Minsk family of computers
Encyclopedia
Minsk family of mainframe
computers was developed and produced in the Byelorussian SSR
from 1959 to 1975. Its further progress was stopped by a political decision of switching to IBM
System/360
clone
family known as ES EVM
during the brief period of détente
.
The most advanced model was Minsk-32, developed in 1968. It supported COBOL
, FORTRAN
and ALGAMS (a version of ALGOL
). This and earlier versions also used a machine-oriented language called AKI (AvtoKod "Inzhener", i.e., "Engineer's Autocode"). It stood somewhere between the native assembly language
SSK (Sistema Simvolicheskogo Kodirovaniya, or "System of symbolic coding") and higher-level languages, like FORTRAN.
M-20, M-220 and M222 were a a range of general purpose computers designed and manufactured in the USSR.
These computers were developed by the Scientific Research Institute of Electronic Machines (NIIEM) and built
at Moscow Plant of Calculating and Analyzing Machines (SAM) and
the Kazan Plant of Computing Machines (under the Ministry of Radio Industry of the USSR).
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
computers was developed and produced in the Byelorussian SSR
Byelorussian SSR
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It was one of the four original founding members of the Soviet Union in 1922, together with the Ukrainian SSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
from 1959 to 1975. Its further progress was stopped by a political decision of switching to IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
System/360
System/360
The IBM System/360 was a mainframe computer system family first announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and sold between 1964 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover the complete range of applications, from small to large, both commercial and scientific...
clone
Clone (computer science)
In computing, a clone is a hardware or software system that is designed to mimic another system. Compatibility with the original system is usually the explicit purpose of cloning hardware or low-level software such as operating systems...
family known as ES EVM
ES EVM
ES EVM was a series of clones of IBM's System/360 and System/370 mainframes, released in the Comecon countries under the initiative of the Soviet Union since the 1960s. Production continued until 1998...
during the brief period of détente
Détente
Détente is the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation. The term is often used in reference to the general easing of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s, a thawing at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War...
.
The most advanced model was Minsk-32, developed in 1968. It supported COBOL
COBOL
COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages. Its name is an acronym for COmmon Business-Oriented Language, defining its primary domain in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments....
, FORTRAN
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
and ALGAMS (a version of ALGOL
ALGOL
ALGOL is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in the mid 1950s which greatly influenced many other languages and became the de facto way algorithms were described in textbooks and academic works for almost the next 30 years...
). This and earlier versions also used a machine-oriented language called AKI (AvtoKod "Inzhener", i.e., "Engineer's Autocode"). It stood somewhere between the native assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
SSK (Sistema Simvolicheskogo Kodirovaniya, or "System of symbolic coding") and higher-level languages, like FORTRAN.
M-20, M-220 and M222 were a a range of general purpose computers designed and manufactured in the USSR.
These computers were developed by the Scientific Research Institute of Electronic Machines (NIIEM) and built
at Moscow Plant of Calculating and Analyzing Machines (SAM) and
the Kazan Plant of Computing Machines (under the Ministry of Radio Industry of the USSR).
Operating systems
Provided batch-processing and simultaneous execution, subsequently enhance to provide a multitasking mode.- OS4-220 - for the М-220
- DM-222 - for the М-222
Programming languages available
- FORTRANFortranFortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
- an optimized ALPHA translator - by A.P. Ershov - ALGOL 60ALGOL 60ALGOL 60 is a member of the ALGOL family of computer programming languages. It gave rise to many other programming languages, including BCPL, B, Pascal, Simula, C, and many others. ALGOL 58 introduced code blocks and the begin and end pairs for delimiting them...
- compiler - ALGOL 68ALGOL 68ALGOL 68 isan imperative computerprogramming language that was conceived as a successor to theALGOL 60 programming language, designed with the goal of a...
- compiler, written in ALGOL 60 / EPSILONEPSILON (programming language)A macro language with high level features including strings and lists, developed by A.P. Ershov at Novosibirsk in 1967. EPSILON was used to implement ALGOL 68 on the M-220 computer.- See also :...
See also
- http://www.computer-museum.ru/english/m220.htm
- The Association of M-20 Users - a M-20 software distributor
- L.N. Korolyov. The computer structures and their software base. Moscow, Nauka, 1974.
- Electronic digital computation machines for general purposes. Vol. 4. NII EIR Publication, 1972.
- Mark NemenmanMark NemenmanMark Nemenman is a Soviet computer scientist, notable as a pioneer in systems programming and programming language research. He was one of the main developers of the AKI language in 1964, before BASIC became known...