Computers of the 70s. Soviet computers: betrayed and forgotten. (Full version). Zero generation. Mechanical calculators

A personal computer (desktop or, increasingly, portable) has long become a familiar and integral part of the home interior. Gone are the days when friends and neighbors ran to the happy owner of a PC in the evenings, eager to join a new, hitherto unknown world, which is commonly called virtual. With the true heyday of the computer industry in the second half of the 90s of the last century, a computer for a home user became not only a replacement for a typewriter, but began to perform three important functions at once: communicative (Internet / local network access), developing (training) and entertaining (listening to music, watching movies, video games). Although, it is worth recognizing, the optimistic forecasts that used to be that the computer will help unleash the creative potential of a significant part of the population are not justified - the current user is more concerned about his own person, and he considers external events nothing more than an occasion for another note in his LiveJournal. Other worries agitated the minds of those who used one of the first personal computers on the planet in the 70s of the last century. It is today that many people turn on their PC to launch their favorite toy or hang out in a chat. After the Second World War, huge computers performed serious tasks related to scientific and military projects. It was still possible to imagine a small computer that fits on a desk in the late 60s - but why would ordinary people need one? It is no coincidence that in 1943 Thomas Watson of IBM said: "I think that there is a demand in the world for, say, five computers." And he was right! At that time, both demand and supply in the computer market were near zero. However, Watson did not want to see the prospect of the market (or did not try), just as representatives of the committee created by the Western Union Company, to which Alexander Bell unsuccessfully tried to sell a patent for his historical invention, did not see it in their time in the invention of the telephone. The committee's conclusion was damning: "Messrs. Hubbard and Bell want to install their 'telephones' in virtually every home or business establishment in our city. This idea is absurd in itself." Of course, personal computers were not welcome guests of ordinary private property owners. They found their first audience among enthusiasts (radio amateurs, programmers) and educational institutions. For the latter, for example, the very first microcomputer, Kenbak-1, was created. If we recall the history of computer construction, we will see that without the advent of transistors and microcircuits, the transition from computers that occupied several rooms, built on relays or lamps, to very small-sized computers (during the period we are considering, these were often called "microcomputers") could not have taken place. The ability to technologically create microchips led to the appearance of the first processors, and the now well-known company Intel turned out to be just in time, announcing on November 15, 1971 the release of its first i4004 processor.

Of course, one should not think that all microcomputers of the 70s were equipped with Intel processors. Some people did not have time to wait for the i4004, such as John Blankenbaker, the creator of Kenbak-1 (he "pulled out the name Kenbak" from the middle of the surname - Blaner). This computer can be considered the very first personal computer, although, introduced by Kenbak Corporation in September 1971, it used a TTL logic chip as a CPU, the clock frequency of which was approximately 1 MHz. There was also random access memory (RAM) with a capacity of 256 bytes. However, the Kenbak-1 didn't store information, didn't have an input/output (I/O) device, expansion options, a bus, a video card - most of what any "normal" PC needs. Kenbak-1 was a dead end branch in the microcomputer tree that flourished in the mid-70s. Although the Kenbak-1 cost only $750 (very cheap for those times), it was managed to be sold in the amount of approximately 40 pieces. Curiously, C.T.I. Educational bought the rights to his PC from Blankenbaker in order to then rename the Kenbak-1 to CTI 5050. However, for the Kenbak-1, as was customary at the time, a detailed manual ("Kenbak Coding Sheet") was written, with which those who wished could master the science of programming on this device. John Blankenbaker himself wrote programs for his brainchild, for example, a 3D tic-tac-toe toy.

In April 1972, Intel released the i8008, an 8-bit, 0.5 MHz processor that performed 0.06 million operations per second. The advent of a new powerful processor gave a significant impetus to the creation of more advanced microcomputers than the Kenbak-1. In 1973, the legendary Intellec-8, Micral and SHELBI-8H appeared. The "heart" of this trinity was the i8008 chip. The Intellec-8 was a whole series of microcomputers created, oddly enough to hear now, by Intel itself. The Intellec family (the full name sounded like The Intellec Microcomputer Development Systems) included the low-power Intellec-4 (also appeared in 1973, was assembled on the basis of the i4004 chip), the Intellec-4/40, the advanced Intellec-8/80 with the i8080 processor ( appeared in 1974, clocked at 2 MHz), as well as Intellec Series 2 MDS and Intellec Series 3 MDS. Moreover, in 1978, the German company Siemens legally (licensed the use of the i8080 chip) released an Intellec Series 2 MDS "clone" called SME (Siemens Microcomputer Entwicklungssystem). The Intellec-8 programming language, PL/M, was written by Gary Kildall, who worked at Intel as a programming consultant, as a result of his enthusiasm after working on the Intellec-8, which he got as part of his salary. PL/M was a simplified version of PL/I, the mainframe language. In 1974, Kildall introduced the de facto first PC operating system called CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers), which was the standard for personal computers until the early 1980s.

It is worth recognizing that the Intellec series did not have much success. In many ways, this was due to the high cost, for example, they asked for $2395 for the Intellec-8. Therefore, the manufacturers of the first PCs, first of all, tried to reduce the cost of production as much as possible. An ardent desire to reduce the price by any means forced individual manufacturers to come up with the idea of ​​a "computer-designer". That is, the user bought a set of parts, an assembly certificate, armed himself with patience, a soldering iron and ... paid two to three times less. Such was the SCELBI-8H computer (name taken from sc orientific, El electronic and Bi ological), which was sold for $565 (or $580 according to another source) by the American company SCELBI Computer Consulting. This marketing ploy attracted several hundred enthusiasts, but the success of the Americans ended there.

The Europeans did not lag behind the Americans. The Micral computer was created by the French company R2E (Réalisation et Etudes Electroniques). From the moment it went on sale in April until the end of 1973, Micral was sold in the amount of approximately five hundred pieces. This was not a bad result, since this microcomputer cost 8500 French francs. It was at this price that the I.N.R.A. (French National Institute for Agronomic Research), who, for financial reasons, could not purchase the famous Dec PDP-8, and therefore ordered a simpler computer, which turned out to be the Micral. After relative success at home, Micral was taken overseas - in 1974 at the National Computer Conference held in Chicago, it was demonstrated already with a program written in assembler. But the American market reacted coolly to the possibilities of Micral, and the cost of this microcomputer exceeded one thousand dollars. The Micral brand was lucky - it did not remain a memory of the 70s, like most others, but cheerfully stepped into the next decade. Of course, these were already other PCs. For example, the 1982 model Micral 9050 was assembled on i8086, i8089 or Z80 chips, had two 5-inch FDDs and a monochrome display (640x288 pixels).

In 1974, the most bizarre microcomputer for self-assemblers appeared - Mark 8. Radio amateurs learned about its existence from an advertisement on the cover of the July issue of Radio-Electronics magazine. The striking thing was that the Mark 8 was not even sold as a kit. First it was necessary to order a manual of 48 pages, and then all the other components. History says that out of more than seven thousand who ordered the manual, only a few dozen began to purchase parts for self-assembly (i8008 processor, motherboard, 256 bytes of memory, 16 toggle switches, etc.). It is difficult to say what the creator of the Mark 8, Jonathan Titus, was counting on - after all, his brainchild, among other things, did not have such the necessary permanent memory (ROM), which meant that the Mark 8 had to be reloaded every time the program instructions were turned on. However, the time was romantic then, and therefore even such an "under-computer" became known. Today, thousands of people are engaged in self-assembly. However, each computer assembled in such a handicraft way has no historical value, which is the “fault” of total standardization.

This standardization led to the development of computer engineering in the 70s. It was impossible to conquer the mass market without offering some unified solution that other manufacturers could repeat, which would eventually lead to a cheaper final product. In addition, such unification would put an end to the appearance of computers like the Mark 8. And such an almost perfect personal computer appeared in early 1975. It was named Altair 8800. This, of course, an outstanding PC of its time, was accompanied by a number of happy occasions, like the computer God himself favored "Altair" from the first days of its creation. The creator of the Altair 8800 was Ed Roberts, who was the president of the American company MITS Incorporated. Fate smiled at Roberts already when buying a batch of i8080 processors. Intel sold them for $300 a piece in small wholesale. But Roberts was able to find "defective" chips in Intel warehouses, which were sold to him for $75. These were fully functional processors, but with various defects on the case. Thus, it became possible to sell the future Altair 8800 for about $400 to those who wanted to build a computer themselves. The next happy event was ... the strike of the workers of the bankrupt railway agency "Railway Express". The first assembled Altair 8800 was sent to Popular Electronics CTO Leslie Solomon via Railway Express. But in the turmoil of those strike days, the precious parcel was lost. It would seem that the situation is not in favor of “Altair”. But no! The first version of the computer was very archaic, that is, its boards were connected by cables. And Roberts, forced to practically re-create the Altair 8800, suddenly came up with a fresh idea - to make a motherboard with sockets with a 100-pin connector, where expansion cards are installed. Altair's similar open architectural concept was originally called The Altair Bus and then the S-100 Bus. The Altair 8800 motherboard had 12 expansion slots, where the processor (yes, the processor was one of the cards at that time), memory, video card, floppy drive, printer, keyboard, monitor, etc. were connected. The success of the S-100 Bus was that components for it could be created by various component manufacturers, and the bus itself could be freely reproduced in their computers by third-party assemblers. A great contribution to the development of the S-100 Bus was made by George Morrow, who headed the S-100 Bus Standards Committee (at the end of 1983. The S-100 Bus has been standardized as an IEEE-696 bus). A real revolution in computer building began - Altair 8800 brought microcomputers out of the "underground". The short era of enthusiastic assemblers was coming to an end - they were replaced by manufacturing firms. Of course, at first the computer market was small, and "Altair", as we remember, was supplied in the form of a set of components. But the S-100 Bus showed that the future belongs to open universal platforms. The victory of the IBM PC platform in the 1980s clearly illustrated this judgment.

The Altair was followed in 1976 by the Imsai 8080 computer, built by William Millard of IMS Associates. It was not some new or other personal (home) computer, no, it was a copy of the Altair 8800. However, there were plenty of such "clones" using the S-100 Bus in the 70s. Among these are the NorthStar Horizon, which was one of the first PCs to come preloaded with floppy drives, Vector-1, Godbout/Compupro (based on the 16-bit 8086 chip), TEI, Wynchester, Sol-10, Sol-20, and The Compuduct. "Rainbow", which stood out with a 12-inch monitor. Altair 8800 gave new life PC software. Especially for Altair, Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote the Basic programming language. By the way, the MITS order was the first commercial order for the then-starting Microsoft. Since Basic required 4 kb of memory (the base configuration of the Altair 8800 had only 256 bytes of RAM, and a board with 1 kb of memory cost $97), a "Basic for the poor" was also created - Tiny Basic (literally "Tiny BASIC"), which even ran on 2 KB RAM. The standard operating system for microcomputers with the S-100 Bus was the mentioned CP/M.

As today, and ten, and twenty years ago, in the mid-70s, the processor market belonged not only to Intel. To build a PC, chips from other manufacturers were used: Motorola 6800, Rockwell 6502, MOS MSC6502 (all with a clock frequency of 1 MHz). The SWTPC microcomputer, introduced by the American company Southwest Technical Products Corporation in 1976, was built on the first processor. This type of PC was very popular - several thousand (if not more) copies were sold. A set of parts was cheap - $400. AIM 65 (1977) was assembled on the second chip, and Jolt on the third. This last microcomputer of the American company Microcomputer Associates was released in November 1975 for $249 (already assembled it cost $348). It had 512 bytes of expandable RAM (up to 4 kb), 1 kb ROM, and a terminal interface (TTY or EIA). In addition, Altair 680b from MITS worked on the Motorola 6800, but it was not very successful. If you look at photographs of personal computers released only in 1977 (CompuColor II, Apple II, TRS-80, Commodore PET), then we will see the main drawback of earlier PCs - the lack of a normal screen that would become a link between the processes taking place inside the computer, and by the end user. Independent programming (often - entering instructions at each start due to the lack of permanent memory) using toggle switches and LEDs could not last long. The computing power of the PC grew every year, not only new productive processors appeared, but also other significant devices for personal computers: 5-inch floppy disks (1976), printers (in 1977 Siemens offered an inkjet printer specifically for PCs) and, of course , monitors. All this was done by PC powerful force capable of replacing the old tools of production. At the same time, Homo Ludens ("Man playing") woke up in Homo Sapiens, and large displays came in handy for fans of virtual games. Needless to say, the next step was software, with the help of which it was possible not only to calculate, but also to draw complex pictures (including color ones), type texts, keep accounts, etc. So personal computers of the first half of the 70s with their toggle-lamp interface were doomed. However, their appearance, their formation and development over the course of several years was of great importance for the next generation of PCs. And the microcomputers themselves mentioned in this article still live full life, being in the hands of enthusiasts who have not died out even today. Therefore, it is impossible to consider these PCs as "fossils" or "museum exhibits", rather, today they are something like a living coelacanth, which has been moving its fins in the ocean depths for tens of millions of years. So the copies of the Altair 8800 or Mark 8 that have survived to this day are still blinking LEDs, illuminating someone's life with a joyful light, filling it with meaning and meaning.

In the short history of computer technology, there are several periods based on what basic elements were used to make a computer. The time division into periods is to a certain extent conditional, because when the old generation computers were still being produced, the new generation was beginning to gain momentum.

There are general trends in the development of computers:

1. Increasing the number of elements per unit area.
2. Downsizing.
3. Increasing the speed of work.
4. Cost reduction.
5. The development of software, on the one hand, and the simplification, standardization of hardware, on the other.

Zero generation. Mechanical calculators

The prerequisites for the emergence of a computer were probably formed since ancient times, but often the review begins with Blaise Pascal's calculating machine, which he designed in 1642. This machine could only perform addition and subtraction operations. In the 70s of the same century, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz built a machine that could perform not only addition and subtraction, but also multiplication and division.

In the 19th century, Charles Babbage made a great contribution to the future development of computer technology. His difference engine, although it could only add and subtract, but the results of the calculations were squeezed out on a copper plate (an analogue of information input-output means). Later described by Babbage analytical engine had to perform all four basic mathematical operations. The analytical engine consisted of a memory, a computing mechanism and input-output devices (just like a computer ... only mechanical), and most importantly, it could execute various algorithms (depending on which punched card was in the input device). The programs for the Analytical Engine were written by Ada Lovelace (the first known programmer). In fact, the machine was not realized at that time due to technical and financial difficulties. The world lagged behind Babbage's train of thought.

In the 20th century, automatic calculating machines were designed by Konrad Zus, George Stibits, John Atanasov. The machine of the latter included, one might say, a prototype RAM, and also used binary arithmetic. Howard Aiken's Relay Computers: Mark I and Mark II were similar in architecture to Babbage's Analytical Engine.

First generation. Vacuum tube computers (194x-1955)

Speed: several tens of thousands of operations per second.

Peculiarities:

• Since the lamps are of substantial size and there are thousands of them, the machines were enormous.
• Since there are many lamps and they tend to burn out, the computer was often idle due to the search and replacement of a failed lamp.
• Lamps emit a large number of heat, therefore, computers require special powerful cooling systems.

Computer examples:

Colossus- a secret development of the British government (Alan Turing took part in the development). This is the world's first electronic computer, although it did not have an impact on the development of computer technology (due to its secrecy), but helped win the Second World War.

eniac. Creators: John Mowshley and J. Presper Eckert. Machine weight 30 tons. Cons: use of the decimal number system; lots of switches and cables.

Edsak. Achievement: the first machine with a program in memory.

Whirlwind I. Words of small length, work in real time.

Computer 701(and subsequent models) from IBM. The first computer to lead the market for 10 years.

Second generation. Transistor computers (1955-1965)

Speed: hundreds of thousands of operations per second.

Compared with vacuum tubes, the use of transistors has made it possible to reduce the size of computing equipment, increase reliability, increase the speed of operation (up to 1 million operations per second) and almost nullify heat transfer. Methods for storing information are developing: magnetic tape is widely used, later disks appear. During this period, the first computer game was seen.

First transistorized computer TX became the prototype for branch computers PDP DEC firms, which can be considered the founders of the computer industry, because the phenomenon of mass sale of cars appeared. DEC releases the first minicomputer (cabinet sized). Fixed the appearance of the display.

IBM is also actively working, already producing transistorized versions of its computers.

Computer 6600 CDC, which Seymour Cray developed, had an advantage over other computers of the time - this is its speed, which was achieved through parallel execution of instructions.

Third generation. Integrated circuit computers (1965-1980)

Speed: millions of operations per second.

An integrated circuit is an electronic circuit etched onto a silicon chip. Thousands of transistors fit in such a circuit. Consequently, computers of this generation were forced to become even smaller, faster and cheaper.

The latter property allowed computers to penetrate into various areas of human activity. Because of this, they became more specialized (i.e., there were different computers for different tasks).

There was a problem of compatibility of produced models (software for them). For the first time, IBM paid great attention to compatibility.

Multiprogramming was implemented (this is when there are several executable programs in memory, which has the effect of saving processor resources).

Further development of minicomputers ( PDP-11).

Fourth generation. Computers on large (and ultra-large) integrated circuits (1980-…)

Speed: hundreds of millions of operations per second.

It became possible to place on one chip not one integrated circuit, but thousands. The speed of computers has increased significantly. Computers continued to get cheaper and even individuals were now buying them, which heralded the so-called era of personal computers. But the individual was most often not professional programmer. Consequently, software development was required so that the individual could use the computer in accordance with his imagination.

In the late 70s and early 80s, the computer was popular Apple, designed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Later, the personal computer was put into mass production. IBM PC on an Intel processor.

Later, superscalar processors appeared, capable of executing many instructions simultaneously, as well as 64-bit computers.

Fifth generation?

This includes the failed project of Japan (well described on Wikipedia). Other sources refer to the fifth generation of computers the so-called invisible computers (microcontrollers built into household appliances, cars, etc.) or pocket computers.

There is also an opinion that the fifth generation should include computers with dual-core processors. From this point of view, the fifth generation began around 2005.

Memories of the misuse of materials for the maintenance of ES computers in the 70s

After the institute, I was distributed as a "young specialist" for three years at the GKES computer center (1977-1979). Recently, I found several photos on the net that painfully reminded me of the environment in which I began my career.
For those who associate the concept of a computer with a laptop, I note that, for example, the EC 1040 computer, on which I then worked. occupied the space of a larger physical education school hall.

ES computers are a line of electronic computers (1020, 1030, 1040, etc.), which were developed by specialists from the socialist camp by copying the IBM S / 360 mainframe architecture.

Soviet designers were equal to this computer when creating the Unified Series.

The misuse of materials for the maintenance of these "monsters" is curious.
Punch cards: it was convenient to use for various archives, file cabinets, etc., it was fashionable, for example, to learn from them in the subway foreign languages, sorting through cards with words.

Magnetic disks: it was very difficult to find a use, but in the end, the specialists learned how to make UHF antennas out of them.
I also saw how they were used to fence plantings in garden plots.

Comparative sizes of disks for EU computers and modern media.

Magnetic tapes: everything is simple here, I personally cut the tape in half - lengthwise into two parts, for further use on tape recorders. True, some design changes had to be made to the tape drive mechanism of the tape recorder.

Still was perforated paper for printers. Basically, it was used as a wrapper for fatty foods.
And it was fun to print different pictures on it.

Well, about the use of alcohol for wiping, probably no need to explain to anyone ...

Until the end of the 1980s, only their own, original Soviet-designed home PCs were mass-produced in the USSR. But by 1989, economic conditions had changed. In particular, it became possible to import imported computers and components without any problems, which was even difficult to imagine back in the mid-80s. That is, imported PCs and components, of course, were purchased before - for example, the same MSX computers for the education sector (not to mention different PCs from the socialist countries - Bulgaria, the GDR, Hungary, etc.), but this was done exclusively centrally and with corresponding bureaucratic obstacles. So, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before the final opening of borders for imported goods and the complete destruction of the domestic mass electronics industry, there was a short but interesting period that can be briefly and quite accurately called the “clone invasion”.

It all started like this. Somewhere in 1989-1990, in large cities, strange computers with incomprehensible and unknown names like “Magic”, “Delta”, “Byte”, “Synthesis”, etc., often written in Latin, suddenly began to appear on the shelves of radio stores. letters. Moreover, they were often in very compact, almost toy-like cases, uncharacteristic for Soviet PCs, and with the same miniature keyboard, dotted with English inscriptions. And they cost much more than domestic ones - from about 1000 to 1500 rubles. At first, few people understood what it was and why: there were no programs for them in stores, no information in popular magazines either. Many thought that these were some kind of imported models, but it quickly became clear that these were Soviet-made computers, but fully compatible with the well-known English PC ZX Spectrum. However, he was known, as they say, only in narrow circles, but most computer enthusiasts, at best, only heard or read something about him, but never saw him - it was much more difficult to meet the original ZX Spectrum live in the USSR than, for example, such foreign PCs as Atari, Commodore 64 or MSX. Yes, and I didn’t really want to meet - Spectrum was clearly inferior in almost all important parameters to Atari, MSX, and some Soviet home PCs. It did not have an advanced 16-bit processor, like BK-0010/0011 or IBM-compatible "Search", "Assistant", etc., did not have high-quality graphics and hardware sound, like "Vector", was clearly inferior to many PCs in terms of parts of the keyboard and connectors. Nevertheless, the number of "Spectrum"-compatible Soviet models grew like a snowball, and in the early 90s, literally dozens of factories were already producing them, greatly pushing the original domestic developments into the background.

Despite the very different appearance - from many rough semi-handicraft models to very elegant ones, in the spirit of the best foreign PCs, Magicians, Quorums, Hobbits, Bytes, etc., almost all Spectrum analogues were how two drops of water are similar in characteristics: Z80 processor (as a rule, not even the original Z80 from Zilog itself, but some German, Korean, Japanese, Russian (see below), etc. analogue) with a frequency of 3, 5 MHz, 48 or 64 KB of RAM (or 128 for ZX Spectrum 128K "clones", but there were many times fewer of them), 16 KB of ROM (32 KB for 128K clones), attribute graphics 256 × 192 pixels, etc.

When cassettes with games for Spectrum appeared in stores, the main advantage of these PCs quickly became clear - a huge number of ready-made, developed during the 80s, foreign game programs, in terms of quantity and quality of which no other models could compete with it, produced in the USSR.

Rice. 97. KR1858VM1 - a variant from another manufacturer (Kvazar plant)

Rice. 98. KR1858VM1 - a domestic analogue (manufactured by the Angstrem plant) of the popular foreign 8-bit Zilog Z80A processor; 8400 transistors (KR1858VM1 has been produced since about 1991 especially for Spectrum-compatible home PCs and telephone callers that were popular at that time)

Rice. 99. T34VM1 - domestic "clone" of the Z80A processor (similar to K1858VM1), designed specifically for use in domestic ZX Spectrum-compatible PCs of the early 90s. The first batches were released in 1991

Actually, we can say that the mass production of home PCs in our country actually began with Spectrum clones - before that, many Soviet models were often produced only a few thousand a year each, and Spectrum-compatible ones were made in five to seven years of industrial production , apparently, on the order of a million or even more! Therefore, for many inhabitants of the USSR, paradoxically, acquaintance with home computers did not begin with purely Soviet PCs, but with analogues of the foreign Spectrum (however, by the beginning of the 1990s, not so few original domestic home PCs were also produced - approximately no less than 500,000). Famous examples of serial models of the Soviet Sinclairs: Byte, Delta, Orel, Quorum, Magic, Symbol, Ural, Kvant, Impulse, Santaka, " Forum", "Gamma", "Robik", "Synthesis" and many others.

Rice. 100. "Delta-CA" - one of the closest in circuitry to the original ZX Spectrum Soviet counterparts. In this instance, a "film" keyboard is installed (structurally similar to modern keyboards)

Rice. 101. "Delta-SA" inside

Rice. 102 "Delta-SA": perhaps the most complex "clone" of the ZX Spectrum in terms of circuitry - 75 chips, separate memory fields (32 Kb chips of 32 or 64 Kbps + 16 Kb chips of 16 Kbps)

"Spectrum" as an amateur PC

In the late 1980s, mainly in the years before their mass industrial production was established, Spectrum-compatible were also very popular for self-assembly by radio amateurs, who often made good money on their handicraft production and subsequent sale. As an amateur PC, "Spektr", of course, surpassed the main Soviet models - "Radio-86RK" and "Specialist" - in processor speed and the presence of multi-color graphics (the "RK" had no graphics and color at all, and the standard "Specialist" graphics monochrome), not to mention the software. The only drawback was the need to find and purchase an imported processor, but by the end of the 1980s it could already be bought without much difficulty in large cities on the radio markets (as well as other specific assembly components - printed circuit boards, ROM, etc.), and then in specialized stores. In addition, several small businesses in the first half of the 90s offered circuits, parts and entire kits for assembling very advanced Spectrum variants with significantly expanded memory, increased clock speed and improved graphics capabilities - such as the Pentagon, Scorpion , "Profi" and "ATM-turbo".

Although the first Spectrum-compatible PC circuits appeared back in 1986 (simultaneously with Radio-86RK and a year earlier than Specialist), it was certainly less known to radio amateurs, since no information was yet available in magazines and other press published. Yes, and with the acquisition of components were difficult. The distribution of Spectrum and programs for it went spontaneously and almost underground, through radio markets and "advanced" familiar radio amateurs.

However, from the very beginning of the 90s, literature on Spectrum topics began to appear massively: descriptions of games, PC devices, programming in assembler and BASIC, printed and electronic magazines, etc., which significantly spurred interest in such PCs both among radio amateurs and in larger circles.

In the 90s, domestic programmers made a great contribution to the Spectrum software treasury: they created several successful disk operating systems (for example, IS-DOS) and a huge variety of system, application, game, training and demonstration programs for this class of PC .

ZX Spectrum features

Rice. 103. ZX Spectrum +3: The last and most functional model of the Spectrum brand, produced by Amstrad from 1987 to 1990. Unlike the first, classic, ZX Spectrum 16K/48K, this model is a full-fledged PC with decent memory parameters (128 KB of RAM and 64 KB of ROM), a good membrane keyboard (58 buttons), a full set of connectors (including a printer output and two for joysticks), support for the popular CP / M OS, and most importantly - a built-in 3-inch drive

Rice. 104. Like many other gaming PCs, the latest Sinclairs finally have built-in joystick connectors.

Rice. 105. ZX Spectrum +3, unlike previous branded Spectrums, has a full set of connectors: there is an output to the second disk drive, a system bus, a printer output and even a serial port (aka MIDI) on the back.

Rice. 106. Despite radically better parameters, scheme +3 simpler circuit 48K - only 20 microcircuits instead of 26, and very modern components at that time were used: ROM 32 Kbytes each (2 pcs), RAM 64 Kbytes each (also only 2 microcircuits!), Specialized BMK (ULA), disk drive controller, sound generator with parallel port, etc.

What was the original ZX Spectrum, and why did it occupy such an exclusive position in our market in the early 90s? This model appeared in 1982 in the UK, and it was made by the firm of the famous inventor-businessman Clive Sinclair, who, for example, launched the production of pocket calculators and pocket TVs for the first time in the world. Spectrum was originally created as the cheapest home PC with color graphics support. To reduce the cost, it used even the simplest keyboard of only 40 buttons, each of which carried up to six functions, including the ability to enter several BASIC operators. Imagine, out of forty keys, thirty-six were needed to enter numbers and English letters, and only FOUR keys were used for other purposes - such as space, enter, shift, etc. As a result of such savings, there was not even a separate erase button. Nevertheless, the versatility of each key was presented by the creators of Spectrum even as a virtue! But the most unique thing about Spectrum is its graphics mode. Firstly, it is only one, unlike most other PCs of those years, which usually had several video modes (up to a dozen!), Secondly, the "wizards" of Clive Sinclair who created this PC managed to develop a video system that displays 15-color graphics 256×192 resolution is high enough for gaming and requires less than 7 KB of video memory. Let me remind you that most of the then PC models had video memory of about 16 KB, that is, the Sinclair developers saved as much as 9 KB. What did it give them? Firstly, it became possible to release the cheapest version of Spectrum, which has only 16 KB of RAM (including 6.75 KB of video memory), which no one could compete with in terms of cost. Secondly, as time has shown, they managed to create a very cheap and very popular computer in Europe, which for many years competed with seemingly much more advanced machines like the same Atari, MSX, Amstrad, Acorn, Commodore and others. . However, such tricks with the amount of video memory do not go unnoticed - nevertheless, the possibilities of color graphics of the Spectrum turned out to be very limited. It is simply impossible to reproduce detailed multi-color graphics on it. Spectrum uses the so-called attribute system for working with color, which by and large cannot be attributed to real color graphics at all - this is actually a "pseudo-color" graphics. The entire computer screen is divided into character spaces 8 by 8 pixels in size, and for each character space in a separate area of ​​the video memory, an attribute byte is written containing three bits of the image color that determine the color of the dots, which correspond to ones in the main video memory, three bits for the background color (zeroes in the video memory ), one high brightness flag bit and one flicker flag bit. Thus, for each of the 768 character spaces of the screen (24 rows of 32 character spaces), you can choose one of eight image colors, one of eight background colors, set normal or high brightness, and set automatic flicker at a frequency of several hertz. So it turns out 15 available colors (high-brightness black looks the same as normal-brightness black), but there is no question of any arbitrary color assignment for any point, as is possible on many other PCs - in each familiarity out of 64 dots can only be used two colors. In general, despite the very low color resolution, such a screen organization allows you to draw rather complex and multi-color static splash pictures, display colored text on a colored background or monochrome graphic objects on a simple colored background, create interesting color effects such as fast colored flickering of objects or colored “overflows”, etc., but, of course, does not give such freedom in choosing colors, as on PCs with video game processors such as MSX, Commodore 64 or Atari, and, even more so, as on PCs with arbitrary multi-color graphics like “ Vector-06Ts" or Amstrad CPC. In practice, most games for the Spectrum draw either one-color objects on a black background (but each object can have its own color), or black objects on a simple color background, or even purely monochrome graphics using only two colors. At the same time, unlike a number of other PCs, Spectrum does not have hardware support for vertical and horizontal screen shift - this is done purely in software, significantly loading the processor in games.

It also implements programmatically work with sprites - moving objects superimposed on the background image, and the software overlay of sprites on a non-uniform background usually requires not only a significant processor load, but also increased memory consumption, since it involves storing in RAM not only the sprites themselves, but also so-called sprite shadow masks, which are the same size as the sprites themselves. Actually, here we come to the main advantage of Spectrum's ultra-economical video system - the size of its video memory is so small that even a completely ordinary 8-bit Z80 microprocessor can easily draw any game graphics with a very good speed purely in software, without the participation of any hardware accelerators. . In a few tens of milliseconds, the processor can move the background in the right direction, and superimpose moving objects on a complex background, and copy the resulting image from the buffer to the screen, and output sound effects to the speaker, and much more. At the same time, we note once again that the Spectrum processor did not at all have particularly outstanding performance - most foreign models had no weaker microprocessors. Therefore, to create good games from the programmer, a very skillful command of assembler and a very accurate calculation of time intervals were required.

An interesting feature of the Sinclair was a very wide border - a frame between the image and the borders of the screen, due to which, on the one hand, the usable screen area noticeably decreased, which seemed to be bad, but, on the other hand, the image points became smaller, and the resolution the screen seemed higher than it really is, and the clarity of the image improved.

In general, oddly enough, the Spectrum, which does not have any special hardware support for gaming graphics, by the end of the 1980s turned out to be one of the most popular gaming computers in the UK and throughout Europe, including the East. However, the main reasons for this are not at all special technical advantages, but cheapness and availability (including due to the many clones produced in different countries), plus the European origin of the PC and the rather wide popularity of its original manufacturer, Clive Sinclair. In general, if we compare Spectrum with other inexpensive popular gaming PCs, then, on the one hand, a certain primitiveness and monotony of graphics in many games, especially with a monochrome playing field, is striking - of course, you usually expect something more beautiful from a gaming PC and bright. On the other hand, the quality of games on the Spectrum is, on average, very high, and in terms of complexity they often even outstrip analogues on computers with advanced hardware support for games. An indelible impression is also made by the incredible number of games available on this PC - there are thousands of them, of any genre and for every taste. Judging by the number of games, the Spectrum was certainly one of the most popular and successful gaming PCs.

The relatively high resolution can be attributed to the great advantage of the Spectrum game graphics: after all, 256 × 192 pixels is much clearer and better than that typical for many other game models, such as Commodore 64, Atari and Amstrad , low resolution of the order of 160 × 200 pixels and less with a rather rough, strongly stepped image. However, for more serious tasks, the resolution of 256 × 192 is already clearly not enough, which limited the use of Sinclairs mainly to games and made them unsuitable even for simple text editing with subsequent printing (the original Spectrum and many analogues did not have any parallel or serial ports, which did not allow direct connection of standard printers - this required an additional controller). Among other features of the PC, one can note the absence of a normal sound generator in the classic ZX Spectrum 48K model, as in the vast majority of Soviet analogues - their sound was played by software, with a heavy load on the processor. True, the newer model ZX Spectrum 128 already had a three-channel sound generator on the classic AY-3-8912 chip or similar, and many Spectrum games since 1986 supported it. In our country, a significant part of the owners of Spectrum-compatible models connected such sound generators to their PCs on their own or with someone's help and also received normal sound in games and demos.

Rice. 107. PK "Pik": one of the many Soviet models compatible with the ZX Spectrum 48K

Rice. 108. PC "Peak": thanks to the use of a special microcircuit BMK, which replaces dozens of small logic cases, the entire PC is assembled on only 18 microcircuits

Rice. 109. PC "Raton-9003" - one of dozens of "Spectrum"-compatible PCs of the early 90s; the keyboard is slightly wider than the original ZX Spectrum 48K (47 buttons instead of 40)

Rice. 110. "Eton" - a compact "Spectrum"-compatible PC (case width less than 30 cm) with a simple membrane keyboard

In favor of Soviet clone manufacturers, you can see that many domestic models were still noticeably improved versions of Spectrum - very often a more convenient keyboard with up to 85 keys was used, which had additional cursor control buttons, a separate numeric field, etc.; unlike the original, our models usually had joystick connectors immediately; many were equipped with printer connectors; some models had advanced graphics capabilities, smoothing out the characteristic flaws in the organization of the Spectrum screen, as well as a built-in drive controller, supported not only purely Spectrum operating systems like TR-DOS, but also the standard CP / M OS for 8-bit PCs, which had huge software library.

Since all analogues of the Spectrum were not its complete copies, but only “imitated” the work of the Spectrum hardware, and the specific circuits of these PCs were very different and very numerous, almost all domestic “clones” had some kind of incompatibility with the original ZX Spectrum - both software (not all games and demos worked, or worked incorrectly or not quite correctly), and hardware (great difficulties or the complete impossibility of connecting "proprietary" peripherals from Spectrum). Compatibility was especially worsened by any changes in the ROM that were made for many models: for example, to support the Russian language in BASIC or fix errors in the "native" interpreter. However, for most popular models, the level of compatibility for games was quite high - they ran about 80–90% or more of the original programs, and we had practically no proprietary peripherals for sale - usually domestic developments were used as controllers for disk drives and external interfaces , created taking into account the features of the Soviet analogues of the Spectrum. To improve compatibility, some models used a technique with two switchable ROMs: a standard ROM from the proprietary ZX Spectrum was used for games, and a Russified ROM was connected to support the Russian language in BASIC, etc.

Why Spectrum?

Why did Spectrum become the main standard for Soviet home PCs in the first half of the 1990s? The main reason that made it possible to release fully compatible domestic analogues at all was the relative simplicity of the architecture (only one video mode, lack of hardware sprites, character generator, scrolling, sound synthesizer, etc.), which made it possible to accurately simulate the Spectrum on a conventional Soviet element base . At the same time, it should be noted that our analogues, as a rule, were based on amateur circuits of Spectrum-compatible PCs developed in the second half of the 80s, and these circuits were not an exact copy of the Spectrum circuit, since it was generally unknown in details - in the original PC, to reduce the cost of production, instead of dozens of separate logic chips, one specialized ULA chip was used, hiding all the specific logic of the PC. Therefore, the authors of Spectrum-compatible computers did not copy the original scheme at all, but looked for their own solutions that only imitated the operation of the prototype in accordance with known external specifications - such as memory allocation, screen organization and assignment of control ports. Usually, Soviet analogues contained about 45–60 microcircuits (up to a maximum of 80), which made them quite simple and cheap to manufacture, and all the chips, except for the processor, were produced by the domestic industry. And since 1991, during the Spectrum boom, we began production of our own processors, fully compatible with the Z80 (KR1858VM1, aka T34VM1), and specialized BMK microcircuits (KA1515XM1-216, T34VG1, etc.), which allowed, as in original, place almost the entire circuit on one chip and reduce the number of microcircuits in the minimum version to 12 (the original ZX Spectrum was assembled on 26 microcircuits, 16 of them were RAM microcircuits). At the same time, Spectrum-compatible computers were still not cheap - about 1000-1500 rubles in Soviet prices. So, apparently, another important reason for such a love of our electronic factories for these PCs was their high profitability (at least at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s). Let me remind you that domestic PCs were usually noticeably cheaper even with much greater complexity - for example, Vector-06Ts was sold for 750 rubles with the number of chips from 83 to 97. The great advantage of Spectrum from the point of view of the manufacturer, and even more so the consumer, was the presence a huge number of ready-made programs for it, completely relieving manufacturers of the hassle associated with the creation and distribution of "software".

In general, in the early 90s, Spectrum-compatible PCs on the home computer market essentially played the role of IBM-compatible PCs on the professional market - that is, they were practically the de facto standard. For them, it was possible to purchase hundreds and thousands of programs of a fairly high level, developed mainly by European programmers in conditions of serious competition with other home PCs and game consoles. At the same time, purely domestic PCs were much inferior to Spectrum in terms of the number of available programs - in fact, by 10–20 or more times, which was caused, first of all, by a dozen times smaller production volume of our PCs. Yes, and in terms of the quality of the programs, Spectrum certainly won, since the software market for home PCs was almost not developed in our country, there was practically no competition among Soviet programmers, and in general most programs, especially games, were not created by professional programmers, artists and musicians at all , and by ordinary amateurs - the owners of the corresponding PCs (however, this was partly true for many foreign PCs). A more or less comparable quantity and quality of programs and games existed, perhaps, only for BK-0010/0011 and Vector-06Ts, but they were also an order of magnitude inferior to Sinclair.

Answering the question why, nevertheless, it was the foreign Spectrum that became the basis of such a “standard” for home PCs, it should also be noted that there was nothing unusual in the production of analogues of some foreign computers by our factories - this had already happened more than once before Spectrum ”, as is the case with numerous Soviet models, to one degree or another compatible with computers from American firms DEC, HP, Wang, Apple and, of course, IBM-compatible PCs, which by this time our industry had already produced more than a dozen types. Moreover, copying foreign developments, as in the case of Spectrum, was always justified by the fact that it was possible to reduce the time and money spent on creating programs by taking ready-made foreign ones. In addition, by the beginning of the 90s, new market principles had already begun to work, quite far from the Soviet idealistic ideas that only the best and most modern should be produced. As you know, in market conditions, the main thing is not to develop and produce, but to sell, therefore, often the market leaders are not the best products at all, but those that are more actively advertised and promoted and that allow you to get the most profit. This is clearly seen in the example of the Spectrum, which was far from the best home PC of the 1980s, but was produced in various modifications for almost 10 years and was one of the most popular in Europe. Similar market mechanisms worked for us as well - a fairly outdated and highly controversial "foreigner" ZX Spectrum with a huge library of ready-made programs, relatively simple and cheap to manufacture, but with a high retail price and a certain touch of prestige, like any foreign equipment of that time, turned out to be more profitable for our factories than even much more advanced Soviet developments.

Invasion of the Clones 2: IBM Compatible

In the late 1980s, the production of various IBM-compatible professional computers based on the Soviet element base was already in full swing in the USSR, but they were very expensive - about the price of a good car, so there was no talk of any of their mass home use. But by the beginning of the 1990s, about a dozen Soviet enterprises had mastered the production of rather interesting versions of simplified IBM-compatible computers, quite suitable for home use. Let me remind you that IBM PC computers were released in 1981, and the more famous and classic IBM PC / XT model was released in 1983. PCs compatible with them, as well as expansion cards and peripherals, were produced by many hundreds of companies around the world, as a result of which, since the mid-80s, IBM-compatible PCs have become the undisputed leaders in the professional PC market and, in fact, by the beginning of the 90s have become the only global standard . As for home computers, their leadership was not so unconditional, because in terms of their graphic and sound capabilities, and in terms of cost, they were more suitable for work than for entertainment. That is, by the end of the 80s, most IBM-compatible PCs were still quite expensive - from about $ 1000 complete with a color monitor - and at the same time, very often they were clearly inferior to cheaper home computers both in terms of graphics and sound. However, there were still very, very many game programs for them, and they were very, very interesting, especially on PCs with normal multi-color EGA or VGA video cards. On the other hand, as a PC for work, all IBM-compatible ones were good - a fairly large amount of RAM, the standard availability of disk drives and hard drives, a good processor speed, a decent quality monitor, the ability to expand and change the configuration, a multi-key comfortable keyboard and, most importantly, a huge range of business applications made them an excellent choice for any serious PC application. True, many cheap home PCs with a floppy drive also had close capabilities for simple business use - they also allowed you to successfully work with texts, tables, databases, graphics, etc., although in terms of processor power, RAM and disk memory , the amount of good professional software was still inferior to IBM-compatible ones.

"Search"

Rice. 112. "Search" - perhaps the most famous and most massive of inexpensive Soviet IBM-compatible PCs. Features a single board design with a very compact, slim and stylish package

Rice. 113. "Search" in an ordinary home kit with a power supply, color monitor, floppy drive and three additional modules: game (for connecting joysticks), floppy drive controller and RAM expansion

Perhaps the most famous of the inexpensive domestic PCs compatible with the IBM PC was the computer developed in 1987 (chief developer Yuri Rol) and mass-produced since 1989 at the Kiev Research and Production Association Electronmash. "Search", whose description and advertising has repeatedly appeared in the popular large-circulation magazines Science and Life, Radio, etc. The main goal of the Poisk designers was to create the simplest and cheapest analogue of the IBM PC / XT with a minimum set of functions, but with the possibility of expanding them with additional modules. The Soviet 16-bit (but with an 8-bit external data bus) K1810VM88 microprocessor (manufactured by the Kyiv Kvazar plant) was used as a processor, operating at a clock frequency of 5 MHz, - complete analogue Intel 8088 used in the IBM PC/XT.

Rice. 114. KM1810VM88 - a single-chip 16-bit microprocessor (produced since 1984), a complete analogue of Intel 8088, 29000 transistors; used mainly in various Soviet IBM-compatible PCs (Poisk, MK-88, etc.)

Rice. 115. KR1810VM88 - a cheaper version of KM1810VM88 (plastic case, non-gold plated leads)

The first version of "Search" had 128 KB of RAM and 8 KB of ROM with a basic input-output system (BIOS). In later modifications, the base RAM was expanded to 512 KB. Only a tape recorder and a TV could be connected directly to a PC: in the “Search” there was no drive controller, no connectors for joysticks, or even parallel or serial ports for connecting a printer, mouse or other devices - all this became available only after purchase and connection expansion modules, among which were also additional memory - 256 or 512 KB of RAM, cartridges with programs in ROM, hard disk controllers, a sound card and others. The computer has 4 connectors for such modules, inserted from above parallel to each other. In this respect, it was similar to such classic PCs as the Apple II and IBM PC. All programs, including BASIC, were loaded from a tape recorder or disk drive, if available. Strictly speaking, a computer became IBM-compatible in the usual sense only after acquiring and connecting a drive controller and the drives themselves, as well as a memory expansion module, after which it could already work normally with the MS-DOS operating system and run DOS programs. Moreover, compatibility was still incomplete, since to simplify the design, some of the hardware functions were performed by the CPU software. In particular, "Search" did not have a separate keyboard controller chip, like the IBM PC, and also did not have a real text screen mode - it was simulated programmatically in graphics mode. In general, those programs that used the standard BIOS functions to work with the keyboard and screen functioned normally on Poisk, although somewhat slower than on the original IBM PC / XT. But programs that access the hardware directly, bypassing the BIOS, required serious adaptation. In terms of graphics capabilities, the Poisk video controller corresponded to the CGA standard, only, as already mentioned, there was no real text mode and there was no separate video memory - 32 KB from the main RAM were used as it. So in terms of graphics, Poisk, like many IBM-compatible PCs of that time equipped with CGA adapters, was in many ways inferior to other domestic PCs that had support for color graphics, including in the gaming field. On the other hand, IBM-compatible PCs were designed primarily for work, not play. And in this sense, "Search" was quite a good option, because with a disk drive it allowed you to run a lot of programs for PC: operating systems up to early versions of Windows, text editors, databases, spreadsheets, graphic editors, computer-aided design systems, programming languages, educational programs and many others. There were also enough games, and very good ones.

Rice. 116. "Search" is equipped with an 88-button keyboard - this is less than the usual keyboards of IBM-compatible PCs, but enough for comfortable work; in addition, the quality of the keyboard is high (it is a modern film type); on top of the case there are also 4 slots for additional devices (they are not compatible with the ISA slots on the IBM PC)

Rice. 117. All the main electronics of Poisk fit on one board and only 80 microcircuits (Assistant-128 has 155 of them on 4 boards!). However, the simplicity of the circuit was achieved mainly due to a strong reduction in the capabilities of the PC: in the basic configuration, Poisk has only 128 KB of RAM and 8 KB of ROM, its video controller does not have a real text mode (it is simulated programmatically in graphics mode), the PC does not have built-in printer interfaces , mice, joysticks, etc.

Rice. 118. Film contacts of the "Search" keyboard are absolutely similar to modern

Rice. 119. The design of the pushers of the "Search" keyboard buttons

Rice. 120. Mouse, specially produced for the "Search" (however, an additional adapter was required to connect it - there was no serial port in the basic PC design)

Rice. 121. Mouse for "Search": bottom view

Rice. 122. Behind the "Search" there are only a few simple connectors for connecting a tape recorder and a TV / monitor, the rest of the devices were supposed to be connected through additionally purchased adapters inserted into 4 expansion connectors

Rice. 123. Scheme for connecting additional adapters and peripheral devices to the Poisk PC

The developers of Poisk managed to create an IBM-compatible PC with a uniquely simple design - on just one board and only 80 chips, and without using any particularly rare, expensive or specialized chips. For comparison, only a standard CGA video card (whose functions were simulated in the "Search" by hardware and software on the main board) contained about 70 microcircuits, and the video controller and RAM board for "Assistant-128" was assembled on 83 microcircuits (and besides it in "Assistant" had three more (!) boards with microcircuits). That is, even with the use of a specialized video controller chip (6845 in the original CGA or K1809VG6 in Soviet counterparts like Assistant), the number of chips in the CGA video adapter alone was almost equal to the number of chips in the entire Poisk circuit, which included both the video adapter and the processor unit, and RAM, and ROM, and different controllers. From here it becomes more understandable why the creators of "Search" went for such a significant hardware incompatibility with the original IBM PC - otherwise the complexity and cost of a PC could increase by 2-3 times, that is, there was no question of any simple, cheap and mass analogue of the PC would. However, let's not forget that this simplicity of the "Search" is partly due to the absence of many of the usual interfaces that were implemented on additional modules.

In general, the computer turned out to be very decent: nice appearance, a good 88-key keyboard, 4 slots for expansion modules, quite powerful hardware for a home PC. The price of "Search" - 1050 rubles - was lower than that of many "Spectrum"-compatible PCs with significantly less memory and a slower processor. Interestingly, this amount was less than the cost of a single keyboard for a professional IBM-compatible PC EC-1840. The computer was widely used not only as a home computer, but also as an educational and professional one. The production volumes of Poisk reached several tens of thousands a year (although, like for other PCs, production “swinged” for a long time - mass production began only in 1991, just before the collapse of the USSR, when great difficulties began in all industries). Additional modules were produced not only by the manufacturer of this PC, but also by other factories, as well as small companies. In fact, "Poisk" was one of the basic Soviet cheap PCs of the early 1990s, along with BK-0010, "Vector-06Ts", separate "Spectrum"-compatible and some others. However, this model also had significant drawbacks - the mentioned incomplete compatibility with the IBM PC or the overly ascetic lack of connectors for joysticks, as well as parallel and serial ports in the basic configuration, which did not allow connecting a printer, mouse, modem and other peripheral devices without additional modules. .

CGA graphics

Since the vast majority of domestic IBM-compatible those years had a CGA video adapter, let's look at it in more detail.

Rice. 124.IBM Color Graphics Adapter

In 1981, during the advent of the first IBM PC, the CGA (Color Graphics Adapter) video card was offered as a rather expensive model, the oldest in a series of video cards for the PC (the youngest was the monochrome and pure text MDA - Monochrome Display Adapter). And in terms of design, it was a rather impressive unit - a long board containing about 70 microcircuits (more than in many PCs of the early 80s and not much less than the motherboard of the same IBM PC), including its own 16 KB RAM, ROM with a character generator for 256 characters (2 Kb), a Motorola 6845 video controller chip (it was also used in MDA and EGA video cards, BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC computers, etc.) and dozens of "fine logic" cases. Several text and graphics modes were supported, and the text modes were quite multi-colored: 25 lines of 80 or 40 characters were displayed (an 8x8 dot sign matrix), and for each character it was allowed to select any of 16 background colors and 16 image colors, and flickering was also available. In the standard 320x200 pixel graphics mode, the CGA could display only 4 colors at the same time with the ability to select one of two palettes (but two options are available for each - dark and light), as well as a choice of any background color from 16 available. In the high resolution mode of 640×200 pixels, only two colors were displayed, and one of them was chosen randomly from a 16-color palette (but white was almost always used), and the background was always black.

Rice. 125. Photo with parrots, rendered on CGA in 320x200 resolution with the first 4-color palette ( bright option). It can be seen that four colors are desperately not enough to display realistic pictures, although the available colors themselves are quite pleasant and warm.

Rice. 126. The second version of the CGA palette: cold colors

Rice. 127. Monochrome CGA graphics at 640x200 resolution: a fairly clear image with good halftone reproduction due to a change in the spatial density of dots

Rice. 128. The third (as if non-standard) version of the CGA palette: a good combination of warm (red) and cold colors (blue, white)

It should be noted that CGA graphics are distinguished by a rather strange and controversial set of colors - not only are there only 4 of them, but also their choice is rather mysterious: in one palette - white, blue and lilac, in the other - red, green, yellow / brown (not counting the background color, which in most cases was black). Displaying any decent graphics with such colors is quite problematic, including in games. However, although it is customary to scold CGA colors, they still have their own logic: in the “red-green-yellow” palette, the colors are “warm”, in the “white-blue-lilac” - “cold”, and in the 3rd palette ("blue, red, white") - a mixture of both.

Another feature related to the limitations of the 6845 chip (it was mainly designed for text output, not graphics, and could display no more than 128 lines) was the use of a two-bank video memory structure in graphics mode: odd image lines (100 lines, ~ 8 KB) were stored in one half of the memory, even - in the other, that is, sequentially located lines were in memory not one after another, but with an offset of 8 KB, which created some difficulties when programming graphics.

A well-known shortcoming of the original CGAs (not found in many CGA "clones" and all video cards of other types) was the so-called "snow" - noise in the form of random horizontal lines that appeared in text mode when the PC processor wrote data to the video memory (due to CPU priority PC above the video controller when accessing the video memory). There was only one way to get around this drawback - by writing data to the video memory only during a short period of the frame scan beam reverse path (about 1-2 milliseconds during each 1/60 sec frame) or horizontal sweep reverse path (very short segments of a few microseconds after each line is displayed).

CGA does not provide any standard support for gaming or "multimedia" graphics - no scrolling (smooth shifting of the image vertically or horizontally), no hardware "sprites", no programmable palette, no multi-layered video memory structure, etc. All work with graphics was performed purely software, due to the central processor. But, unlike most gaming PCs of that time, CGA has an arbitrary choice of colors for any point - in the graphics mode of medium resolution 320x200 there are no restrictions on the use of available 4 colors, any points (including neighboring ones) can be painted in any of 4 colors (similar to BK-0010/0011, Lvov, Iskra 1080, etc.). True, unlike some PCs (for example, the Soviet Corvette), the simultaneous use of graphics and text modes - say, overlaying hardware text on graphics or vice versa - is not provided.

Rice. 129. CGA graphics with 16 colors, but low resolution - 160x100. The colors are definitely a lot more fun, but the resolution is, unfortunately, disastrously weak.

In addition to standard modes, CGA also supported several additional features that were sometimes used in programs and games: a third palette (cyan, red, white), a “composite” 16-color graphics mode using the features of the American NTSC color television standard (allowed to significantly improve colors in some games), low-resolution 160x100 16-color graphics based on a modified text mode, etc. However, most game developers used only standard features, occasionally resorting to some kind of “tweaks” like multiple palette changes or background color in the frame. Good example the maximum use of CGA functions is provided by "demos" - for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHXx3orN35Y.

Rice. 130. Normal text mode CGA 80x25: an example of a program in standard BASIC - the lines almost stick together, it is very inconvenient to read the text

Rice. 131. The same BASIC program on the MDA monitor: there are normal gaps between the lines, it is much easier to read the text; the image is pleasantly greenish, since most of the monochrome monitors for the IBM PC had a green glow (less often yellow, white, etc.)

Rice. 132. CGA text: the enlarged image clearly shows that adjacent lines literally merge in places (where there are commas, and in other cases - some lowercase letters, special characters, etc.), since only one dot is allocated for the gap between the lines

Rice. 133. MDA text (as well as Hercules): the lines do not “merge” (3 dots are allocated for the gaps between them), the characters themselves are somewhat smaller, but noticeably clearer and look better (the matrix of a typical large character is 7x11 dots, not 7x7, as in CGA); there are also more gaps between the letters - 2 dots instead of one for CGA; in general, it is much more convenient to read the text

In general, CGA video cards can hardly be called successful, even taking into account the relatively early appearance. As professional ones, they were in many ways inferior to even the simpler MDA or Hercules, which had a much more pleasant and serious text output mode with a 9x14 dot familiarity matrix, of which the characters themselves used 7x11 dots (there were normal gaps between the letters both horizontally and, especially , vertically; but in CGA, characters and lines were closely stuck to each other - the familiarity matrix is ​​8x8, and the character matrix is ​​7x7, that is, the gaps between large characters are just one point and the characters themselves are simpler, which looked much worse and resembled cheap ones home PCs). CGA graphics were also very limited (especially in terms of the number of colors) and unsuitable for serious purposes as color graphics. However, the very presence of graphics, of course, greatly expanded the scope of the PC in comparison, for example, with text MDA - and not only in those obvious cases when it was necessary to draw something on the screen, but also, for example, for the same word processing ( it became possible to display letters proportionally, and not with a constant width, change the style and size of the font, use any languages ​​at the same time, etc.) or to implement graphical shells in operating systems (in the mid-1980s, the first versions of Windows and other similar programs appeared ).

Although the first IBM PCs in a minimal configuration were quite designed to be connected to a regular TV and a household tape recorder (but they were used much more often with a special monitor and disk drives), for home use CGA was also not very good - for a computer with a minimum price of $ 1,565 (with 16 KB of RAM and without any peripherals), a video card was offered that was clearly inferior in terms of color processing capabilities to many many times cheaper home PCs and video consoles (moreover the video card was proudly called "color graphics adapter" and cost more than many PCs and set-top boxes). However, unlike most cheap PCs and, moreover, set-top boxes, the CGA still had a sufficiently high resolution of both graphics and text, which distinguished it from typical home PCs of the early 80s. And in the professional PC space, many had no graphics support at all, offering a pure text screen. However, some computers at much more modest prices differed in noticeably better graphical capabilities - for example, the home-based Acorn BBC Micro, also released at the end of the same 1981, also based on the 6845 video controller, offered much more screen modes, more simultaneously displayed colors (8 instead of 4, and even with a programmable palette) and a higher maximum resolution (640x256 instead of 640x200).

Serious competitors of CGA were Hercules Graphics Card video cards produced since 1982 and did not have color support (although a color version was released later), but they provide high quality text and graphics twice as high resolution as CGA - 720x348 pixels. These graphics cards were both MDA and partially CGA compatible, so they were very convenient for business users and became the de facto standard on IBM-compatible PCs with monochrome monitors.

Rice. 134. One of the first versions of Windows (1.01) on an IBM PC with CGA: working in 640x200 graphics mode allows displaying text with different types of fonts (including proportional ones) and different sizes

Rice. 135. Windows 1.01 on CGA, graphical editor Paint: 640x200 resolution was enough to draw high-quality monochrome icons, windows, etc.

Thus, CGA was obviously created as a kind of compromise between the text and graphics output functions, the capabilities of the 6845 chip, the amount of video memory, the need to support not only special monitors, but also household TVs (and this greatly reduced the allowable vertical resolution), and so on. The result is a rather strange video adapter that does not cope very well with either the typical tasks of professional PCs (as a rule, working with texts in one form or another) or the entertainment functions of home PCs, but at the same time it is rather complicated and expensive (and calculated to connect to a rather expensive color monitor, and not to a cheap monochrome one). However, the long life of the CGA - and they were the main color video cards on IBM-compatible PCs until about 1987 and were very widely used until the early to mid-1990s - suggests that, despite all the theoretical shortcomings, its practical capabilities turned out to be quite acceptable for a wide range of tasks. In 1984, IBM proposed a new version of the older video card for mass use - EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter), which successfully corrected the shortcomings of both the text mode (the familiarity matrix was increased to 8x14 pixels, a programmable character generator appeared) and the graphics mode (the maximum resolution was increased to 640x350, moreover, 16 colors are available for any point, programmable from a total palette of 64 colors). However, EGA cards were significantly more expensive and were not compatible with CGA monitors, and EGA monitors were also more expensive. Therefore, CGA video cards continued to be used in inexpensive IBM-compatible video cards for quite a long time, including even after the appearance of even more advanced VGA (1987), XGA, SVGA, etc.

The use of CGA-compatible video controllers in Soviet IBM-compatible PCs, especially inexpensive home models, is also quite logical: for cheap computers, more complex and expensive video cards were simply unacceptable (considering that even a relatively simple CGA took up to half of the chips of the entire PC to implement); in addition, among standard video adapters for PC, only CGA supported output to regular TVs, which was necessary condition for domestic home PCs.

Rice. 136. "Assistant-128": splash screen when turned on on modern TV

Rice. 137. "Assistant-128": almost complete compatibility with the IBM PC / XT at the price of a regular "Spectrum"

Another interesting but much less common IBM compatible model - or simply "Assistant" , which has been produced since 1988 by the Smolensk software Iskra. Unlike Poisk, there is a parallel port and connectors for joysticks at once, and the video controller is fully compatible with the original CGA: it is assembled on the basis of the Soviet KM1809VG6 chip - a complete analogue of the Motorola 6845 video chip used in original CGA adapters and not only in them. The processor is also slightly different - fully 16-bit and slightly faster KR1810VM86 with the same frequency of 5 MHz. As in the original IBM PC, a single-chip microcontroller is used as a keyboard controller - in this case, the Soviet KR1816BE35 microcircuit, which contains both a processor, a small amount of RAM, and an I / O information controller on one chip. Accordingly, the Assistant's keyboard is also fully compatible with the IBM PC. The sound, like on Poisk, is implemented on the KR580VI53 programmable timer chip, and it is fully compatible with the IBM PC. That is, as we can see, the developers of the "Assistant" did not simplify everything so much that they lost compatibility with the prototype - a PC from IBM, and the result was a very serious machine and, moreover, inexpensive - "Assistant" in the early 1990s cost 1225 rubles, and in the late 1980s, according to some sources, in general, 850 rubles. True, the amount of RAM in the basic version was also purely minimal - 128 KB, including 16 KB of screen memory, but the ROM was several times larger than that of "Search" - 48 KB, and it contained not only the BIOS, but also the traditional BASIC interpreter. On the other hand, the design of the "Assistant" did not provide for such a simple expansion as in the "Search" - there is only one slot for additional modules, and it is located rather unexpectedly in the lower part of the case, and, as a rule, a board containing a drive controller was inserted into it and memory expansion of 512 or 1024 KB. In general, the design of this PC is unusual for a home computer - in a fairly thick case, as many as 4 boards with microcircuits are located horizontally: a processor, a video controller and RAM, a ROM and a keyboard. Plus, there is a built-in power supply. The keyboard looks very decent - 93-key, with separate numeric and function blocks, but without a special cursor control block, as on familiar modern keyboards. In terms of the number of chips, and there were even about 155 of them in the basic configuration (by the way, there were about 165 chips on the motherboard of the original IBM PC along with the CGA adapter), the Assistant was practically unrivaled among home PCs, but for some reason this did not greatly affect its cost and reliability.

Rice. 138. "Assistant-128": the only expansion connector is at the bottom

Rice. 139. "Assistant-128": complex multi-board design, built-in power supply and functional 93-button keyboard

Rice. 140. "Assistant-128": elegant case design and power button on the side

Rice. 141. "Assistant-128": an excellent set of connectors also includes 2 joysticks and an antenna output to TV, a floppy drive controller is inserted into the lower expansion connector

In total, "Assistant" turned out to be one of the best among inexpensive IBM-compatible Soviet computers, in many ways ahead of the same "Search", especially in terms of compatibility with the original IBM PC. Of the shortcomings, one can only note a not very reliable mechanical keyboard, the very minimum number of expansion slots - there is only one, which is somehow unusual for such PCs - and the lack of a built-in drive controller. Nevertheless, IBM-compatible computers were little without disk drives and hard drives, therefore, in order to fully use the capabilities of such PCs, you must add at least the price of a disk drive (or better than two), a disk drive controller and memory expansion to the relatively low cost of the computer itself, which immediately makes a computer more expensive than 3-4 times or more. By no means superfluous for such PCs were also a mouse, a monitor (instead of a TV), a printer and, finally, a hard disk (hard drive) with a controller, which raised the total cost of a PC to the level of about 10,000 rubles or more (and this is 1 time .5 higher than the price of a conventional car). So the low cost of "Assistant", "Search" and similar models is very, very deceptive. At the same time, simpler home PCs, such as BK-0010, Vector, Lvov, Spectrum, are compatible, etc. quite suitable for use without any expensive additions - they were originally designed to work with a tape recorder and a household TV (although, of course, they allowed the connection of monitors, disk drives, printers, etc.) and without any memory expansion. This is one of the important differences between IBM-compatible home PCs and other classes of home PCs.

MK-88

Rice. 142. MK-88 is an excellent IBM-compatible PC for the home with a full-size keyboard

Rice. 143. MK-88 version 05 had a keyboard on the KR1816BE35 microcontroller, fully compatible with the IBM PC; it is interesting that the key designations are Russified

Rice. 144. MK-88.05 - there are all the main connectors, including the output to the disk drive (NGMD), parallel (PU) and serial (RS 232) ports; however, in this modification, the outputs for the tape recorder and joysticks are removed

In addition to "Search" and "Assistant", other home IBM-compatible models were produced in those years. For example, from the very beginning of the 1990s, a computer was produced at the Minsk Production Association of Computer Technology MK-88 based on the KR1810VM88 processor, very similar in parameters to the "Assistant-128". A special chip for the K1809VG6 CGA video controller was also used here. The first versions were with a simplified keyboard circuit, and then the single-chip microcomputer KR1816BE35 was also used in the keyboard boards. Some modifications of the MK-88 also had a built-in drive controller. RAM in different options also differed: 256, 128 or 640 KB. Separately purchased expansion modules for 512 KB. ROM - 16 KB, contains only BIOS, without BASIC. The keyboard in this PC is almost the same as in modern computers - 103-key, with a separate numeric keypad, arrows, 12 function buttons, etc. The design in terms of the number of boards is a little simpler than that of the "Assistant", but in terms of the number of chips it is even more complex - three boards (main, interfaces and keyboards) with a total number of chips up to 190! (for version 05, which has a built-in drive controller and 640 KB of RAM). In general, the computer is also very decent and also compatible with the original IBM PC/XT.

By the way, it was the MK-88 that became the winner of the well-known competition for the best household PC, held in 1989 by the State Committee for Computer Science and Informatics (SCNT) of the USSR together with a number of other organizations. That is, it was he who was actually recognized as the best home PC in the USSR at that time, and behind - in 2nd place - there were another IBM-compatible "Electronics MS-1502", and even such an outstanding model (but with an older one, 8 -bit, processor, less RAM and no foreign analogues), as "Vector-06Ts".

"Electronics MS-1502"

Rice. 145. "Electronics MS1502": an inexpensive IBM-compatible PC, produced in the early 90s. The case and keyboard are clearly taken from the UKNTS PC (but the key designations are different), as is the internal layout of the PC, including the built-in power supply and two expansion slots on the upper surface of the case.

Rice. 146. A feature of the MC1502 that distinguished it from most other Soviet IBM-compatible PCs was the use of specialized BMK KR1545XM1 microcircuits involved in the keyboard controller and the integrated CGA-compatible video adapter. This made it possible to significantly simplify the design, reducing the number of microcircuits to 65 (including 5 BMK), while maintaining high compatibility with the IBM PC.

Another cheap IBM-compatible PC, produced in the early 1990s - " Electronics MS-1502», which was assembled in a case from an educational PC of the UKNTS and with the same keyboard. Unlike other Soviet analogues, it used the basic matrix crystals KR1545XM1 to reduce the number of microcircuits, and very successfully: the number of chips decreased by about 2.5 times - up to 60 with a little. Otherwise, the parameters are the same: K1810VM88 processor with a frequency of about 5 MHz, 128 KB of RAM, of which 32 KB is used for video memory. From the outputs: parallel and serial interface, tape recorder and monitor. There are two connectors for expansion modules - the same as in UKNC. The graphics are still the same - 4-color CGA. There was also a modification with a built-in drive controller. The RAM was expanded up to 640 KB by installing a special module.

Unexpected "Vector"

Finally, we come to the main pearl of Soviet home computer technology, the main diamond - "Vector-06Ts". This computer stood out sharply among domestic home and not only home PCs with outstanding graphic and sound abilities, and in terms of graphics it surpassed most foreign home PCs. At the same time, the Vector was developed earlier than many other, even simpler, models - approximately in 1985–1986, and mass production was launched in 1987–88. True, its more or less mass production began only in 1989.

Rice. 148. PC "Vector-06Ts" with a characteristic narrow power supply (pulse)

Rice. 149. "Vector-06Ts" without a top cover: the keyboard design uses a rather complex circuit of 14 microcircuits (including 8 timers KR1006VI1) and many other details for hardware suppression of contact bounce

The creators of this PC were Soviet electronics engineers Donat Temirazov and Alexander Sokolov, who worked at the Chisinau plant "Scheotmash". They set out to develop a fairly simple and inexpensive computer, on the most common Soviet element base, but with maximum graphic and sound capabilities. And I must say, their brainchild was noticeably ahead of the usual level in those years, including foreign ones. For example, in 1985–86, the most popular color video adapter (and there were also various monochrome ones!) Among IBM-compatible PCs was the already mentioned CGA - a color graphics adapter that had 16 KB of video memory and was capable of medium resolution graphics (320 × 200 points) to display one of the three palettes with the simultaneous display of four colors on the screen, and the total CGA palette consisted of 16 different colors. In text mode, it could display all 16 colors at once. In Soviet PCs of that time, 16 colors were also the limit - the famous Agat computer could display so much, moreover, in graphics mode (though in low resolution). At that time, the only serial domestic household PC BK-0010 had only four fixed colors without any palettes. The developers of Vector went much further - their computer could display up to 256 colors, of which at the same time - any 16 at a resolution of 256 × 256 pixels (or 4 at a resolution of 512 × 256).

Rice. 150. A special program that repeatedly reprograms the Vector palette in each television frame (50 times per second), shows on the screen at the same time all 256 colors that Vector-06Ts is capable of reproducing

Graphics "on planes"

If desired, you can simultaneously display much more than 16 colors on the screen, but only for static pictures. However, it should be noted that there was practically no need for more than 16 programmable colors simultaneously displayed on the screen - such a palette was quite enough to create complex, multi-color and beautiful graphics. Moreover, the Vector's video memory was divided into 4 planes, each of which was responsible for its own bit in the 4-bit color number set for each screen point. Such a screen organization in combination with a programmable palette gave several important advantages: firstly, it was possible to select the desired number of simultaneously displayed colors and the size of the video memory - with two colors and an average resolution (256x256), the video memory occupied only 8 KB, and the user's memory was maximum - 56 KB; four colors (or two in 512x256 resolution) already required 16 KB of video memory, 8 colors - 24 KB, and, finally, 16 colors used 32 KB - half of the total RAM. Secondly, thanks to the programmable palette, the Vector had the ability, actively used in games, to overlay hardware up to 4 independent planes on top of each other, that is, for example, such an overlay of moving objects on a complex background when around these objects ( sprites) there are no black or colored squares and at the same time it is enough to display sprites by the simplest copying of the corresponding pictures to video memory without any complex and lengthy manipulations such as copying the background under the sprite to the buffer, then clearing the background using a special shadow mask, then applying the sprite to the background with logical operations , restoring the background from the buffer, etc., as it had to be done on such PCs as ZX Spectrum, BK-0010, PK-01 Lvov, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, IBM-compatible with CGA and others that do not have similar organization of video memory. Thirdly, the planar organization made it possible to dramatically speed up the output of graphics not only due to the hardware overlay of plans, but also due to the reduction in the amount of information processed - for example, only one plane with a single-color background was usually used for programmatic scrolling of parts of the screen (and on the same BC - 0010, for example, in any case, it was necessary to shift the 4-color background, which occupied twice the volume), most of the sprites were also one-color or three-color and displayed only in one or two planes, which required minimal time and memory.

The sound of "Vector"

The sound of the Vector also did not go unnoticed by its developers: they did not simplify the sound generator to the limit, as was done in BK-0010, Radio-86RK, Agata, Lvov, Apple II, ZX Spectrum and many other PCs, but used the widespread universal programmable timer chip - KR580VI53 - for sound reproduction. Of course, it could not match the musical functions of specialized audio synthesizer chips - such as those used in many foreign gaming computers and consoles: Commodore 64, Atari, MSX, Amstrad CPC and others. But the main function - playing normal 3-channel sound without loading the processor - it performed perfectly. Compared to the very many already mentioned popular PCs of those years, which had a purely software generator that heavily loaded the computer processor, the Vector sound synthesizer was no small achievement. By the way, Vector also has a software sound generator, it is used to output data to a tape recorder, and is also convenient for software playback of noise effects and speech synthesis. That is, in fact, we have a 4-channel sound generator. Despite the theoretical simplicity - monophonic sound with only one (rectangular) waveform, the actual quality of the music on the "Vector" is very decent and it is often not so easy to distinguish, say, the music in games on the "Vector" from the music in similar games on computers MSX (having the classic "programmable sound generator" type AY-3-8912). In addition, the use of a universal programmable timer as a sound generator also gave a useful unexpected effect - in one of the operating modes of the VI53 microcircuit, namely as a programmable single vibrator, that is, a pulse generator of a given duration, the "Vector" could reproduce any digitized sound of a fairly high quality corresponding to the sound of a 6-7-bit DAC (depending on the sampling rate) - these could be pre-recorded words or phrases, sound effects, synthesized music with an arbitrary choice of instruments, etc. And such a quality of digitized sound output was quite unique - only a few units from foreign low-cost PCs could compare with Vector in this. True, in practice, such opportunities were almost never used, since they were mastered by programmers only in the very last years of the widespread use of this PC.

It should be noted that PCs such as the IBM PC without a special sound card, as well as the Soviet training PC Corvette, had approximately similar sound abilities, including in terms of outputting digitized sound, but they used only one programmable timer channel, those. the sound was much simpler - monophonic. In general, of all purely Soviet home PCs, only one model had a more complex sound generator - the previously described PK8002 (3 channels on the VI53 with a total 32-level volume control based on the DAC chip), but, unfortunately, it was practically not mass-produced - there were only small-scale batches were made in the early 1990s. By the way, the same PK8002 was the only Soviet household PC that was somewhat superior to the Vector in the field of game graphics. If we consider not only home, but all Soviet PCs, then Soyuz-Neon PK-11/16 had an even more advanced sound generator - also based on KR580VI53 microcircuits, but not one, but two: the first generated the necessary sound frequency, and the second allowed you to adjust the volume separately for each of the 3 channels.

RAM and ROM

Another advantage of Vector-06Ts was a rather large and simple RAM - 64 KB, and, as already mentioned, of which the memory for programs and user data could be from 32 to 56 KB, depending on the required screen resolution and the number of flowers. At the same time, there are no switching pages or other difficulties: all memory, including video memory, is directly available to the processor at any time. On the other hand, the permanent memory of the "Vector" was very small - in the first versions, only 0.5 KB, which contained only the program loader from the tape recorder. In later modifications, the ROM was increased to 2 KB, and loading could be done not only from a tape recorder, but also from an external ROM, from a floppy drive or a quasi-disk. By the way, a quasi-disk is a special RAM extension with a capacity of 256 KB, which made it possible to use a disk operating system without a floppy drive by loading components from a cassette onto a quasi-disk, or to use the quasi-disk as an additional fast electronic disk when working with floppy disks. The quasidisk was also used by some programs - games, demos, operating systems - as a regular RAM extension.

Rice. 151. The design of the "Vector" uses only modern nice connectors soldered directly to the "system board": two three-row blue connectors are a 24-bit parallel port (smaller) and a system backbone (long)

There was no BASIC interpreter in ROM - it was loaded from a cassette or floppy disk, or from a ROM cartridge, like any other program. Of course, for those who often needed BASIC, this was not very convenient, but the majority of Vector users rarely used BASIC, so simplifying and reducing the cost of the design by reducing the amount of ROM looked quite justified. By the way, "Vector" cost only 750 rubles - this is quite inexpensive, given the superiority of the PC over most other Soviet and foreign models. For example, BK-0010-01 cost only 100 rubles cheaper, although it had 2 times less RAM, only 4 permanent colors on the screen and a simple software sound synthesizer; the simplest PCs such as "Mikroshi" and "Krista", having no graphics or color at all, were cheaper, but not much - about 500-550 rubles.

A few more words about RAM: now it’s generally difficult to understand how it was possible to get by with such amounts of RAM as 64 KB - this is 65536 times less than the typical amount of memory of modern PCs (4 GB), but, oddly enough, those volumes are quite enough to accommodate fairly complex programs - such as high-level language translators, text and graphics editors, database management systems, computer-aided design systems, etc. For games, 64 KB was also quite enough - and not only for simple arcade games, but even for fairly complex strategies and quests. Again, many games were not limited by the size of the RAM - they could load levels from a tape recorder or disk drive, and in the latter case, loading data took a matter of seconds. As for the Vector, its RAM was larger than, for example, the classic ZX Spectrum (48 KB) or the most massive domestic home PC - BK-0010 (32 KB). Moreover, when compared with BK-0010, the two-fold advantage of the Vector in terms of the total amount of RAM turns into a three-fold advantage in terms of the amount of user memory (48 KB versus 16), provided that the same resolution and number of colors are used. Those. the length of the programs on the "Vector" could be about 3 times longer than on the BC. And if we translate this into games, then it can be noted that, for example, the amount of graphics in a game on Vector could be 4 times more than on BC. Unfortunately, in practice, the gaming capabilities of Vector were usually used far from being fully used, and on average, the quality of games on Vector is not higher than on the betting shop.

Peripherals and design features

Rice. 152. "Vector-06Ts.02": a scheme for connecting various devices to a PC (a disk drive controller and an electronic disk (quasi-disk) are connected to the system bus connector; a printer and a ROM module are connected to the "PU" parallel port connector

Other parameters of the "Vector" were also on enough high level: the keyboard is quite comfortable and optimal - 70-key, with cursor keys and five function buttons; computer design is very nice and modern; the computer is equipped with a parallel port for connecting a printer, joysticks, cartridges with programs and other external devices, as well as a system bus connector that allows you to connect a floppy drive controller, a quasi-disk (i.e., a RAM expansion card) and other equipment; Naturally, there are also outputs for a tape recorder and TV. True, Vector did not have any encoder or modulator that allowed connecting any TV through an antenna input or a composite video input - color connection is possible only through an RGB input, but there is nothing unusual in this - the same situation is typical for most other Soviet PCs , and nothing, everyone equipped their TVs with RGB inputs, if they were not there initially. Only a few models of our Spectrum-compatible PCs were equipped with color encoders and modulators, they could be connected to any TV without any modifications to it, but the image on the screen in the SECAM standard turned out to be rather faded and fuzzy. And connecting via the RGB input gave the highest possible picture quality with rich colors and high definition.

Rice. 153. Vector-06Ts board: there are practically no rare and scarce microcircuits in the design - for example, only the most popular LSIs are used from the K580 kit: the KR580VM80A processor itself, the KR580VV55A parallel port and the programmable timer (sound generator) KR580VI53

Rice. 154. The scheme of the "Vector-06Ts.02" is slightly changed relative to the "Vector-06Ts": the main difference is that two connectors for joysticks and the corresponding components in the circuit have been added (in the classic "Vector", joysticks were usually connected to the "PU" parallel port connector)

The great advantage of the "Vector" was the absence in the design of any non-standard, expensive and scarce components. Although in terms of the number of microcircuits - there were about 80-100 of them in it (different in different modifications) - it was one of the most complex household PCs, there was no big “deficit” among these microcircuits. It seems that the developers of "Vector" deliberately skillfully bypassed all the sharp corners of our electronics industry. The most scarce at that time were high-capacity dynamic RAM microcircuits (from 8 KB), large-capacity ROM (also from 8 KB), disk drive controllers, display controllers, etc. And in the "Vector" there is just nothing of this: the most popular and simple 2-kilobyte K565RU6 microcircuits are used as RAM, the ROM of the smallest size (only 0.5 or 2 KB), no specialized controllers for the drive, display, memory, there is no keyboard, etc. at all. So really, only the simplest, cheapest and most reliable Soviet microcircuits were involved in the design of this PC.

About PC keyboards

Now, using the example of Vector, I would like to talk about the features of the keyboards of Soviet and not only Soviet computers.

Rice. 155. 70-button keyboard "Vector-06Ts" with Russian designations on the control keys (similar key markings were used on many other PCs - in particular, on "Radio-86RK"-compatible)

First, about the keyboard layout. Many young PC users are perplexed: firstly, why is it that Soviet keyboards use the English JCUKEN layout instead of the now familiar QWERTY, and, secondly, why modern keyboards use the Russian YTsUKEN layout, and not some phonetic analogue of QWERTY. Everything is very simple and clear here: QWERTY is the layout of American typewriters, which has become the standard back in late XIX century, and the arrangement of letters in it was chosen in a rather bizarre way in order, on the one hand, to ensure fast typing on a typewriter, but, on the other hand, to bypass the limitations of the first lever-type typewriters, which forced the letters to be arranged, forming the most commonly used in English letter combinations, most far apart and in different rows of the keyboard, in order to avoid the so-called confusion of levers. Naturally, there is no confusion of levers in computer keyboards, but the QWERTY layout, traditional for typewriters, has remained the main standard, although the arrangement of letters in it is far from optimal. Accordingly, Russian typewriters always used YTsUKEN-like layouts, which eventually also became the standard for Russian typewriter and computer keyboards, as well as for other languages ​​using the Russian alphabet. At the same time, our YTSUKEN layout is much more optimal and convenient for fast printing, since it was created much later than the American QWERTY, when there was no longer a problem with mixing levers. Therefore, in all purely Soviet PCs, the Russian YTSUKEN layout has always been used and is still used on all keyboards, and the characteristic Soviet English JCUKEN layout is just a variant of the phonetic correspondence of English letters to Russian, and Russian letters on the keyboards of domestic computers were, of course, the main ones, and the English were already sort of adjusting to them. And, I must say, the phonetic English layout, similar to YTSUKEN, was very convenient, since it was much easier to find English letters on it than on the current QWERTY.

The second interesting point is the design of the keyboard buttons. In the 1980s, there was no such universal standard for keyboards as the so-called membrane keyboards that are now widely used in PCs and laptops have become. Different manufacturers used different designs, based on some of their considerations and capabilities. The "Vector" had two options, depending on the manufacturer. The first (the so-called "capacitive" keyboard) - mechanical buttons with contact pads etched on a printed circuit board, closed with a piece of foil glued to a foam pad attached to the moving part of the button. This is the strangest and most unreliable type of keyboard, very unloved by PC users: during the operation of the computer, the contacts on the printed circuit board and the foil on the button quickly oxidized and became dirty, and the keyboard performance deteriorated sharply - you had to periodically remove all the buttons, clean the contacts or even change the contact ones. patches" on the keys, or even "upgrade" the buttons in one way or another to increase their reliability. The second option: reed keyboard - very comfortable, reliable and durable, almost maintenance-free. A reed switch is a sealed contact, a glass tube sealed on both sides with contacts inside that close when a magnet approaches them. Contacts in the reed switch do not get dirty and do not oxidize, they can work reliably for decades. Instead of open contacts, the printed circuit board of such a keyboard contains soldered reed switches, and on the moving part of each button there is a small magnet that closes the reed switch when a key is pressed. At the same time, the so-called contact bounce, which is very typical for mechanical keyboards, is much weaker in reed switches, so they work very clearly and pleasantly. In general, reed keyboards are considered "eternal", withstanding any load for any reasonable time, since there is almost nothing to physically wear out in them.

Rice. 156. Design of reed keys for PK-6128Ts

At the end of the story about keyboards, let's see what service buttons were on Soviet models, and many of our PCs actually had such or similar designations. Basically, these keys are fully consistent with similar buttons on modern keyboards, but their location is perhaps even more logical. The SS key - "special characters" - is a complete analogue of the modern "Shift" button, which allows you to enter either uppercase (or vice versa - lowercase) letters or special characters on the number buttons. US - "control characters" - is a complete analogue of the "Control" button, pressing it simultaneously with other buttons enters control codes for various "hot keys" such as copying, pasting, printing, selecting, etc. etc. RUS / LAT - yes, yes, on Soviet PCs there was a very convenient special button for switching the language, and for this it was not necessary to press several keys at the same time. TAB is a complete analog of the modern TAB button, but note that it is located more logically - next to the space, since the action of the tab button is very similar to entering a long, long space. VK - "carriage return", an analogue of the most important key - "Enter", confirmation of all actions and transition to a new paragraph when entering text. PS - “line feed”, similar to VK, but, for example, when entering text, it does not start a new paragraph, but simply moves to the next line - on modern keyboards, you have to press something like “Shift” + “Enter” at the same time. ZB - "backspace", an analogue of the "Backspace" button, erasing a character to the left of the cursor; it is also located unusually - from the bottom right, but also quite logical, approximately on the same level with other service buttons. STR - "line", "page" or "erase", in different programs could be used in completely different ways - both as a "cancel" key like modern Escape, and for accelerated movement of the cursor to the right, and for other purposes. AP2 - "auto-register 2" or "alternative register 2", on the "Vector" was usually used to enter keyboard commands by sequentially pressing AP2 and some other key. The ENTER, BLK (lock) and SBR (reset) buttons were used for the initial loading and launch of programs.

Documentation and programs

An interesting feature of the computers of those years, which greatly distinguishes them from modern ones, is a large set of documentation that comes with the kit. And this was very helpful, since far from all PCs one could find detailed information in some other literature, and native documentation for many was the only source of information on using and programming these PCs. So, the following brochures usually came with the "Vector": "Operating Manual" - a description of the computer and downloading programs in different formats, connecting to a TV, assigning connector pins, etc .; "Monitor-debugger" - a description of how to work with the "monitor-debugger" program, which allows you to load, view, modify and run other programs; "Assembler editor" - a description of a program for editing text and programming in assembly language (including a description of the assembly language itself); "Test software" - about the computer testing program; "BASIC" - a guide to the standard "Vector" BASIC interpreter. All the programs described in the brochures were on a cassette in the Vector set. In addition to these, along with the PC, a small set of several advertising, game and educational programs, as well as file copying programs, was also usually supplied.

Rice. 157. Cassette from the "Vector-06Ts" set: a basic set of system, training and game programs

The set of programs in the Vector package, including games, is, of course, quite minimalistic. However, the advertising program in BASIC was very colorful and well demonstrated the graphical and musical capabilities of this PC. The rest of the programs were also quite necessary and useful (Basic, assembler, copier, etc.) or showed the capabilities of the PC (game) well. It was possible to purchase other programs in quite a few cooperatives, including by mail. Most of these companies that create and replicate programs were located in the cities where Vector was produced - Chisinau, Kirov, Astrakhan, Volgograd, and, of course, in the capital of our country and some other cities too. In general, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the question “where and how to get software” did not seem trivial at all. It was far from possible to buy them just by coming to a store or some kind of office - not only not in every store of the corresponding profile, but not even in every major city. That is why a lot of things were ordered by mail in the mentioned cooperatives, and programs for home PCs were not so cheap - up to one tenth of a monthly salary or more. However, of course, users received a lot for free or quite inexpensively - people exchanged programs, joined clubs, ordered new games together, etc.

The Vectors themselves were also far from being sold everywhere: they could be purchased relatively easily, again, mainly in those cities where they were produced or near them - Chisinau, Kirov, Volgograd, Astrakhan, Minsk, and, of course, in Moscow, Leningrad , the capitals of the Union republics. It was much more difficult for residents of other regions to do this - these PCs were almost not sold by mail, in fact, they had to go to the cities mentioned or hope that they would accidentally appear on sale in their city.

Here, it would be appropriate to mention some of the features of the Soviet trade in complex electronics: in the USSR in the 1980s, a network of so-called company stores was created, representing the products of various ministries. For example, in the Electronics stores, products of the Ministry of Electronic Industry (MEP) were sold - including computers and peripheral devices (drives, monitors, printers, etc.) under the Electronics brand (BK-0010/0011M, UKNTS (" Elektronika MS 0511”), DVK, etc.), and in Radiotekhnika stores - the Ministry of the Radio Industry (and this is a lot of other PCs - say, Mikrosha, etc.). Unfortunately, there were not so many of these stores in the country - they did not even cover all million-plus cities, and in general they often played the role of "museums" where some samples of manufactured equipment were exhibited, but they might not have been on real sale - deficit! However, it was in the "branded" stores that there was the greatest chance to purchase various Soviet PCs and peripherals for them. They also appeared in other outlets, but not always and not everywhere - again, rather in PC manufacturing cities or capitals.

Press

In general, it should be noted that in those days when there was no Internet and a developed computer press, since mass computerization was just beginning, it was very difficult to get information about the features and differences of Soviet home computers, of which several dozen models were produced and, moreover, very different ones. . On the one hand, some of these PCs were lucky - there were large and detailed articles about such computers as BK-0010, Mikrosha and Poisk in various magazines, especially in the very popular Science and Life (circulation up to 3.5 million copies!). Many models were advertised in the magazines "Radio" and "Technology-Youth" - for example, "Partner", "Assistant", "Lviv", MK-88. BK-0010 was particularly lucky - it had entire headings in Science and Life, and in less popular specialized journals Computer Science and Education and Computer Science and Its Applications. That is, in fact, more or less massively from home PCs by the beginning of the 1990s, people only knew about the BK-0010, as well as about the amateur radio "Radio-86RK" (and its analogues), "Specialist" and partly Spectrum clones. The rest of our household PCs were, as it were, in the shadows - there was some fragmentary information about them in various articles, in the tables of Soviet PCs from the Radio magazine, and that's it. The books usually mentioned only the most famous foreign home models, yes, at best, the same BK-0010.

This was exactly the situation with Vector - oddly enough, there was not a single article in large-circulation magazines about him. Even in the tables of the Radio magazine, it was either not mentioned, or its characteristics were underestimated - for example, instead of 256 colors of the general palette, only 16 were indicated. But Vector-06Ts was a repeated winner and prize-winner of various exhibitions and competitions: 33rd All-Union Radio Exhibition in 1987, a silver medal at VDNKh in 1988, and in 1989 he became the winner of the USSR GKVTI competition among 8-bit household PCs (second place among all PCs). Moreover, the GKVTI competition (State Committee for Computer Science and Informatics) was preparing for a very long time (since 1987) and was held specifically to determine the best PC models for their further mass production - accordingly, Vector was recommended for release as one of the main Soviet home PCs, and as a result it became such, presumably yielding in terms of production among specific models only BK-0010.

However, for some reason, our magazines did not take advantage of the excellent opportunity to tell in detail about the indisputable achievement of Soviet developers and manufacturers - the Vector-06Ts, a computer, of course, of a "world-class" level.

The hunger for information and the strange selectivity of the press, combined with the shortage of PCs themselves, led to the fact that even a person who was seriously interested in computers was not at all easy to choose the most suitable model and then buy it again. Many became owners of certain PCs, one might say, by accident, that is, they bought either what was in stores, or what they knew something about.

Rice. 158. "Vector-06Ts.02" complete with a classic domestic black-and-white monitor "Electronics MS 6105"

Rice. 159. "Vector-06Ts.02": the design is completely similar to the original model, but even more accurate and strict

Rice. 160. "Vector-06Ts.02": you can see how simpler design reed keyboard board than the standard mechanical keyboard for Vector-06Ts (there are no microcircuits on the keyboard board, including single vibrators used in Vector mechanical keyboards to suppress contact bounce)

Volume of production

It is not easy to estimate the volume of production of Vector-06C - there are no specific data in the literature and the Internet. Judging by the quantity and quality of the programs created, it was clearly one of the main household PCs in the USSR - in this regard, it is second only to the BK-0010, and in terms of such an interesting indicator as the number of games in assembler - about twice, i.e. now there are about 800 games available for BC and about 400 for Vector, although much more have probably been written, and we simply don’t know about many. The volume of production of the BK-0010 / BK-0011 family is known and, in general, is considered quite reliable - about 160 thousand pieces, although this value is also not indisputable (it is quite possible that it is underestimated, since BKs were produced by several plants and for quite a long time - for example, the plant Exciton has been producing them for almost ten years and in considerable quantity, by Soviet standards). Moreover, a significant part of the BC went to schools and other educational institutions (especially in the first few years of graduation), and not to stores. It is also known that the "Vectors" were produced by five or six factories for 3-5 years each, which, it seems, should have given an impressive number of cars produced. However, as was customary at our factories, the output at each of them usually did not exceed a few thousand pieces a year, for the reason that these factories, which had been producing rather expensive military or professional products in relatively small volumes all their lives, were not at all designed for mass production of computers, and even components, was not produced so much as to produce tens or hundreds of thousands of PCs at each plant. In general, if we add up the approximate estimated output of all plants and multiply by the number of years, and also take into account the number of developed programs, serial numbers of known instances and other similar factors, then we can estimate the total production of Vector-06Ts and its analogues very, very approximately 80-100 thousand pieces.

Almost "Vectors"

Rice. 161. "Vector Start-1200": a slightly simplified version of the "Vector-06Ts" - both in terms of capabilities and design

Rice. 162. On the board of the "Vector Start-1200" there are about 10 microcircuits less than that of the "Vector-06Ts" - due to the lack of a programmable palette and other differences

Rice. 163. In terms of connectors, Vector Start-1200 also differs from Vector-06Ts: there is no separate parallel port output (this port is connected to a common large connector)

Rice. 164. "Vector Start-1200" was sold in the form of a so-called constructor: the box contained a fully assembled, debugged and tested "system" board, a keyboard board, an empty case and an assembled power supply (to get a finished PC, it was enough to insert two boards into the case and connect connectors

By the way, about analogues. In addition to the Vector-06Ts directly, several enterprises also produced models very similar to it and largely compatible with it, but still somewhat different models. The Chisinau plant "Signal" produced a PC called "Vector Start-1200", moreover, in the form of a so-called constructor, that is, in the box there were separately fully assembled main board, keyboard and case, which the buyer had to connect and get a finished PC. The "Start" scheme was somewhat different from the "Vector-06Ts", mainly by the absence of an arbitrarily programmable palette - instead of it, one could choose one of the 32 fixed palettes stored in a special ROM. This, of course, made the computer not quite compatible with the original in terms of colors and overlay plans. The keyboard also differed in the arrangement of the keys. But the Vector-Start ROM was larger and contained not only the bootloader, but also a monitor with a text editor and assembler.

Rice. 165. PC "Krista-2" - a mysterious analogue of "Vector-06Ts" with a different arrangement of keys, a lower processor frequency (2.5 MHz instead of 3 MHz) and one fixed 16-color palette instead of the programmable palette of "Vector"

Rice. 166. "Krista-2": despite the "cutting" of the video controller, the number of microcircuits on the main board of "Krista-2" absolutely coincides with the "Vector-06Ts" (83 pieces)

Rice. 167. According to the set of connectors, "Krista-2" is similar to "Vector", but is not physically compatible with it - the design of multi-pin connectors is different. Also added a serial interface connector

Rice. 168. "Krista-2" - nice side view

Murom plant of radio measuring instruments produced a model "Krista-2", which also lacked a programmable palette and generally supported only 16 colors instead of 256, but had an additional two-color "ultra-high" resolution mode of 1024 × 256 pixels. The layout of the keys was even more different from the "Vector", and the keyboard was very good - a reed switch. "Krista" had its own bootloader with its own format for recording programs on a cassette, not compatible with the "Vector". The processor clock frequency was reduced to the standard value - 2.5 MHz, respectively, and the programmable timer was clocked at a lower frequency - 1.25 MHz instead of 1.5 MHz for the Vector, which caused differences in the frequencies of the generated sounds. In general, Krista-2's compatibility with the Vector was even less than that of the Start.

Rice. 169. The PC-6128Ts computer is externally a complete copy of the standard "Vector-06Ts", but inside it has been significantly improved: the RAM has been expanded to 128 Kbytes, the ROM - up to 16 Kbytes, disk drive and local network controllers have been added; a more modern and fast IM1821VM85A is used as a processor

Rice. 170. PK-6128Ts: in a standard, rather thin case from Vector, there is even a built-in power supply; the reed keyboard is completely similar to the "Vector" one

The most interesting "clone", and in fact a greatly improved version of the "Vector", was created in 1990 and produced by the Astrakhan plant "Progress", which also produced the usual "Vectors-06Ts". This unique model already had 128 KB of RAM instead of 64, 16 KB of ROM with BASIC and bootloader, and, most importantly, a built-in drive controller. That is, it was already designed to work with floppy disks, not cassettes, as a standard external memory. Moreover, it also had a built-in serial interface, a local network interface and two connectors for joysticks, and a slightly faster and more modern IM1821VM85 (similar to Intel 80C85) at the same frequency of 3 MHz was used as a processor.

Rice. 171. IM1821VM85A - Soviet analogue of the Intel 80C85A processor (CMOS version of the 8085 with low power consumption), produced since the mid-80s and surpassed the KR580VM80A in all respects (higher speed, several times lower power consumption, one supply voltage instead of 3, higher degree of integration). However, due to scarcity, it was very rarely used in conventional PCs (the two main models based on it are the home PC-6128Ts and the Rusich educational PC)

The graphic and sound controllers were exactly the same as those of the Vector - and this is understandable, since they were already at a very high level. Moreover, switching pages of memory made it possible to use up to 4 independent 32-kilobyte frame buffers. The keyboard was also exactly the same as that of the classic "Vector" and, moreover, reed switch. As we can see, the PK-6128Ts model was actually ideal, more modern version"Vector", correcting even those minor flaws that could be blamed on "Vector-06Ts" - here is BASIC in ROM, and extended RAM, and a new processor (for which the frequency of 3 MHz was quite standard, and not "overclocked", which reduced problems during production) and an excellent reed keyboard, and the initial ability to connect drives without any external controllers, and other additional features.

Rice. 172. The use in the PC-6128Ts of a more modern element base (in particular, 8 KB RAM and ROM chips) even made it possible to slightly reduce the number of microcircuits compared to Vector-06Ts (there are 81 of them on the “system” board), despite significantly increased PC capabilities

Judging by the presence of a local area network (LAN) adapter, it can be assumed that the model was specifically designed for the education sector, where the presence of a network was a mandatory requirement. Unfortunately, the production volume of these PCs was very small, and they were little known to anyone. It's a pity - such a computer in the early 1990s could have been an excellent standard for inexpensive Soviet home and educational PCs. In reality, in the early 90s, new market principles brought us not such relatively modern and advanced computers as the PK-6128Ts, but many Soviet clones of the frankly outdated English computer ZX Spectrum, whose graphic and sound capabilities were still acceptable in the early 1980s at the time of its appearance on the market, but in the early 1990s, its literally only advantage for users was the presence of a huge mass of programs and especially games accumulated over almost 10 years.

So, by the beginning of the 1990s, at least a hundred models of home PCs were being produced in the USSR and then in the CIS, which can be divided into 8 main families. Each of them (except, of course, the penultimate one) maintains good PC compatibility with each other - it is possible to use the same programs without alteration or with minimal changes:

Fully 16-bit PCs of the Soviet design "Electronics BK-0010", BK-0010-01, BK-0011 and BK-0011M, partially compatible (according to the processor instruction set) with other computers based on the PDP-11 / LSI-11 architecture; processor clock speed - 3 or 4 MHz, RAM - 32 or 128 KB, ROM - 24–48 KB, screen resolution - 256 × 256 (color) and 512 × 256 (monochrome), for BK-0010 / 0010-01 - 4 permanent colors (black, blue, green, red), BK-0011/0011M has 16 variants of 4-color palettes (8 display colors); produced (BK-0010) from 1983-1984 (massively from about 1985-1986); the cost in the minimum configuration is from 600 (BK-0010) to 1500 rubles. (BK-0011M); total production - about 160,000 pieces; The main advantages of these PCs are: a modern and very convenient processor architecture and a simple architecture of the PC itself, which greatly simplifies assembly language programming, as well as partial compatibility with other computers of the PDP-11 / LSI-11 standard, which had a huge program library (by the early 1990s, BK have had the largest selection programs and games among purely Soviet PCs); main drawbacks: a modest set of colors (only 4 colors displayed simultaneously on the screen) and a small amount of RAM in BK-0010/0010-01.

Rice. 174. "Electronics BK-0010" - a classic look with a color flat keyboard printed on paper and covered with a film (under the paper - a keyboard matrix of low-profile buttons PKN-150)

Rice. 175. BK-0011 - outwardly, almost a complete copy of BK-0010-01 (but again a sliding cover appeared over the panels with ROM)

Inexpensive partially 16-bit (most of the components are 8-bit) IBM-compatible PCs based on the K1810VM88 processor or fully 16-bit on the K1810VM86; processor frequency - 4.77 or 5 MHz, RAM - 128 or 256 KB (in later versions - up to 512-640 KB), ROM - from 8 to 48 KB (only BIOS or BIOS + BASIC), CGA video adapter (graphics 320x200 with 4 colors or 640x200 monochrome), hardware sound generator (1 channel); about 10 models: "Poisk", "Assistant-128", MK-88, "Electronics MS1502", "Kvazar-86M", "Praktik", etc.; produced since 1988–1989 (massively since the early 90s); price in the minimum configuration - from 1050 rubles. ("Search"); total production - about 100-150 thousand pieces (very approximately); their main advantages: good parameters"hardware" for low-cost PCs (processor power, RAM size) and the presence of a huge library of ready-made programs for IBM PC-compatible PCs (especially when connecting a drive to a PC and expanding RAM), not only for application or system, but also for games; the main drawback is CGA graphics with a limited set of colors (no more than 4 colors displayed simultaneously on the screen in graphics mode), which is clearly inferior to the graphics of many 8-bit PCs.

Rice. 176. "Assistant-128": almost complete compatibility with the IBM PC / XT at the price of a regular "Spectrum"

Rice. 177. "Search" is equipped with an 88-key keyboard - this is less than the usual keyboards of IBM-compatible PCs, but enough for comfortable work; in addition, the quality of the keyboard is high (it is a modern film type); on top of the case there are also 4 slots for additional devices (they are not compatible with the ISA slots on the IBM PC)

8-bit PCs of the Radio-86RK family based on the KR580VM80A processor; clock frequency 1.78 MHz (with braking), RAM - from 32 to 64 KB, ROM - from 2 to 16 KB, pseudo graphics with a resolution of 128 × 50 to 192 × 128, in some models - support for up to 8 colors, in some models - a simple hardware sound generator (1 or 3 channels); at least 15 serial models: "Mikrosha", "Apogee BK-01" (01C), "Krista", "Alpha BK", "Partner 01.01", "Spectrum-001", "Electronics KR", "Impulse", " Geofit”, “Quantor BK-1098”, etc.; produced since 1986-1987 ("Mikrosha"); prices - from 400 to 650 rubles; total production - about 100,000 pieces (very approximate); main advantages: simplicity of design and low cost, a relatively large amount of user RAM in some PCs (including due to the lack of a graphic screen), good opportunities for professional use (with a full-fledged character generator with support for lowercase letters); the big drawback is the inability to display real graphics and, in most models, color, which sharply narrows their scope and reduces competitiveness.

Rice. 178. PK "Mikrosha" - a very famous serial analogue of "Radio-86RK" (created by the developers of "RK" themselves); good design, simple construction and relatively low price (about 500 rubles in the late 80s)

Rice. 179. PC "Partner 01.01": an interesting version of a computer compatible with "Radio-86RK" - 64 Kbytes of RAM, 16 Kbytes of ROM (with BASIC, Monitor, editor and assembler), rather high-resolution pseudographics 128x100 and as many as 4 expansion slots

8-bit PCs of the Specialist family based on the KR580VM80A processor; clock frequency 2 MHz (without braking), RAM - from 32 to 64 KB (usually 48 KB), ROM - from 2 to 14 KB, graphics 384 × 256 pixels monochrome (for some models - color, from 5 to 16 colors), software sound generator; at least 15 serial models: "Lik", "Setik", "Pioneer", "Kedr PK-8702", "Rainbow", "Don", "Quantum", "Sputnik", etc.; produced since the late 1980s; prices - from about 400 to 600 rubles; the total volume of production is about several tens of thousands of pieces; main advantages: simplicity and low cost, good speed, fairly high-resolution graphics, a fairly large amount of user RAM (that is, these PCs were among the most affordable and versatile); the disadvantage is the monochrome graphics of most models, which, first of all, reduced their capabilities in the gaming field.

Rice. 180. PC "Setic" - a simple "clone" of "Specialist"; only the keyboard is unusual in it - a completely flat membrane type (this is the cheapest type of keyboards, and it was not so common in Soviet PCs)

Rice. 181. PK "Pioneer": one of the serial analogues of the "Specialist"; features an extended keyboard - 87 keys (however, 5 of them are not used and in general the keyboard is not compatible in layout with the original "Specialist"); 5-color graphics with a resolution of 384x256 pixels are supported

8-bit computers of the PK8000 family: Sura, Hobby, Vesta; this also includes PC8002 "Elf", which has significantly expanded graphics and sound capabilities; processor KR580VM80A; clock frequency 2.5 MHz (with strong braking from the video controller), RAM 64 KB, ROM 16 KB (for PC8002 - 4 KB), graphics 256 × 192 pixels, 15 permanent colors (for PC8002 resolution - up to 512 × 212, colors programmed from a palette of 256 colors), software sound generator (for PC8002 - 3-channel hardware with a noise generator and a total 32-level volume control); produced since 1987–1988 (PK8000); prices - from about 1000 to 1150 rubles. (PK8000); total production - about 50,000 pieces (very approximate); advantages: excellent hardware support for games (color character generator, PC8002 also has hardware sprites), large amount of user RAM in PC8000 (almost 48 KB are available to BASIC), good reed keyboard; disadvantages: no high screen resolution (PC8002 has monochrome), which makes non-gaming PC use difficult, PC8000 does not have a hardware sound generator (which is very important for games), a relatively small selection of available programs, including games.

Rice. 182. PK8002 Elf is one of the most advanced Soviet home PCs in terms of graphics and sound; the only domestic PC of those years with a hardware implementation of sprites; case and keyboard design is completely similar to PK8000 and Corvette

Rice. 183. PK8000 "Sura" (almost completely similar "Vesta" and "Hobby" were also produced): a wonderful Soviet home computer, partially compatible with the MSX standard (mainly in the design of a video controller that supports a programmable color character generator; processor and sound are incompatible with MSX) . The keyboard is also modeled after the MSX.

8-bit PCs of the Vector family: Vector-06Ts (and 06Ts.01 / 06Ts.02), Vector Start-1200, Krista-2, PK-6128Ts; processor KR580VM80A (IM1821VM85A for PC-6128Ts); clock frequency 3 MHz (for "Krista-2" - 2.5 MHz), RAM 64 KB (for PC-6128Ts - 128 KB), ROM 0.5-4 KB (for PC-6128Ts - 16 KB), graphics 256 ×256 dots, 16 colors or 512x256 dots, 4 colors (for Vector-06Ts and PK-6128Ts all colors are programmed from a palette of 256 colors), hardware 3-channel sound generator; produced from 1987–1988; prices - from about 700 to 1000 rubles. (basic model, "Vector-06Ts", - 750 rubles); total production - about 100,000 pieces (very approximate); advantages: the highest graphics quality among Soviet home PCs (it also significantly exceeds the average level of 8-bit foreign home PCs), flexible video controller and memory architecture (it is possible to use from 8 to 32 KB of total RAM for video memory), excellent hardware support for game graphics (vertical scrolling, overlay plans, programmable palette), high resolution (convenient for professional and educational use), hardware 3-channel sound, a good amount of user RAM (up to 56 KB); disadvantage - there is no BASIC in ROM (for all, except for PC-6128C).

Rice. 184. The PC-6128Ts computer is outwardly a complete copy of the standard Vector-06Ts, but inside it has been significantly improved: RAM expanded to 128 Kbytes, ROM - up to 16 Kbytes, disk drive and local network controllers added; a more modern and fast IM1821VM85A is used as a processor

Rice. 185. PC "Krista-2" - a mysterious analogue of "Vector-06Ts" with a different arrangement of keys, a lower processor frequency (2.5 MHz instead of 3 MHz) and one fixed 16-color palette instead of the programmable palette of "Vector"

Other 8-bit PCs based on the KR580VM80A processor, incompatible with other families: PK-01 Lviv, Iskra 1080 Tartu, Orion-128, Junior FV-6506, etc.; clock frequency 2–2.5 MHz, RAM - 64 KB (Lviv, Iskra 1080 Tartu) or 128 KB (Junior, Orion-128), ROM - from 2 KB (Orion-128 ) up to 20 Kbytes (Iskra 1080 Tartu), graphics - from 240×120 pixels with 8 colors (Junior) and 256×256 pixels with 4 colors from a palette of 8 colors (PK-01 Lvov) up to 384× 256 dots with 4 or 16 colors ("Iskra 1080 Tartu", "Orion-128"), software sound generator (for "Junior" - hardware 1-channel); at least 5 production models; produced from about 1987–1988 (Lvov, Iskra 1080); prices - from about 750 to 1000 rubles; total production - about 150,000 pieces (very approximately), of which ~ 80 thousand from Lvov; advantages: a good amount of user RAM, mostly good and excellent graphics capabilities (especially for Orion-128 and Iskra 1080); the disadvantage is a small selection of programs (especially for Iskra 1080 and Junior).

Rice. 187. PK-01 "Lviv": one of the common Soviet home PCs based on the 8-bit KR580VM80A processor. Nice design, the keyboard is similar to the Radio-86RK standard, but control and function keys are added on top

8-bit PC compatible with ZX Spectrum; processor Zilog Z80A (or its numerous analogues of Soviet, Korean, Japanese, etc. production), clock frequency 3.5 MHz, RAM 48, 64 or (rarely) 128 KB, ROM 16 or (rarely) 32 KB, graphics 256 ×192 dots, 15 permanent colors (for each familiarity of 8×8 dots, a special one-byte color attribute is set), software sound generator (less often - 3-channel hardware sound generator with noise generator and volume control); at least 100 (!) models of both factory production and handicraft or semi-handicraft (cooperatives, small businesses, etc.); examples of models: "Byte", "Magic", "Companion", "Delta", "Santaka", "Robi", "Nafanya", "Orel", "North", "Synthesis", "Gamma", "Quantum" , Quorum, Raton, Peak, Ural, Forum, etc.; produced (the earliest models) since about 1989; regular prices (until the end of 1991) - from about 900 to 1300 rubles; the total production of all models - about 1 million pieces or more (until the end of the 1990s); advantages: bright and fairly fast color graphics (but with low color resolution), huge selection ready-made high-quality programs and games from the ZX Spectrum PC; disadvantages: rather high cost, no high resolution (which limits professional and educational use of a PC), it is impossible to display detailed color graphics, many models have a simplified keyboard (both in the design of buttons and in their number).

Rice. 188. PC "Raton-9003" - one of dozens of "Spectrum"-compatible PCs of the early 90s; the keyboard is slightly wider than the original ZX Spectrum 48K (47 buttons instead of 40)

Rice. 189. "Eton" - a compact "Spectrum"-compatible PC (case width less than 30 cm) with a simple membrane keyboard

I emphasize once again - only household PCs are listed above, but there were also educational ones: Agat, Corvette, UKNTS, Nemiga, Bashkiria, Rusich and others, there were also professional ones: the DVK family, Electronics- 85", "Soyuz-Neon PK-11/16", "Istra-4816", many IBM-compatible and other personal computers.

So the myth about the backwardness of the USSR in the field of computerization was in many ways just a myth. Although, no doubt, we had our own characteristics associated with a different type of economy and other needs of the country.

We have good news: from now on, every weekend we will publish the "top 20 ..." - a rating of products, technologies, inventions and inventors, one way or another related to IT.

Our first rating will be the most general. We included computers in it, which, in our opinion, had the greatest impact on the development of the industry. Let's make a reservation right away: in this 20-ke there will be computers in the usual sense of the word - no mechanical "pascalins" and "arithmometers" (we will devote a separate rating to them).

Let's go!

1. Z1

1938 The first programmable computer with an electric drive.

This electromechanical machine of the German engineer Konrad Zuse belongs to the zero generation. In accordance with the ideas of Zuse, it consisted of the main control program, RAM and an additional computing module. The Z1 used an electromagnetic relay as its main component. The peak performance of the Z1 was somewhere around 1Hz (1 multiplication in 5 seconds), and its operation was provided by a motor from a vacuum cleaner with a power of 1 kW. The machine was placed on several tables pushed together, occupied about 4 m² and weighed 500 kg.

In fact, the real Z1 computer was still far away, and it worked extremely unstable. But in some ways it was more progressive than ENIAC or EDVAC - Z1 used a binary number system and supported data input from a normal keyboard. Unfortunately, the original Z1 and its descendants Z2 and Z3, along with all the documentation, perished in 1944 under Allied bombs.

2. ENIAC

1946 The first general purpose electronic digital computer.

This American car can already be safely called a first-generation computer. ENIAC had all the hallmarks of a real computer, including a fully electronic component base - vacuum tubes.

A team led by J. Eckert and J. Mauchly spent 3 years buildingENIACand received a real monster weighing 30 tons, which occupied several halls and consumed 174 kW. Computing powerENIACwas 357 operationsmultiplication or 5000 operationsadditions ingive me a sec , clock frequency - 100kHz. The machine supported data entry from punched cards, and was programmed by a whole system of toggle switches.

For several years, ENIAC has been used to solve scientific and military problems, however, with varying degrees of success. In general, this computer cannot be called successful: ENIAC broke down every other time, was inconvenient to use and, frankly, had become outdated by the time it was put into operation. But! This machine was able to prove that computers have a future, and this direction needs to be developed.

1957 The first computer entirely built on transistors.

After numerous tube ENIAC, EDVAC, EDSAC, a new breakthrough happened - NCR, together with GE, developed a computer that used a completely new element base - transistors. The resulting computer NCR-304 can be called the first computer of the second generation.

In the basic configuration, the machine consisted of a block with a central processing unit, magnetic tape memory units, media converters and high-speed data input-output equipment.

The benefits of the new architecture became immediately apparent. NCR-304 easily fit in one room, was easy to use, and, most importantly, it turned out to be much more reliable than its lamp ancestors. Buyers immediately lined up: first the US Marine Corps, then a number of institutions in Washington, and then foreigners - the Japanese bank Sumimoto and others. The car was so successful that it lasted 17 years on the market - the last NCR-304 was dismantled only in 1974.

4 Casio 14-A

1957 The first electric calculator.

By the mid-1950s, computers had spread quite widely, but then the question arose: what about accountants, auditors, and in general everyone who does not need the power of large computers for calculations? The Casio 14-A was the answer. In fact, this is the same calculator as in your mobile phone or tablet - only analog and weighing 150 kg.

The 14-A performed four basic arithmetic operations, was capable of displaying 14-digit numbers, and had little memory. For all its resemblance to a lathe, it was still much more compact and cheaper than existing computers. The target audience appreciated the advantages of the new machine, and since then calculators have been actively developed: they switched to transistors, microcircuits, became miniature, convenient and extremely cheap.

5Apollo Guidance Computer

1961 or 1962. The first embedded computer and the first computer on chips.

The Apollo's on-board control computer is an engineering marvel manufactured at the Raytheon factories. AGC was probably the most advanced development in the IT sector in the early 60s. Modifications of this computer were installed on the command and lunar modules, and they performed calculations and controlled movement, navigation, and controlled the modules during flights.

It was already striking that the element base for the AGC was not lamps or transistors, but integrated circuits. Up to 60% of all microcircuits produced in the USA at that time went to the needs of the Apollo program and specifically to build the AGC. This made it possible to make the computer fast (clock frequency - 2MHz, RAM 512 Bit, ROM 8Kb) and compact enough (250 kg) to be built into the dashboard of each of the modules.

The descendants of AGC are embedded industrial, on-board and household computers. As for microchips, the mass production of computers based on them began only ten years after AGC.

6. PDP-1 and UM-1NH

1961 and 1963 respectively. Fighting for the right to be considered the first first mini-computer.

By the beginning of the 60s, computers still occupied entire halls and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the use of transistors made them an order of magnitude faster than tube “dinosaurs”. This prompted DEC engineers to an interesting idea - to create a compact and inexpensive transistorized computer.

In 1961 appearedPDP-one. Computer cost $20000, had a size of about 4 refrigerators and a speed of about 20,000 commands per second. Fast car.One of the innovations of the PDP-1 was a 512 x 512 pixel display.PDPwent into series and became one of the most popular computers of the 60s and 70s.

In the USSR, too, they did not sit idly by. In 1963, the UM1-NH computer (“Control machine No. 1 for the national economy”) was introduced in Leningrad. It was slower than the PDP-1 and used discrete logic, but it turned out to be much more compact - it weighed only 80 kg and fit on a desk.

7. IBM System/360

1964 The first family of mass-produced, scalable computers.

The value of this product from IBM is difficult to overestimate. The System/360 series was the first example of computer standardization and scalability. Instead of releasing a closed system as before, IBM designed the System/360 as a set of blocks that were compatible with each other, and they all used the same instruction set.

Having bought such a computer once, the customer could improve it, purchase the necessary peripherals, customize it to fit his needs and at the same time not lose the initial investment.

Scalability was not the only finding of IBM engineers. The System/360 was also the first 32-bit system, could handle 16Mb of memory, clock speeds up to 5MHz, and became so successful that it was readily bought until the late 1970s.

8 CDC6600

1964 The first supercomputer.

This masterpiece of Seymour Cray was later called a supercomputer, and then it was “just” an innovative machine with an advanced architecture that could be used to solve very complex problems.

The CDC 6600 was the first to use silicon transistors instead of germanium, an active freon-based cooling system, and all this formed a completely new architecture. The CDC 6600 main processor performed only logical and arithmetic operations, and 10 "peripheral" processors were responsible for working with devices. As a result, the CDC 6600 was capable of simultaneously performing multiple additions, multiplications, and divisions. Thanks to such parallel computing, it became the fastest computer of its time, and a number of its architectural features formed the basis of RISC processors that appeared in the 70s.

9.Honeywell DP-516

1969 The first router server.

Initially, the DP-516 was a fairly ordinary mini-computer - until it was noticed by Jerry Elkind and Larry Robert, who proposed the scheme for the first computer network.

To organize what was soon called ARPANET, it took IMP (Interface Message Processor) - modified DP-516. These computers began to perform the tasks of routing flows in the network. Each such computer could connect to six other IMPs via leased telephone lines from AT&T and transfer data at speeds up to 56 Kbps.

The first experiments on connecting two computers through the IMP took place in the same 1969 - a connection was established between computers in Los Angeles and Stanford.

10. Magnavox Odyssey

1972 First commercial game console.

Until the early 70s computer games were rare fun for students and laboratory assistants who had access to serious computers. In the mid-60s, the American Engineer Ralph Baer, ​​that it was time to change the situation, and in 1969 introduced the Brown Box, a prototype of the game console. It was a compact device based on the simplest discrete logic. It was connected to a TV and allowed using manipulators to play simple games like "two squares drive a third square around the screen."

Baer signed a contract with Magnavox, which in 1972 released a commercial version of his Brown Box called Odyssey. The console cost around $100, sold well, and laid the foundation for a whole home video game market.