The Power Macintosh represents Apple`s well-planned and successful leap to
bridge two disparate hardware platforms. Older Macs run Motorola's 680x0
CISK line, which is running out of steam; the Power Macs run existing 680x0-
based applications yet provide Power PC performance, a combination that
sold over a million systems in a year.
IBM ThinkPad 701C
It is not often anymore that a new computer inspires gee-whiz sentiment,
but IBM's Butterfly subnotebook does, with its marvelous expanding
keyboard. The 701C`s two-part keyboard solves the last major piece in the
puzzle of building of usable subnotebook: how to provide comfortable touch-
typing.(OK, so the floppy drive is sill external.)
With a full-size keyboard and a 10.4-inch screen, the 4.5-pound 701C
compares favorably with full-size notebooks. Battery life is good, too.
The development of computers in ukraine and the former USSR
The government and the authorities had paid serious attention to the
development of the computer industry right after the Second World War. The
leading bodies considered this task to be one of the principal for the
national economy.
Up to the beginning of the 1950s there were only small productive
capacities which specialized in the producing accounting and account-
perforating (punching) machines. The electronic numerical computer
engineering was only arising and the productive capacities for it were
close to the naught.
The first serious steps in the development of production base were made
initially in the late 1950s when the work on creating the first industry
samples of the electronic counting machines was finished and there were
created M-20, “Ural-1”, “Minsk-1”, which together with their semi-conductor
successors (M-220, “Ural-11-14”, “Minsk-22” and “Minsk-32”) created in the
1960s were the main ones in the USSR until the computers of the third
generation were put into the serial production, that is until the early
1970s.
In the 1960s the science-research and assembling base was enlarged. As the
result of this measures, all researches connected with creating and putting
into the serial production of semi-conductor electronic computing machines
were almost finished. That allowed to stop the production of the first
generation machines beginning from the 1964.
Next decades the whole branch of the computer engineering had been created.
The important steps were undertaken to widen the productive capacities for
the 3d generation machines.
Kiev
the homecity of mesm
MESM was conceived by S.A.Lebedev to be a model of a Big Electronic
Computing Machine (BESM). At first it was called the Model of the Big
Electronic Computing Machine, but ,later, in the process of its creation
there appeared the evident expediency of transforming it in a small
computer. For that reason there were added: the impute-output devices,
magnetic drum storage, the register capacity was enhanced; and the word
“Model” was changed for “Malaya” (Small).
S.A.Lebedev was proposed to head the Institute of Energetics in Kiev. After
a year; when the Institute of was divided into two departments: the
electronical one and the department of heat-and-power engineering, Lebedev
became the director of the first one. He also added his laboratory of
analogue computation to the already existing ones of the electronical type.
At once he began to work on computer science instead of the usual, routine
researches in the field of engineering means of stabilization and
structures of automated devices. Lebedev was awarded the State Prize of the
USSR. Since autumn 1948 Lebedev directed his laboratory towards creating
the MESM. The most difficult part of the work was the practical creation of
MESM. It might be only the many-sided experience of the researches that
allowed the scientist to fulfill the task perfectly; whereas one inaccuracy
was made: the hall at the ground-floor of a two-storied building was
assigned for MESM and when, at last, the MESM was assembled and switched
on, 6,000 of red-hot electronic lamps created the “tropics” in the hall, so
they had to remove a part of the ceiling to decrease the temperature.
In autumn 1951 the machine executed a complex program rather stabile.
ТНЕ MESM WITH SOME OF THE PERSONAL (KIEV, 1951)
Finally all the tests were over and on December, 15 the MESM was put into
operation.
If to remember those short terms the MESM was projected, assembled, and
debugged - in two years - and taking into consideration that only 12 people
(including Lebedev) took part in the creating who were helped by 15
engineers we shall see that S.A.Lebedev and his team accomplished a feat
(200 engineers and many workers besides 13 main leaders took part in the
creation of the first American computer ENIAC).
As life have showed the foundations of the computer-building laid by
Lebedev are used in modern computers without any fundamental changes.
Nowadays they are well known:
such devices an arithmetic and memory input-output and control ones should
be a part of a computer architecture;
the program of computing is encoded and stored in the memory as numbers;
the binary system should be used for encoding the numbers and commands;
the computations should be made automatically basing on the program stored
in the memory and operations on commands;
besides arithmetic, logical operations are used: comparisons, conjunction,
disjunction, and negation;
the hierarchy memory method is used;
the numerical methods are used for solving the tasks.
The main fault of The 70s
or
the years of “might-have-been hopes”
The great accumulated experience in creating computers, the profound
comparison of our domestic achievements with the new examples of foreign
computer technique prompted the scientists that it is possible to create
the computing means of new generation meeting the world standards. Of that
opinion were many outstanding Ukrainian scientists of that time - Lebedev,
Dorodnitsin, Glushkov and others. They proceeded from quite a favorable
situation in the country.
The computerization of national economy was considered as one of the most
essential tasks. The decision to create the United system of computers -
the machines of new generation on integrals.
The USA were the first to create the families of computers. In 1963-64 the
IBM Company worked out the IBM-360 system. It comprised the models with
different capacities for which a wide range of software was created.
A decision concerning the third generation of computers (their structure
and architecture) was to be made in the USSR in the late 60s.
But instead of making the decision based on the scientific grounds
concerning the future of the United system of computers the Ministry of
Electronic Industry issued the administrative order to copy the IBM-360
system. The leaders of the Ministry did not take into consideration the
opinion of the leading scientists of the country.
Despite the fact that there were enough grounds for thinking the 70s would
bring new big progresses, those years were the step back due to the fault
way dictated by the highest authorities from above.
The comparison of the computer development
in the usa and ukraine
At the time when the computer science was just uprising this two countries
were one of the most noticeably influential. There were a lot of talented
scientists and inventors in both of them. But the situation in Ukraine
(which at that time was one of 15 Republics of the former USSR) was
complicated, on one hand, with the consequences of the Second World War
and, on the other hand, at a certain period Cybernetics and Computer
Science were not acknowledged. Of cause, later it went to the past, but
nevertheless it played a negative role on the Ukrainian computer
development.
It also should be noticed that in America they paid more attention to the
development of computers for civil and later personal use. But in Ukraine
the attention was mainly focused on the military and industrial needs.
Another interesting aspect of the Ukrainian computer development was the
process of the 70s when “sovietizing” of the IBM-360 system became the
first step on the way of weakening of positions achieved by the Soviet
machinery construction the first two decades of its development. The next
step that led to the further lag was the mindless copying by the SU
Ministry of Electronic Industry and putting into production the next
American elaborations in the field of microprocessor equipment.
The natural final stage was buying in enormous quantities of foreign
computers last years and pressing to the deep background our domestic
researches, and developments, and the computer-building industry on the
whole.
Another interesting aspect of the Ukrainian computer development was the
process of the 70s when the “sovietising” of the IBM-360 system became the
first step on the way of weakening of positions, achieved by the Soviet
machinery construction of the first two decades of its development. The
next step that led to the further lag was the mindless copying of the next
American elaborations in the field of microprocessor technique by the
Ministry of Computer Industry.
CONCLUSION
Having analyzed the development of computer science in two countries I have
found some similar and some distinctive features in the arising of
computers.
First of all, I would like to say that at the first stages the two
countries rubbed shoulders with each other. But then, at a certain stage
the USSR was sadly mistaken having copied the IBM-360 out of date
technology. Estimating the discussion of possible ways of the computer
technique development in the former USSR in late 1960s - early 1970s from
the today point of view it can be noticed that we have chosen a worse if
not the worst one. The only progressive way was to base on our domestic
researches and to collaborate with the west-European companies in working
out the new generation of machines. Thus we would reach the world level of
production, and we would have a real base for the further development
together with leading European companies.
Unfortunately the last twenty years may be called the years of “unrealized
possibilities”. Today it is still possible to change the situation; but
tomorrow it will be too late.
Will the new times come? Will there be a new renaissance of science,
engineering and national economy as it was in the post-war period? Only one
thing remains for us - that is to wait, to hope and to do our best to reach
the final goal.
bibliography:
1. Stephen G. Nash “A History of Scientific Computing”, ACM Press History
Series, New York, 1990.
2. The America House Pro-Quest Database: “Byte” Magazine, September,
1995.
3. William Aspray, Charles Babbage Institute Reprint Series in the
History of Computing 7, Los Angeles, 1985.
4. D.J.Frailey “Computer Architecture” in Encyclopedia of Computer
Science.
5. Stan Augarten “Bit by Bit: An Illustrated History of Computers”, New
York, 1984.
6. Michael R. Williams “A History of Computing Technology”, Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey, 1985.
