Creation of 1 computer. Who invented the computer? British "Bombs" and "Colossi"

Few people know that the mathematical foundations of computer science and computer technology appeared in the Russian Empire. Who invented the first Russian computer, what BESM is, who benefits from the machine instead of the proletariat, and why there is not a single significant computer manufacturer in the country - T&P publish a chapter from Lauren Graham’s book “Can Russia Compete?” , published by Mann, Ivanov and Ferber.

The Russians were also pioneers in the development of computing devices, electronic computers (computers), and the mathematical foundations of computer science. In the last years of the Russian Empire, Russian engineers and scientists made important steps on the path of development of computing devices. During the Soviet period, a whole group of mathematicians, among them Vladimir Kotelnikov, Andrei Kolmogorov, Israel Gelfand and others, made a significant contribution to the development of information theory. Soviet scientists and engineers created the first digital electronic computer in continental Europe. When American and Soviet engineers began collaborating on space exploration, in some cases the Soviet engineers "calculated" problems much faster than their American counterparts. However, in subsequent years, interest in computers increasingly turned to the commercial plane, and the Soviet Union could not withstand the competition. Soviet scientists working in the field of computing technology were forced to abandon their developments and adopt IBM standards. Today, not a single significant computer manufacturer from Russia is represented on the international market.

“Few in the West know that two years earlier, Russian logician Viktor Shestakov put forward a similar theory of ladder circuits based on Boolean algebra, but he did not publish his work until 1941.”

Russians began to show scientific activity quite early in the development of computers, information theory and computers. Even before the 1917 revolution, Russian engineers and scientists had made significant progress in this area. Russian naval engineer and mathematician Alexei Krylov (1863–1945) was interested in the application of mathematical methods in shipbuilding. In 1904, he created an automatic device for solving differential equations. Another young engineer, Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich (1888–1940), also working in St. Petersburg, worked on vacuum tubes and their use in radio engineering. Around 1916, he invented one of the first two-position relays (the so-called cathode relay) based on an electrical circuit with two cathode tubes.

One of the pioneers of information theory in the West was Claude Shannon. In 1937, he defended his master's thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in which he demonstrated that relay complexes, combined with the binary number system, could be used to solve problems in Boolean algebra. The results of Shannon's scientific work form the basis of the theory of digital networks for computers. But few in the West know that two years earlier, in 1935, Russian logician Viktor Shestakov put forward a similar theory of ladder circuits based on Boolean algebra, but he did not publish his work until 1941, four years after Shannon. Neither Shannon nor Shestakov knew anything about each other's work.

The first electronic computer in continental Europe was created in secrecy in 1948–1951 in a place called Feofaniya near Kyiv. Before the revolution, there was a monastery here, surrounded by oak forests and flowering meadows, abundant with berries, mushrooms, and wild animals and birds were found here. In the early years of Soviet power, a psychiatric hospital was located in the monastery buildings. Converting religious institutions into research or medical institutions was a fairly common practice in the Soviet state. During World War II, all of the hospital's patients were killed or disappeared, and the buildings were destroyed. In spring and autumn, the road to this place was so damaged that it was impossible to drive along it. And in good weather we had to bounce over bumps. In 1948, the dilapidated buildings were handed over to electrical engineer Sergei Lebedev to create an electronic computer. In Feofaniya, Lebedev, 20 engineers and 10 assistants developed the Small Electronic Computing Machine (MESM) - one of the fastest computers in the world, which had many interesting characteristics. Its architecture was completely original and did not resemble the architecture of American computers, which were the only ones in the world that were superior to it at that time.

“He usually took his papers and the candle into the bathroom, where he spent hours writing ones and zeros.”

Alisa Grigorievna Lebedeva about the life of her husband, the founder of computer technology in the USSR Sergei Lebedev, in Moscow in 1941 during the bombing of German aircraft.

Sergei Lebedev was born in 1902 in Nizhny Novgorod (later renamed Gorky, but not so long ago his former historical name was returned to him). His father was a school teacher, he was often transferred from place to place, so Sergei’s childhood and youth were spent in different cities, mainly in the Urals. Then his father was transferred to Moscow, and there Sergei entered the Moscow Higher Technical School named after Bauman, known today as the Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman. There Lebedev became interested in high voltage technology, an area that required good mathematical training. After graduation, he worked as a teacher at Bauman University, studying research work in the laboratory electrical networks. Lebedev was an avid climber and later named one of his computers after Europe's highest peak, Elbrus, which he successfully conquered.

In the late 1930s, Lebedev became interested in the binary number system. In the fall of 1941, when Moscow was plunged into complete darkness, fleeing fascist air raids, his musician wife recalled that “he usually took his papers and a candle to the bathroom, where he spent hours drawing ones and zeros.” Later during the war he was transferred to Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), where he worked for the military industry. Lebedev needed a computer capable of solving differential and integral equations, and in 1945 he created Russia's first electronic analog computer. At the same time, he already had the idea of ​​​​creating a digital computer based on the binary number system. Interestingly, as far as we know, at that time he was not familiar with the scientific developments in this area of ​​either his compatriot Shestakov or the American Claude Shannon.

Mastering the first personal computers at the Department of Electrical Systems and Networks of St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University

In 1946, Lebedev was transferred from Moscow to Kyiv, where he began work on a computer. In 1949, Mikhail Lavrentyev, a leading mathematician and member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, who was familiar with Lebedev's work, wrote a letter to Stalin asking him to support work in the field of computer technology, while emphasizing its importance for the country's defense. Stalin instructed Lavrentyev to create a laboratory for modeling and computer technology. Lavrentiev invited Lebedev to head this laboratory. Lebedev now has funding and status. At the same time, Stalin's order demonstrated the role of political power—indeed, the importance of one man—in advancing technology in the Soviet Union.

Lebedev developed MESM just three or four years after the creation of the world's first electronic computer, ENIAC, in the USA and simultaneously with the British EDSAC. By the early 1950s, MESM was being used to solve problems in nuclear physics, space flight, rocketry, and electrical power transmission.

In 1952, following the creation of MESM, Lebedev developed another computer - BESM (short for Large (or High-speed) Electronic Computing Machine). It was the fastest computer in Europe, at least for some period, capable of competing with the world's best developments in this field. It was a triumph. BESM-1 was produced in a single copy, but subsequent models, especially BESM-6, were produced in hundreds and used for different purposes. Production of BESM-6 was discontinued in 1987. In 1975, during the joint Soyuz-Apollo space project, Soviet specialists processed the parameters of the Soyuz orbit on BESM-6 faster than the Americans.

But after such a promising start in the field of computing, Russia today lags behind the industry leaders. The reason for this failure can only be understood by analyzing the history of the industry, taking into account the social and economic factors that influenced its transformation. In leading Western countries, the field of computing after World War II was shaped by three main driving forces: the scientific community, the state (in terms of military applications), and the business community. The role of the scientific community and government was especially important at the initial stage, the role of business emerged later. The field of computer technology in the Soviet Union was successful as long as the development of these devices primarily depended on the achievements of scientific thought and government support. Government support for computing technology was unlimited if it was used for air defense or nuclear weapons research. However, then business became the main driving force in the West. Symbolically, this transition point is General Electric's decision in 1955 to purchase IBM 702 computers to automate payroll and other paperwork at its Schenectady plant and Bank of America's decision in 1959 to automate processes (using the Stanford ERMA computer). research institute).

"The concept of cybernetics contradicts Marx's theory of dialectical materialism, and characterized computer science as a particularly harmful attempt by Western capitalists to make more profit by replacing workers"

These decisions marked the beginning of large-scale computerization of the banking and business sphere. In the 1960s and 1970s, electronic computers became commercial products, bringing with them cost reductions and improvements in ease of use that the market demanded. The Soviet Union, with its planned economy and centralized, non-competitive market, could not keep up with the technological improvements taking place. As a result, in the 1970s the USSR abandoned its initially impressive attempt to develop its own independent course in computing and adopted IBM standards. From now on in the area computer technology The Russians found themselves and continue to remain in the position of catching up and never again became leaders. Sergei Lebedev died in 1974. Another leading scientist, the developer of the first Soviet computers, Bashir Rameev, deeply regretted the decision to adopt the IBM architecture until his death in 1994. The Soviet computing industry was not brought down by a lack of knowledge in this area, it was brought down by the irresistible force of the market.

Another factor, although not decisive in this particular case, was ideology. In the 1950s, Soviet ideologists were very skeptical about cybernetics and called it “the science of obscurantists.” In 1952, a Marxist philosopher branded the field a "pseudoscience," questioning the claim that computers could help explain human thought or social activity. In another article published a year later, entitled "Who Does Cybernetics Serve?", the anonymous author, writing under the pseudonym "Materialist", argued that the concept of cybernetics contradicted Marx's theory of dialectical materialism, and characterized computer science as a particularly harmful attempt by Western capitalists to extract more. profits by replacing wage workers with machines.

Although such ideological accusations could theoretically have a negative impact on the development of computer technology in the USSR, the development of computers, given the interest of the military-industrial complex in them, continued at the same pace8. As one of the Soviet scientists in this field told me in 1960, “We were doing cybernetics, we just didn’t call it cybernetics.” Moreover, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, cybernetics took a 180-degree turn in the Soviet Union and began to be extolled as a science serving the purposes of the Soviet state.

In 1961, a collection was even published entitled “Cybernetics - at the service of communism.” Cybernetics departments have opened in many Russian universities. A more serious political threat to the development of computing technology in the USSR arose with the advent of personal computers. The Soviet leadership liked computers while they were huge units in central government, military and industrial departments, but they were much less enthusiastic when computers moved into private apartments and ordinary citizens were able to use them to disseminate information uncontrollably. In an attempt to exercise control over the transfer of information, the state has long prohibited ordinary citizens from owning printers and copying machines. A personal computer with a printer was equivalent to a small printing press. But what could the Soviet authorities do about this?

The most heated debates among members of the Soviet leadership over computers occurred in the mid and late 1980s. In 1986, I discussed this problem with the leading Soviet scientist in this field, Andrei Ershov. He was frank, agreeing that the Communist Party's desire to control information was hindering the development of the computer industry. Then he said the following: “Our leadership has not yet decided what a computer looks like: a printing press, a typewriter or a telephone, and much will depend on this decision. If they decide that computers are like printing presses, they will want to continue to control the industry the same way they currently control all printing presses. Citizens will be prohibited from buying them; they will only be in institutions. On the other hand, if our leadership decides that computers are like typewriters, they will be allowed to be owned by citizens, the authorities will not seek to control every device, although they may try to control the dissemination of information that is produced with their help. And in the end, if management decides that computers are like telephones, most citizens will have them and they can do whatever they want with them, but online data transmission will be checked from time to time.

“Today in Russia there is not a single computer manufacturer that is a significant player in the international market, despite the fact that the Russians can rightfully claim that they were among the pioneers in the field.”

I am convinced that eventually the government will have to allow citizens to own and control personal computers. Moreover, it will become obvious that personal computers are not like any previous communication technology: not like printing presses, not like typewriters, not like telephones. On the contrary, they are a completely new type of technology. The time will soon come when any person anywhere in the world will be able to communicate almost continuously with any other person anywhere in the world. This will be a real revolution - not only for the Soviet Union, but for you too. But here its consequences will be most significant.”

This statement clearly confirms what complex problem for the Soviet state there were computers. However, this issue quickly lost its relevance. Five years after this conversation with Ershov, the Soviet Union collapsed, and with it control over communication technologies ceased (however, this did not affect control over the media, in particular over television). In modern Russia, the computer industry has never caught up with the lag that it experienced in the last years of the Soviet state. As we have seen, this lag was caused more by an inability to compete in the market than by political control, although the latter played a role. Today in Russia there is not a single computer manufacturer that is a significant player in the international market, despite the fact that the Russians can rightfully claim that they were among the pioneers in the development of computing technologies.

Today without personal computer It’s impossible to imagine life, but not so long ago people lived without computers and were happy with everything. Let's take a look at the history of the very first personal computer.

The role of the personal computer in our modern life cannot be overestimated. Right now, humanity is finally approaching its cherished dream - to have smart mechanical assistants in any area of ​​life. A personal computer has become simply indispensable for work, entertainment or leisure. The heirs of the first computers, collected in basements and garages, now stand in chic offices, stylish offices and in our cozy apartments. It should be noted that not immediately Personal Computer made its way to the market, the fate of individuals and corporations that did a lot for the modern development of computer technology was not always successful.

How it all began

At the end of the 19th century in America, Herman Hollerith invented counting and punching machines. They used punched cards to store numerical information. G. Hollerith is the founder of a company that produces counting and punching machines. IBM is the most popular computer manufacturing corporation in the world today.
The first computer was invented in the USA in 1945. It was a universal machine using vacuum tubes, it was designed by J. Mauchly and J. Eckert.

All electronic computer technology can be divided into generations. Generational changes are mainly associated with the progress of electronic technology. So:
— The 1st generation of computers are tube machines from the 50s. Punched tapes and punched cards were used to enter programs and data.
- 2nd generation of computers - transistors became an elementary basis in the 60s. Computers are now more reliable, more compact, and less energy-intensive.
- 3rd generation of computers - created on integrated circuits. Magnetic disks appear, new type storage devices.
- 4th generation of computers - a microprocessor was created in 1971 by Intel. By connecting the microprocessor with external memory and input-output devices, a microcomputer was invented.

Personal computers

The most popular computers today are personal computers.
The appearance of the PC is associated with the names of two American specialists: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. In 1976, their first PC -1 appeared, and in 1977 - Apple-2.

A personal computer is a microcomputer with user-friendly hardware and software. The software allows a person to easily communicate with the computer and benefit from it. PC is now just as commonplace household appliances, such as a radio receiver. Since 1980, the most popular company on the PC market has been the American company IB M. Ten years later, machines from the Apple Corporation become famous.

The emergence of the personal computer in its significance for social development can only be compared with the emergence of book printing. It was the PC who contributed computer literacy to the masses. With the development of this type electronic machines the concept arose information Technology“And in principle, humanity cannot do without them in any sphere of its life.

It's very difficult to imagine modern society without computers. These “smart machines” once entered our lives and became a truly integral part of it. However, there were times when humanity was just taking the first steps to create such devices. Who is the creator of the first one and what did the first personal computer look like?

When did the first computer appear?

So when did the very first computer appear? If we talk about the first predecessor modern computers abacus (abacus), then they were still in ancient Babylon. Since that time, humanity has been able to invent devices that make it possible to make simple calculations. Progress could be observed from the end of the nineteenth century, with a peak in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1938, the first mechanical programmable machine Z1 was created, and on its basis, just three years later, the first computer Z3 was created, which has the properties of a modern computer.

Who created the first computer?

It is believed that the first computer was created by the French scientist Blaise Pascal. He had the idea in 1642 to create the first digital computer. With this discovery, in fact, it all began. Although automatic calculations had many advantages, the use of such a device for financial calculations in France was problematic, since it complicated the initially difficult calculation process. In ten years, Pascal managed to build fifty and sell about a dozen versions of the machine, which many now call the very first computer in the world.

Another prominent scientist in this field is Konrad Zuse, a German engineer and pioneer in computer engineering. Many have heard that laziness is the engine of progress. Zuse disliked complex mathematical calculations so much that he decided to create a computer using the binary system. His first computer required full dedication, so Konrad Zuse spent all his time creating it. As a result, six years later the world saw his creation.

What did the first computer look like?

Of interest is not only the date of creation of the first computer and its creator, but also what the machine looked like. It is important to note that the first mass-produced personal computer and even the devices of the early 90s were significantly weaker than modern ones. An example is the fact that the amount of modern memory can be compared with the entire disk memory of more than one thousand personal computers of the early nineties. Also for other indicators. The first programmable computer appeared in the United States in 1946. Its weight was about thirty tons. The computer contained 18,000 vacuum tubes.

The device of the first computer

The machine of the French scientist Blaise Pascal was a mechanical device in the form of a box with numerous interconnected gears. With the help of a special rotation of the dialing wheels, the numbers being added were entered into the machine. On each of the wheels, divisions 0-9 were applied. When a number was entered, the wheels scrolled to the required number. The first generation of computers had five gears. Over time, their number increased to 6 or eight, which made it possible to work with large numbers.

First use of computers

The very first computers were created only for calculations. Even very primitive machines were superior to humans. The second use of computers was databases. The government and banks needed them. For these purposes, more complex machines with developed input and output systems and information storage were required. For this reason, the Kobal language was then developed.

The first home computers

The first personal computers appeared in the 1970s. At that time, some people began to assemble computers at home and only out of research interest. At that time, there was no use of such personal computers at home. And already in 1975, the first personal computer Altair 8800 appeared. It was called the first commercially successful PC. Its creator is the American engineer Henry Edward Roberts.

The first computer - interesting facts

There are many educational facts about the first computers:

1. The first computer in the world had impressive dimensions. Its weight was approximately thirty tons. One such machine required a large room filled with cabinets with electronic equipment. In those days, computers could run on expensive, large vacuum tubes.
2. The very first computer in the world had to be serviced by a whole staff of engineers. Then it was necessary to specially connect many wires, which took a lot of time.
3. The first microprocessors processed only four bits of information. Their inventor was Marchian Edward Hoff in 1970.
4. The first personal computer, Altair-8800, had neither a screen nor a keyboard. However, he was still in demand. So, in the first month alone more than a thousand sets were sold.
5. Personal computers are still manufactured to the same standards. The IBM PC model can be considered the standard for all modern personal computers.
6. The first PCs from the manufacturer IBM sold for three thousand dollars with a black-and-white display, and six thousand dollars with a color display. Moreover, when the company released the first computer, it could not have imagined that it would be possible to sell so many copies.

Portable computing devices were viewed with great skepticism when they first appeared. The most was created after the Second World War, on February 14, 1946, by American developers. It was extremely massive and consisted of many components, and in terms of its software and technical properties it was not far from a calculator.

Creation of the very first ENIAC computer

ENIAC has been working long and hard to create a portable device. Of course, their research activities were multifaceted. But even before them there were attempts to create a computer. For example, even before the creation of the multi-ton ENIAC, similar prototypes were tested, but due to technical shortcomings they could not be created.

Scientists all over the world were preoccupied with creating the very first computer. The year the development was completed was 1946. Already on February 14, the ENIAC computer was presented to the public in the democratic United States. In size, it was similar to a small house, larger than it. Its weight was about 30 tons, and the number of electronic lamps could illuminate a small city - there were 18 thousand of them.

A little about the first computer

With such huge dimensions, the computing power was 5000 operations per second. ENIAC worked for a little over 9 years and was sent for recycling. This hulk was created by a group of five engineers. Like Internet technology, the creation of the very first computer was ordered by the military. After its development and preliminary testing, the finished product was transferred to the American Air Force.

The computer stretched seventeen meters in length, and its head consisted of 765 thousand parts of various kinds. The development cost was about half a million dollars. The height of the car was at around 2.5 meters. The device was located at Harvard. However, the date of creation of the first computer formally fell on 1944, when it was first tested.

American-style device parameters

As noted earlier, the computer of 1946 did not reach the level of today's portable computers. Here are its parameters and main characteristics:

1. The computer weighed more than 4.5 tons.
2. The total length of the wires in the housing was 800 kilometers.
3. The shaft synchronizing the calculation modules was 15 meters long.
4. The simplest (addition and subtraction) mathematical operations took the computer 0.33 seconds.
5. Division took 15.3 seconds, and he multiplied a little faster, in just 6 seconds.

Enormous resources were spent on creating the very first computer. The year of this event is 1946.

The very first attempts to create primitive electronic computing devices

A scientist from the Russian Empire A. Krylov in 1912 was able to develop the first machine for calculating complex differential equations. Just 15 years later, in 1927, developers from America tested the first

Even the Nazis were developing computers. A year before the outbreak of World War II, in 1938, the German scientist Konrad Zuse created a digital model of a computer with a programming component, it was named Z1. And in 1941, “Z first” underwent a number of upgrades and received the final name Z3. This model was much more reminiscent of a modern laptop computer.

Finalization of the ABC prototype

Developer John Atanasov from the USA in 1942 led the development of the ABC model computer. But he was drafted into the army, and the creation of the computer was suspended for some time. His model began to be tested for study by another group of developers led by John Mauchly. As a result, he began his own work to create the ENIAC computer.

He was the first to give birth to the binary number system, which is still used in our PCs to this day. The original purpose of the computer was to help the military solve certain problems. They contributed to the automation of bombing calculations for artillery and air forces.

Creation of the first computer in the USSR

The Soviet Union did not lag behind global trends. In the laboratory of S.A. Lebedev developed the first computer model throughout Eurasia. The first success of the Soviet electronic computing structure was followed by others, less loud, but extremely useful for science.

Soviet scientists developed and tested a small electronic adding machine, or MESM for short. It was a model of a larger computing apparatus.

Can you imagine the modern world without computers? I don’t, because every step we take is connected with computers. This story began back in the distant 40s, when the world was just beginning to learn about the creation of the first “computers” (electronic computers).

The history of the creation of the world's first computer

In 1942, John Mauchly's project gave impetus to the creation of the first computer, although at first no attention was paid to the project itself. One day one of the US Army laboratories became interested in it, and already in 1943 the first steps were taken to create a machine called “ENIAC”. The money for the creation was given by the Pentagon (which needed to create new guns), and it cost a little less than $500,000.

By the way, ENIAC turned out to be very voracious in terms of electricity, when it was turned on - the lights of the nearby city dimmed every time. ENIAC (Electronical Numerical Integrator and Calculator) was truly the first computer that could be programmed.

Technical characteristics of the first computer:

1. Weight reached 27 tons;
2. Power - 174 kW - this is approximately how much a huge shopping mall on a day off;
3. Contained 18,000 vacuum tubes, because there were no transistors and processors at that time;
4. Memory - 4 kilobytes;
5. Its size was impressive - it occupied 135 sq.m.
6. Performed up to 5000 actions per second.

The most amazing thing is the kilometers of wires that were wrapped around the computer. It was programmed as a telephone communicator, operated by telephone operators.

Later, it began to be used not only to analyze cosmic radiation, but also to create a hydrogen bomb. While the computer was being created, the war ended, but research did not stop and in 1945 they conducted the first official test, which it passed. At the same time, about 1,000,000 IBM punch cards were processed. Despite its enormous size and weight, the computer worked for about 10 years.

Five years later, the transistor was invented, which marked the beginning of the reduction in the size of computers.

Where and when was the first personal computer sold?

The concept of the personal computer changed little over the next two decades. The introduction of the microprocessor speeded up the process of creating a computer. IBM tried to create its first computer back in 1974, but the attempt failed and sales were very low. IBM5100 - had cassettes as storage media, rather light weight and a serious cost of $10,000.

He was also already able to independently execute programs written in programming languages ​​such as BASIC and APL (he was created at IBM). displayed 16 lines of 64 characters, memory about 64 KB, and these cassettes were similar to stereo audio cassettes. But sales never came because there was no normal interface provided and the price was too high.

Have you ever wondered what computers will be like in 10 years?

IBM recently unveiled its new mega-computer, the Roadrunner. Its capacity is 1,000,000,000,000 (1 quadrillion) operations. It was created for the US Department of Energy, and consists of 6480 2 nuclear processors, and 12,960 processors from IBM, called . It includes 278 huge cabinets, 88 kilometers of cables, weighs 226 tons, occupies an area of ​​1100 m², consumes 3.9 MW, and costs $133,000,000.