approximately 3,000 operations per minute.



Strela


The Strela computer 1953–1956, used 43-bit floating point words, with a signed 35-bit mantissa and a signed 6-bit exponent.

Seven Strelas were manufactured in Moscow by a factory in the Ministry of Instrument Making and Automation Means of the USSR; they were the primary debugging platforms for computing, and the most productive computers in the Soviet Union during this period. Strelas could process 2000 instructions per second. The last version of Strela used a 4096-word magnetic drum, rotating at 6000 rpm.



Micro-80



Micro-80 was the first DIY home computer. Schematics and information were published in the popular local DIY electronic magazine Radio in 1983. It was complex, using an Intel 8080-based system which contained about 200 ICs. This system gained low popularity, but set a precedent in getting attention of hobbyist for DIY computers, and later other DIY computers were published by Radio and other DIY magazines.


Radio-86RK



The Radio-86RK was the second DIY computer featured in Radio magazine, in an edition published in 1986. It was more popular than the Micro-80 because it was much simpler (29 IC's, i8080 @1.78 MHz with i8257 and i8275 based CRT terminal). Many factories started production of home computers based on this design (such as the Apogey BK-01, Mikrosha, Krista, Partner 01.01, and the Spektr-001). These computers had limited compatibility with the original software, although their schematics were very close to the original.


Specialist



The "Specialist" was the first DIY computer which was published in a magazine other than Radio; it was published in Modelist-Konstructor, a DIY magazine which was not exclusively focused on electronics. The computer was named the Specialist, and the magazine detailing its specifications was published in 1987, although it was developed by one hobbyist two years earlier. It was much more advanced than previous DIY computers, because it had a higher graphical resolution (384x256) and a "transparent" video system, which did not slow down the CPU when both the CPU and the video system tried to access the RAM simultaneously. It gained limited popularity with hobbyists, though some factories produced DIY kits.



UT-88


Yunij Technik (Young Engineer) magazine released details for one DIY home computer, the UT-88, which was published in 1988. It was a step back to the Micro-80 conception but was much simpler and used very widespread elements, which made it available for less skilled hobbyists. It was divided to few blocks, starting from single board microcomputer with LED display and HEX keyboard, and later adding more RAM, TV interface, and complete keyboard.

Orion-128



The Orion-128 was the last DIY computer published in Radio magazine and the last i8080-based DIY computer in Russia. It used the same concepts as the Specialist and had similar specifications, with both advances and flaws. It gained more popularity because it was supported by a more popular magazine, though it was never produced by factories in any form. Much of the software for the Orion-128 was ported by hobbyists from the Specialist and the ZX Spectrum.



Vector-06C
One of the last Soviet-designed, 8-bit home computers was the Vector-06C with an i8080 CPU clone @3 MHz, which is still used by some enthusiasts. It had color graphics (16 colors) with programmable palette, few resolutions. Some games were ported from MSX and ZX Spectrum computers (converting original code from Z80 to 8080 and replacing graphics output code).



EAST GERMAN COMPUTERS


In East Germany, the main manufacturer of computer hardware was VEB Robotron. They were involved in the ESER development of a standard across Comecon countries.

Robotron KC 87 home computer, 1987


Robotron A 5120 office computer, 1982


KC 85/3 home computer, 1987




POLISH COMPUTERS

XYZ, 1958


MERA 302, 1974



Odra No. 1305, 1974




Odra


Some of the earliest computers created in Poland were the first Odra computers. They were manufactured in Wrocław, (the brand name comes from the Odra River that flows through the city of Wrocław) and exported to other communist countries. The production started in 1959–1960; the computers were built at the Elwro manufacturing plant, which was closed in 1989.

The last series of Odra computers, the Odra 1300, consisted of three models: the Odra 1304, 1305, and the 1325. Although the hardware was developed by Polish teams, the software for the above machines was provided by a British company called ICL (that is, the Odra was ICL 1900 compatible).