|
Arabic
Bengali
Chinese
English
French
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Malay
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish
Turkish
Ukrainian
Vietnamese|
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RADIO ELECTRONICS AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING The first domestic computers. Encyclopedia of radio electronics and electrical engineering
Encyclopedia of radio electronics and electrical engineering / Beginner radio amateur Today, when a computer is freely placed on a desk, in a briefcase and even in the palm of your hand, having turned into a household appliance like a radio or TV, it is interesting to look back 50 years ago, in the era of the birth of electronic computers. Already before the end of the Second World War in the leading countries of the world, intensive research work in the field of computer automation began. Cold War! We need to increase our combat power. There was a huge need for complex calculations. Mathematics was turning from an abstract science into an important technical tool. Despite the post-war devastation, such work was also carried out in the USSR. The research institutes of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow and Kyiv began to create prototype models of individual devices of digital computers on their own. Late 40s - early 50s. There are scientific disputes about the element base and principles of building a computer of the future. But life requires more - it is necessary to organize mass production of computers. By order of the government, a powerful association is being created from SKB-245 and the Moscow Plant of Calculating and Analytical Machines. As a result, in 1953, the SAM plant produced the first Strela computer suitable for mass production. Its project was developed by the SKB-245 team of authors. Veterans recall: “After graduating from the radio engineering faculties of Moscow universities, in the strictest secrecy, without saying anything about the type of future activity, we were sent for additional training at the ITM and CT of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and for practice at the Moscow CAM plant. There we learned about the existence of a binary system calculus and the emergence of a new industry. Good university preparation made it possible to quickly master new wisdom. " Looking back, one is amazed at the amount of engineering and technical labor invested in the creation of this computer. Here are some characteristics of the "Strela", reflecting the boldness of the technical thought of engineers in the middle of the last century. All active elements were made on radio tubes of the 6N8 and 6PZ types, common for that time, with an octal base. Their total number reached 6000 pieces (the usual radio receiver of those years contained 4 radio tubes). According to academic skeptics, with a guaranteed service life of each radio tube of 500 hours, the computer should not work at all due to tube failures, but nevertheless, it was possible to achieve an average useful life of up to 20 hours per day. The total power consumed by the computer was 150 kV-A. All of it, of course, turned into heat. A special air cooling system was designed to remove heat. The area occupied by the "Arrow" was 300 square meters. The constructive implementation also impresses. The entire electrical circuit of the computer was divided into structurally complete standard cells containing 3 or 9 lamps. The cell consisted of a front panel, on which lamp sockets were placed, and a circuit board, on which radio components were attached by hanging mounting. The circuit board ended with a "sheet" type connector. This design allowed for quick troubleshooting. The cells were placed in vertical racks 2,5 m high. The front panels of the cells fit snugly against each other with their edges, separating the radio tubes from the rest of the parts. Intercell mounting was carried out from the rear side of the racks. To give the computer structural completeness and ease of access to mounting, the racks were arranged in two rows, mounting sides to each other, forming a corridor from the inside of which it was possible to carry out maintenance work. Dozens of transformers and rectifier blocks were placed at the bottom of the racks to power the incandescent and anode circuits of radio tubes. The racks were arranged like this: imagine the letter P with a side length of about 8 meters. Inside, along the top crossbar, were the control panel and input-output devices. On fig. 1 shows the layout of the computer. The numbers indicate: 1 - arithmetic unit; 2 - control device and RAM; 3 - a magnetic tape drive and a block of standard programs; 4 - corridors-passages in racks. At night, when the Strela was set to automatic operation and the external lighting was dimmed, the glow of 6000 filament lamps and the flickering of a thousand neon indicators made an almost fantastic impression.
The general view of the computer is shown in the photograph of those years (Fig. 2).
The main characteristics of the computer "Strela":
The external memory was a 125 mm wide magnetic tape drive. This is not a typo. Indeed, the tape had a width of 12,5 cm. The recording was made by a parallel code. The design of the mechanism was extremely simple - the tape was rewound from one reel of relatively large diameter to another without a drive shaft and pressure roller. During operation, the tape constantly tried to slide sideways, so when accessing external memory, a technician had to stand near the mechanism to control the movement of the tape. The recording density was so low that it was possible to visually read the recorded number or command by applying a special "development" - immersing the tape in a suspension of fine iron filings in gasoline. Gasoline quickly evaporated, and sawdust remained attracted to the magnetized sections of the tape. The standard program memory block contained up to 16 programs that could be changed. It was made on the only semiconductors at that time - cuprox (copper oxide) diodes. For the input and output of information, punched cards and well-mastered by that time electromechanical devices were used. Interesting design of RAM. It was performed on cathode ray tubes. Each category of the word was memorized in one of the tubes. The memory element was an electrostatic charge of one of the 2048 screen points. "1" and "0" were recorded with bipolar pulses. Recording and reading were performed by an electron beam. It should be noted that CRT memory turned out to be the most unreliable node and was subsequently replaced by a memory device based on ferrite cores. General control over the operation of the computer was carried out by an operator located at the central control panel. The console itself contained three rows of 43 indicators on neon lamps, allowing you to see three numbers, and a number of indicators for the address of the command being executed. In addition, there was a CRT on the remote control, which allows you to see the contents of any of the 43 bits of RAM. Toggle registers, located on the horizontal panel of the console, made it possible to enter binary codes of numbers into the computer and perform calculations in manual mode. How was the organization of calculations? There were no programming languages at that time. The computer was in fact an adding machine, allowing calculations to be made in strict accordance with the sequence of commands. As a result, a special caste of intermediaries was formed between the engineer formulating the problem and the computer - a new profession arose - a programmer. The programmer had to write a program - a sequence of commands executed by a computer. The command system contained the addresses of the two numbers involved in the operation and the address where the result should be written. To protect against failures and increase the likelihood of obtaining correct results, checksumming of the input information and double calculation were used. Already the first results of the operation of tube computers showed that the largest number of failures occurs during switching on. It took 8-10 hours to bring it to stable operation. For this reason, the computer never turned off. She worked 24 hours a day without days off and holidays. The operating shift consisted of 5-7 people. Each of the computer devices had hardware controls and diagnostics. In addition, there were test control programs. For an emergency call from home and the delivery of specialists in the event of complex failures, a car was on duty around the clock. Of course, such "colossi" could not be widely used. In total, 7 or 8 Strela computers were manufactured for the most important industries for the state. But a start had been made. The training of specialists in universities has begun. Specialized research institutes and factories began to be created. The process has started! Authors: E. Bronin, L. Kudryashova, I. Gorodetsky, Moscow
Traffic noise delays the growth of chicks
06.05.2024 Wireless speaker Samsung Music Frame HW-LS60D
06.05.2024 A New Way to Control and Manipulate Optical Signals
05.05.2024
▪ The boom in sales of fitness bracelets ▪ Genetic analogue of the transistor ▪ Portable charger for electric vehicles
▪ section of the site Consumer Electronics. Selection of articles ▪ article As a scout to a scout, I'll tell you. Popular expression ▪ Do humans have teeth the same as animals? Detailed answer ▪ headhunter article. Job description
Home page | Library | Articles | Website map | Site Reviews
www.diagram.com.ua |
See other articles Section 
Latest news of science and technology, new electronics:
All languages of this page