BESM. Retrospective of the development of computer systems
This is my first post on Habré and would like to present you a popular science article about the BESM family of computers. Let's take a little bit of history. If you have an interest, I am ready to present you a whole cycle of similar articles.
BESM computer - was the most productive domestic computer of the first generation, M-20 (all computers that appeared after 1946 belong to the first generation). By the way, the BESM was the last car of this generation, created under the leadership of Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev. BESM was born in 1958 and the next year was already put into production.
This machine served as the initial model for a number of second-generation computers - the BESM-3M, BESM-4, M-220, M-222, and the first three of these computers differed little from the M-20 in structural organization, and the BESM-4 even its “semiconductor version”, which differs from the M-20 machine only by a larger capacity of RAM and external memory and a wider set of input and output devices.
The speed of the BESM-4 was slightly lower than the speed of the M-20 machine (18,000 and 20,000 operations per second, respectively), and their command systems were compatible - in the sense that any M-20 computer program could be “correctly executed on the machine BESM-4 ". (For comparison, the first BESM family machine, the work on which ended in 1952, had an average performance of about 10,000 operations per second, while it was then the fastest computer in Europe).
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Brief description of the M-20
The form of representation of numbers: binary, floating point. 45 binary digits.
The range of representation of numbers: from 2 -64 to 2 64.
Command structure: three-address, with automatic change of addresses. The three-address command contains three addresses: the address of the first number, the address of the second number, and the address of the result of the operation.
The capacity of random access memory (RAM) on ferrite cores is 4096 machine words. In the machine there were external storage devices on magnetic drums and tapes. Three magnetic drums made it possible to memorize approximately 12,000 words, and four blocks of tape drives made it possible to store about 300,000 words.
The speed of information exchange with RAM: 12 000 words per second for magnetic drums and 2800 words per second for magnetic tapes. Information was entered into the machine from punched cards at a speed of 100 cards per minute.
Output devices: high-speed printing device (print speed - 15 lines per second) and output punch (50 cards per minute). The intermediate buffer memory on a magnetic drum made it possible to simultaneously display the results and perform calculations.
The command system envisaged operations:
1. arithmetic type (word forwarding, addition, subtraction, subtraction of modules, division, multiplication, root extraction, and some others);
2. logical type (comparison, logical multiplication, logical addition, mantissa shift to address, mantissa shift in order, word shift to address, word shift in order);
3. special operations on words - mainly for operations with commands (for example, addition of operation codes, subtraction of operation codes, cyclic addition);
4. management operations - operations with the contents of the so-called address register, as well as operations of conditional and unconditional jumps (unconditional transfer with feedback, conditional transfer, unconditional transfer, end of the cycle in the address register, change of the address register).
The car used 4500 electronic tubes and 35,000 semiconductor diodes.
In 1950, the BESM machine (the Big Electronic Counting Machine) was designed at the Institute of Fine Mechanics and Computer Engineering under the leadership of S. A. Lebedev, and in 1952 its pilot operation began.
In the project at the beginning it was supposed to use memory on Williams tubes, but in 1955 mercury delay lines were used as memory elements. For those times, BESM was a very productive machine - 8000 op / sec. It had a three-address system of commands, and the standard program method was widely used to simplify programming, which later laid the foundation for modular programming and application packages. Serially the car began to be produced in 1956 under the name BESM-2.
The creation of a high-performance and original architecture BESM-6 computing system had a great influence on the development of computing technology. The BESM-6 computer used 60 thousand transistors and 200 thousand semiconductor diodes, and the high reliability of the machine was provided by a large power reserve of the main circuits — the diodes and transistors were loaded by 25–40% of the allowable limit. With an exceptionally high speed of 1 million op / s, the BESM-6 had an excellent ratio of performance to cost of computing.
The development of BESM was carried out under the leadership of S.A.Lebedev and V.A.Melnikov in ITM and VT. Serial production started in 1967.
The BESM-6 machine possessed a number of interesting features, on the organization of virtual memory according to the “pipeline” principle adopted in its structural organization, on the organization of communication with channels and peripheral devices.
BESM was conceived as a computer for calculations in various fields of science and technology to equip large computing centers. The appearance of the BESM-6 was not accidental, but it was not a consistent improvement and development of the previous BESM-4. A computer with a speed of several hundred thousand operations per second over the numbers presented in a floating-point format and a working memory of tens of thousands of words was urgently needed for scientific and design calculations in aviation, astronautics, nuclear physics, complex engineering industries, etc. . System software BESM-6 is constantly being improved. New operating systems, a time-sharing mode, translators from the languages Algol, Fortran, Lisp, etc. were introduced. Since 1970, OVCs on magnetic disks were included in the package.
In the operating BESM-6 organizations, application software packages have been created that provide the most important scientific and design calculations.
Work in the field of mathematical software BESM-6 has played a very important role in the development of this area of science in our country, in personnel training, in the formation and development of teams of system and application software developers, in the development of complex multi-machine and network complexes. A great contribution was made by the ITM VT, IPM, JINR, Moscow State University teams, EC of the USSR Academy of Sciences, EC of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Work with OVC and peripherals. In the original version of BESM-6, the set of OVC included magnetic drum drives (NMB), as well as peripheral devices of punched card I / O, ADC, punched tape devices I / O, telegraph devices, and later displays and plotters, telephone modems, etc. Magnetic drums were up to 16 pieces, and each of them had a capacity of 32K words. NMB and NML served by fast channels (directions). In total there were directions: 2 for NMB, 4 for NML, and the seventh backup.
The rest of the peripherals were serviced by slower destinations. To save equipment, there were no multiplex channels, and the slow destinations were serviced by OS programs that were activated for the service time by the interrupt signal. The management of all directions was carried out by the control unit of external devices (HCS). Thus, in BESM-6 a high degree of parallelism (simultaneity) of many devices was achieved according to the principle: everything that is currently ready for operation should work! This asynchronous and parallel operation of the devices along with the speed of the AC provided the overall high performance of BESM-6. But for solving some of the most complex tasks, it was not enough, and a multi-machine computing complex (MMVK) was developed. And this is another story.
BESM-6 was mass-produced at the Moscow CAM plant from 1968 to 1987 (a total of 355 cars were produced) - a kind of record! Last BESM-6 was dismantled in 1995 at the Moscow helicopter plant Mil. The BESM-6 were equipped with the largest academic (Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, JINR ...) and branch (CIAM, Scientific Research Institute of AU, Scientific Research Institute of TP ...) scientific research institutes, factories and design offices.
* The principle of “tube” is the principle of combining the execution of commands (up to 14 unicast machine instructions could simultaneously be in a processor at different stages of execution).
BESM computer - was the most productive domestic computer of the first generation, M-20 (all computers that appeared after 1946 belong to the first generation). By the way, the BESM was the last car of this generation, created under the leadership of Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev. BESM was born in 1958 and the next year was already put into production.
This machine served as the initial model for a number of second-generation computers - the BESM-3M, BESM-4, M-220, M-222, and the first three of these computers differed little from the M-20 in structural organization, and the BESM-4 even its “semiconductor version”, which differs from the M-20 machine only by a larger capacity of RAM and external memory and a wider set of input and output devices.
The speed of the BESM-4 was slightly lower than the speed of the M-20 machine (18,000 and 20,000 operations per second, respectively), and their command systems were compatible - in the sense that any M-20 computer program could be “correctly executed on the machine BESM-4 ". (For comparison, the first BESM family machine, the work on which ended in 1952, had an average performance of about 10,000 operations per second, while it was then the fastest computer in Europe).
')
Brief description of the M-20
The form of representation of numbers: binary, floating point. 45 binary digits.
The range of representation of numbers: from 2 -64 to 2 64.
Command structure: three-address, with automatic change of addresses. The three-address command contains three addresses: the address of the first number, the address of the second number, and the address of the result of the operation.
The capacity of random access memory (RAM) on ferrite cores is 4096 machine words. In the machine there were external storage devices on magnetic drums and tapes. Three magnetic drums made it possible to memorize approximately 12,000 words, and four blocks of tape drives made it possible to store about 300,000 words.
The speed of information exchange with RAM: 12 000 words per second for magnetic drums and 2800 words per second for magnetic tapes. Information was entered into the machine from punched cards at a speed of 100 cards per minute.
Output devices: high-speed printing device (print speed - 15 lines per second) and output punch (50 cards per minute). The intermediate buffer memory on a magnetic drum made it possible to simultaneously display the results and perform calculations.
The command system envisaged operations:
1. arithmetic type (word forwarding, addition, subtraction, subtraction of modules, division, multiplication, root extraction, and some others);
2. logical type (comparison, logical multiplication, logical addition, mantissa shift to address, mantissa shift in order, word shift to address, word shift in order);
3. special operations on words - mainly for operations with commands (for example, addition of operation codes, subtraction of operation codes, cyclic addition);
4. management operations - operations with the contents of the so-called address register, as well as operations of conditional and unconditional jumps (unconditional transfer with feedback, conditional transfer, unconditional transfer, end of the cycle in the address register, change of the address register).
The car used 4500 electronic tubes and 35,000 semiconductor diodes.
In 1950, the BESM machine (the Big Electronic Counting Machine) was designed at the Institute of Fine Mechanics and Computer Engineering under the leadership of S. A. Lebedev, and in 1952 its pilot operation began.
In the project at the beginning it was supposed to use memory on Williams tubes, but in 1955 mercury delay lines were used as memory elements. For those times, BESM was a very productive machine - 8000 op / sec. It had a three-address system of commands, and the standard program method was widely used to simplify programming, which later laid the foundation for modular programming and application packages. Serially the car began to be produced in 1956 under the name BESM-2.
The creation of a high-performance and original architecture BESM-6 computing system had a great influence on the development of computing technology. The BESM-6 computer used 60 thousand transistors and 200 thousand semiconductor diodes, and the high reliability of the machine was provided by a large power reserve of the main circuits — the diodes and transistors were loaded by 25–40% of the allowable limit. With an exceptionally high speed of 1 million op / s, the BESM-6 had an excellent ratio of performance to cost of computing.
The development of BESM was carried out under the leadership of S.A.Lebedev and V.A.Melnikov in ITM and VT. Serial production started in 1967.
The BESM-6 machine possessed a number of interesting features, on the organization of virtual memory according to the “pipeline” principle adopted in its structural organization, on the organization of communication with channels and peripheral devices.
BESM was conceived as a computer for calculations in various fields of science and technology to equip large computing centers. The appearance of the BESM-6 was not accidental, but it was not a consistent improvement and development of the previous BESM-4. A computer with a speed of several hundred thousand operations per second over the numbers presented in a floating-point format and a working memory of tens of thousands of words was urgently needed for scientific and design calculations in aviation, astronautics, nuclear physics, complex engineering industries, etc. . System software BESM-6 is constantly being improved. New operating systems, a time-sharing mode, translators from the languages Algol, Fortran, Lisp, etc. were introduced. Since 1970, OVCs on magnetic disks were included in the package.
In the operating BESM-6 organizations, application software packages have been created that provide the most important scientific and design calculations.
Work in the field of mathematical software BESM-6 has played a very important role in the development of this area of science in our country, in personnel training, in the formation and development of teams of system and application software developers, in the development of complex multi-machine and network complexes. A great contribution was made by the ITM VT, IPM, JINR, Moscow State University teams, EC of the USSR Academy of Sciences, EC of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Work with OVC and peripherals. In the original version of BESM-6, the set of OVC included magnetic drum drives (NMB), as well as peripheral devices of punched card I / O, ADC, punched tape devices I / O, telegraph devices, and later displays and plotters, telephone modems, etc. Magnetic drums were up to 16 pieces, and each of them had a capacity of 32K words. NMB and NML served by fast channels (directions). In total there were directions: 2 for NMB, 4 for NML, and the seventh backup.
The rest of the peripherals were serviced by slower destinations. To save equipment, there were no multiplex channels, and the slow destinations were serviced by OS programs that were activated for the service time by the interrupt signal. The management of all directions was carried out by the control unit of external devices (HCS). Thus, in BESM-6 a high degree of parallelism (simultaneity) of many devices was achieved according to the principle: everything that is currently ready for operation should work! This asynchronous and parallel operation of the devices along with the speed of the AC provided the overall high performance of BESM-6. But for solving some of the most complex tasks, it was not enough, and a multi-machine computing complex (MMVK) was developed. And this is another story.
BESM-6 was mass-produced at the Moscow CAM plant from 1968 to 1987 (a total of 355 cars were produced) - a kind of record! Last BESM-6 was dismantled in 1995 at the Moscow helicopter plant Mil. The BESM-6 were equipped with the largest academic (Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, JINR ...) and branch (CIAM, Scientific Research Institute of AU, Scientific Research Institute of TP ...) scientific research institutes, factories and design offices.
* The principle of “tube” is the principle of combining the execution of commands (up to 14 unicast machine instructions could simultaneously be in a processor at different stages of execution).
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/69769/
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