Is
there a web site or inventory of early Russian
computers like the Russian
Calculator site run by our fellow friend AD? Was there a system similar to
The Soviet BESM-6 is described at
http://www.mailcom.com/besm6/
There's an emulator on that site, too :)
"BESM-6 was designed in 1965 by a group of engineers working at the
S.A.Lebedev Institute of Precise Mechanics and Computing Equipment (ITMiVT
in Russian). One of them was Mark Tyapkin, who is still with IPMCE, afaik.
The production started in 1967, by the "SAM Plant" (SAM stands for
"Computing-Analytical Machines") in Moscow. The base configuration included
CPU, 192 Kb of core memory, magnetic drums, propriatary magnetic tape
drives, teletypes, typewriters (with parallel interface), alphanumeric
printers and punchcard/punchtape readers and writers. About 350 copies have
been made until early 80's. The later configurations included standard 1/2
inch tapes and IBM-clone magnetic disc drives, serial videoterminals,
plotters, etc, mostly imported or clones of the original hardware.
The main purpose of BESM-6 was "number crunching", so it did not have any
specific instructions for character manipulation. The memory could only be
addressed word by word. "