September 15, 2009 at 22:53BESM. 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 plunge a little into the story. If you have any interest, I am ready to present you a whole series of similar articles.
BESM - was the most productive domestic computer of the first generation, M-20 (the first generation includes all computers that appeared after 1946). By the way, BESM was the last machine of this generation, created under the leadership of Sergey Alekseevich Lebedev. BESM was born in 1958 and was already put into production the following year.
This machine served as the initial model for a number of second-generation computers - BESM-ZM, BESM-4, M-220, M-222, and the first three of these computers did not differ much from the M-20 in structural organization, and even called BESM-4 its "semiconductor option", which differs from the M-20 only in the larger capacity of RAM and external memory and a wider range 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 was completed in 1952, had an average productivity of about 10,000 operations per second, while it was then the fastest computer in Europe).
Brief description of M-20
Number representation form: 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. The machine had external storage devices on magnetic drums and tapes. Three magnetic drums made it possible to memorize approximately 12,000 words, and four blocks of magnetic 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 with punch 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 storage device on a magnetic drum made it possible to simultaneously display the results and perform calculations.
The command system included operations:
1. arithmetic type (word transfer, addition, subtraction, subtraction of modules, division, multiplication, root extraction and some others);
2. logical type (comparison, logical multiplication, logical addition, mantissa shift by address, mantissa shift in order, word shift by address, word shift in order);
3.special operations on words - mainly for actions with commands (for example, addition of operation codes, subtraction of operation codes, cyclic addition);
4. control operations - operations with the contents of the so-called address register, as well as operations of conditional and unconditional jumps (unconditional jump with feedback, conditional jump, unconditional jump, end of the cycle in the address register, change of the address register).
The machine used 4,500 electronic tubes and 35,000 semiconductor diodes.
In 1950, the BESM machine (Big Electronic Calculating Machine) was designed at the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering under the leadership of S. A. Lebedev, and in 1952 its experimental 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 in it. At that time, BESM was a very productive machine - 8000 op / sec. It had a three-address system of commands, and to simplify programming, the standard program method was widely used, which later laid the foundation for modular programming, application packages. The machine began to be mass-produced in 1956 under the name BESM-2.
The creation of a high-performance and original BESM-6 computing system architecture had a great influence on the development of computer technology. The BESM-6 computer used 60 thousand transistors and 200 thousand semiconductor diodes, and the high reliability of the machine was ensured by a large power reserve of the main circuits - diodes and transistors were loaded at 25-40% of the permissible limit. With an exceptionally high speed of 1 million op / s, 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 in organizing virtual memory according to the principle of a “pipeline” * adopted in its structural organization , and in organizing communication with channels and peripheral devices.
BESM was conceived as a computer for calculations in various fields of science and technology to equip large computer centers with it. The appearance of 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 floating-point numbers and tens of thousands of words of memory was urgently needed for scientific and design calculations in aviation, astronautics, nuclear physics, complex engineering industries, etc. . BESM-6 system software was constantly being improved. New operating systems, a time-sharing mode, translators from the languages Algol, Fortran, Lisp, and others were introduced. Since 1970, magnetic disc drives were included in the machine package.
Complexes of applied programs have been created in the organizations operating BESM-6, which ensure the implementation of the most important scientific and design calculations.
Work in the field of mathematical support of BESM-6 played a very important role in the development of this area of science in our country, in the training of personnel, in the formation and development of teams of developers of system and application software, in the development of complex multi-machine and network systems. The ITM VT, IPM, JINR, Moscow State University, Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and the Computing Center of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences made a great contribution.
Work with VZU and peripherals. In the initial version of BESM-6, the VZU set included magnetic drum drives (NMB), as well as peripheral punch-card input-output devices, ADCP, punched-tape input-output devices, telegraph devices, and subsequently displays and plotters, telephone communication modems, etc. There were up to 16 magnetic drums, and each of them had a capacity of 32K words. NMB and NML were served by fast channels (directions). In total, there were directions: 2 for the NMS, 4 for the NML and the seventh reserve.
The remaining peripherals were served in slow directions. To save equipment, there were no multiplex channels, and slow directions were served by OS programs that were switched on for the duration of the service by an interrupt signal. Management of all directions was carried out by the control unit of external devices (UVU). Thus, in BESM-6, a high level of parallelism (simultaneity) of the operation of many devices was achieved according to the principle: everything that is currently ready for operation should work! This asynchrony and parallelism in the operation of the devices, along with the speed of the AU, ensured the overall high performance of the BESM-6. But to solve some of the most complex problems, it was not enough, and a multi-machine computing complex (MMVK) was developed. And this is a completely different 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! The last BESM-6 was dismantled in 1995 at the Moscow Mil Helicopter Plant. BESM-6 was equipped with the largest academic (research institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, JINR ...) and industry (TsIAM, research institutes, research institutes TP ...) research institutes, factories and design bureaus.
* The principle of “piping” is the principle of combining the execution of commands (up to 14 unicast machine instructions could simultaneously be in the processor at different stages of execution).
BESM - was the most productive domestic computer of the first generation, M-20 (the first generation includes all computers that appeared after 1946). By the way, BESM was the last machine of this generation, created under the leadership of Sergey Alekseevich Lebedev. BESM was born in 1958 and was already put into production the following year.
This machine served as the initial model for a number of second-generation computers - BESM-ZM, BESM-4, M-220, M-222, and the first three of these computers did not differ much from the M-20 in structural organization, and even called BESM-4 its "semiconductor option", which differs from the M-20 only in the larger capacity of RAM and external memory and a wider range 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 was completed in 1952, had an average productivity of about 10,000 operations per second, while it was then the fastest computer in Europe).
Brief description of M-20
Number representation form: 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. The machine had external storage devices on magnetic drums and tapes. Three magnetic drums made it possible to memorize approximately 12,000 words, and four blocks of magnetic 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 with punch 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 storage device on a magnetic drum made it possible to simultaneously display the results and perform calculations.
The command system included operations:
1. arithmetic type (word transfer, addition, subtraction, subtraction of modules, division, multiplication, root extraction and some others);
2. logical type (comparison, logical multiplication, logical addition, mantissa shift by address, mantissa shift in order, word shift by address, word shift in order);
3.special operations on words - mainly for actions with commands (for example, addition of operation codes, subtraction of operation codes, cyclic addition);
4. control operations - operations with the contents of the so-called address register, as well as operations of conditional and unconditional jumps (unconditional jump with feedback, conditional jump, unconditional jump, end of the cycle in the address register, change of the address register).
The machine used 4,500 electronic tubes and 35,000 semiconductor diodes.
In 1950, the BESM machine (Big Electronic Calculating Machine) was designed at the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering under the leadership of S. A. Lebedev, and in 1952 its experimental 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 in it. At that time, BESM was a very productive machine - 8000 op / sec. It had a three-address system of commands, and to simplify programming, the standard program method was widely used, which later laid the foundation for modular programming, application packages. The machine began to be mass-produced in 1956 under the name BESM-2.
The creation of a high-performance and original BESM-6 computing system architecture had a great influence on the development of computer technology. The BESM-6 computer used 60 thousand transistors and 200 thousand semiconductor diodes, and the high reliability of the machine was ensured by a large power reserve of the main circuits - diodes and transistors were loaded at 25-40% of the permissible limit. With an exceptionally high speed of 1 million op / s, 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 in organizing virtual memory according to the principle of a “pipeline” * adopted in its structural organization , and in organizing communication with channels and peripheral devices.
BESM was conceived as a computer for calculations in various fields of science and technology to equip large computer centers with it. The appearance of 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 floating-point numbers and tens of thousands of words of memory was urgently needed for scientific and design calculations in aviation, astronautics, nuclear physics, complex engineering industries, etc. . BESM-6 system software was constantly being improved. New operating systems, a time-sharing mode, translators from the languages Algol, Fortran, Lisp, and others were introduced. Since 1970, magnetic disc drives were included in the machine package.
Complexes of applied programs have been created in the organizations operating BESM-6, which ensure the implementation of the most important scientific and design calculations.
Work in the field of mathematical support of BESM-6 played a very important role in the development of this area of science in our country, in the training of personnel, in the formation and development of teams of developers of system and application software, in the development of complex multi-machine and network systems. The ITM VT, IPM, JINR, Moscow State University, Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and the Computing Center of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences made a great contribution.
Work with VZU and peripherals. In the initial version of BESM-6, the VZU set included magnetic drum drives (NMB), as well as peripheral punch-card input-output devices, ADCP, punched-tape input-output devices, telegraph devices, and subsequently displays and plotters, telephone communication modems, etc. There were up to 16 magnetic drums, and each of them had a capacity of 32K words. NMB and NML were served by fast channels (directions). In total, there were directions: 2 for the NMS, 4 for the NML and the seventh reserve.
The remaining peripherals were served in slow directions. To save equipment, there were no multiplex channels, and slow directions were served by OS programs that were switched on for the duration of the service by an interrupt signal. Management of all directions was carried out by the control unit of external devices (UVU). Thus, in BESM-6, a high level of parallelism (simultaneity) of the operation of many devices was achieved according to the principle: everything that is currently ready for operation should work! This asynchrony and parallelism in the operation of the devices, along with the speed of the AU, ensured the overall high performance of the BESM-6. But to solve some of the most complex problems, it was not enough, and a multi-machine computing complex (MMVK) was developed. And this is a completely different 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! The last BESM-6 was dismantled in 1995 at the Moscow Mil Helicopter Plant. BESM-6 was equipped with the largest academic (research institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, JINR ...) and industry (TsIAM, research institutes, research institutes TP ...) research institutes, factories and design bureaus.
* The principle of “piping” is the principle of combining the execution of commands (up to 14 unicast machine instructions could simultaneously be in the processor at different stages of execution).