Mikhail Romanovich Shura-Bura - Patriarch of Russian programming and its development



    Mikhail Romanovich Shura-Bura is an excellent scientist who made a huge contribution to the creation and development of the first domestic computers. Also known as the creator of the first software (programming program) that interprets the IS-2 system for the M-20 machine. Remembering the spaceship Buran, one can not help but mention the name of Mikhail Shura-Bora, who was one of the developers of software for the ship.

    Mikhail Romanovich was born on October 21, 1918 in the village of Parafievka (Ukraine, Chernihiv region), where his parents moved from Kiev, as the civil war broke out and it was necessary to somehow feed his family. Grandfather was a simple village blacksmith, his father graduated from the university and practiced law.

    Later, parents moved again to Kiev, and things went uphill.

    FatherMikhail Romanovich became a successful lawyer. The conditions in which the family lived were quite comfortable, comfortable apartment, good things. In the opera house, a bed was allocated for the family. His father, being a lawyer, decided to still get a second education and entered the Polytechnic Institute, graduating from which he began to work as an engineer-economist. Such a wise decision saved him from the persecution (and possibly death) of the intelligentsia during the years of repression. In 1933, the family moved to Moscow. At the age of 96, his father passed away. Mother of Mikhail Romanovich was originally from the city of Kasimov (Russia, Ryazan region). She was not a bad dentist. The family still had two daughters.

    In Kiev, Mikhail graduated from the seven-year plan; in Moscow, as an external student, he completed the following three classes in two years (8-10). In 1935 he entered the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at Moscow State University.


    Mathematics students (all!) 1st year mehmat, 1936

    After graduating from the university perfectly, it turned out to be not so easy for Mikhail to enter graduate school. On the student’s account there were many reprimands for not attending such disciplines as physical education and missing public works. Almost burying the idea of ​​graduate school, Mikhail was packing up things to go on assignment to work as a mathematics teacher in a village school in the Urals, but Dean Lev Tumarkin took him as an assistant to the department of the Artillery Academy named after Dzerzhinsky. And for the second time in his life, fate saved Mikhail Romanovich (as in the case of his father) from death. Since, not enrolling in graduate school, he did not fall into the university militia, which later killed most of his friends.


    with closest friends

    At the Artillery Academy during the war there was a need for specialists who could do calculations on ballistics. Michael was one. Together with the academy he went to evacuate to the city of Samarkand. The Academy created new types of weapons, guns and shells. Mikhail Romanovich actively participated in the calculations.

    In 1944, having returned from evacuation and continuing to work at the Academy, he still joined the ranks of graduate students at the Research Institute of Mathematics of Moscow State University. In 1947 he defended his thesis on typology and was sent as a teacher to the Physics and Technology Faculty of Moscow State University. As Mikhail Romanovich recalled in a conversation, it was an interesting time for science. In the same 1947, keen on applied mathematics and programming, the scientist was transferred to the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering. Here he took an active part in setting up the machines that were created by Lebedev (BESM and Kiev MESM).

    In early 1953, at the Institute of Mathematics. Steklova began working at the Department of Applied Mathematics (now IPM RAS named after MV Keldysh), where for 50 years Mikhail Romanovich worked diligently as the head of the programming department at IPM. Along with him, this department worked graduates of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University I. B. Zadykhailo, E.Z. Lyubimsky, V.V. Lutsikovich, T.A. Trosman, V.S. Starkman.

    “How we defeated Arrow!”





    The scientists were given the task to theoretically calculate the thermonuclear explosion and try to do it on a computer. Immediately, a group of specialists was created under the leadership of K.A.Semendyaev. Clear business, all this cost fabulous money and efforts. To work in the Department of Applied Mathematics, the Strela computer was provided.
    The Arrow was just delivered to the Department of Applied Mathematics. The machine worked poorly, it had only 1000 cells, a non-working tape drive, frequent malfunctions in arithmetic and many other problems, but, nevertheless, we managed to cope with the task - we made a program to calculate the energy of explosions when simulating nuclear weapons, or as I said then; "Managed to defeat Arrow!".

    The arrow began to be issued in 1953. The design of the machine was a double-row racks with installation inside the inter-rack corridor. Replaceable cells were inserted from the outside of each row of racks. Such a computer consumed 150 kW (processor - 75 kW) and occupied 300 square meters. m, of which the processor occupied 150 square meters. m. In the design of the machine, about 6 thousand electronic tubes and several tens of thousands of semiconductor diodes were used. Its speed was equal to 2-3 thousand three-address commands per second, information was input from a punch card input device or from magnetic tape. Magnetic tape, a card punch or a large-format printing device served to output information. The arrow was characterized by the presence of several types of group arithmetic and logical operations, conditional transitions, and replaceable standard programs.

    The innovations “embodied” in Strela: matrix execution of the multiplication unit on diodes was performed, an operational memory was developed and used on 43 specialized CRT tubes.
    The arrow turned out to be an ideological adversary of BESM. The machine of Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev was more advanced, more promising, with good arithmetic, but Strela - since there was more money in the industry, better supply than at the academic institute was, let's say, more accurately made. Both machines were developed almost at the same time: Strela - in SKB-245 of the Ministry of Instrument Engineering, BESM - in ITM and VT, however, in different conditions. The ministry “made a bet” on Strela and spared nothing for it. For example, if potentioscopes were issued for the memory in Strela, then BESM was content with the memory on the mercury tubes, and even Lebedev had to beg for it, which he repeatedly complained to me about. BESM was a good, excellent car, but ... it could not be repeated. Still, it was more a layout, and not a machine, ready for serial production.

    Due to the unstable operation of the computer, the calculations for modeling an atomic explosion had to be divided into stages. Each stage was performed at least two to three times with the creation of control points that ensured the continuation of the experiment without returning to previous calculations. Here with such difficulty managed to defeat Arrow.

    In 1955, Mikhail Romanovich was awarded the Stalin Prize of the USSR for his contribution to the creation of nuclear weapons.

    The IPM programming team was able to create the most complex programs, including those for solving space-related tasks. As Mikhail Romanovich recalled, their department resembled a hotbed of programming. Having experienced the full scope of the difficulties of manual programming, the department faced the question of programming automation: "... At our IPM, in particular, we began to teach programming all around. When there was a big task, we unfastened a group of people in another department, which "It turned out that thanks to our" landing ", the department employees learned programming and, in addition, some of the" paratroopers "in these departments remained on a permanent job."

    In the beginning, such automation activities even caused a storm of negativity from the mathematical departments; at party meetings the question arose that the employees of the IPM department occupy computers for “toys”. The machine worked out the technology of passing tasks, double miscalculations, checksums, while improving the quality of programs in Strela.

    Such work was paid very well, prizes were often awarded. For two months, Mikhail Romanovich could receive up to 16,000 rubles, and this was a colossal amount at that time.

    The programs, which were developed by the department headed by Mikhail Romanovich in the mid-50s for Strela and M-20 computers, were used to calculate artificial Earth satellites; they provided a round-the-clock processing mode for satellite trajectory measurements. The accuracy of the trajectory calculations was very important when launching the first satellites and the flight of Gagarin, they used the programs until 1967. All calculations were carried out in real time, which required tremendous efforts from specialists. After all, not everything was so smooth: "... the satellite is flying, information is being received through the communication lines, operators are punching cards, in our hall they need to be pushed into the car, it must be counted, and then they call from the flight control, and then the car broke down. One in a word, a nightmare! "

    In 1963, under the leadership of Shura-Bura, one of three translators from the ALGOL-60 language was created for the M-20 computer - the TA-2 translator with the full version of the ALGOL-60 language.


    The installation of the ALGOL-60

    ALGOL-60 translator on the M-20, as well as the most common and well-known programming languages ​​such as Fortran, Kobol, PL-1, Algol-68, Pascal, Ada, actually belong to the same family, based on the class of operator languages , procedural type. A typical language for describing and representing algorithmic knowledge.


    M-20 computer

    Later, the department staff, under the "close" guidance of Mikhail Romanovich, developed programming systems for BESM-6 and other computers.

    Space Shuttle Buran


    In the 80s, Turchin, who was an employee of the department of Mikhail Romanovich, developed a system programming tool for developing compilers in the IPM - the well-known REFAL.



    REFAL technology was used to create FORTRAN compilers for PS-3000, EU 1191 computers, a scalable on-board software module for the Buran spacecraft, software products for specialized equipment Bulat 2, Bulat 3

    A reusable orbital ship (in Minaviaprom's terminology - an orbital plane) Buran or, as it is also called, a Soviet shuttle. In the 70s, after information appeared about the American Space Shuttle space shuttle program, it was decided to immediately build a domestic reusable spacecraft. In 1981, everyone who worked to create the Buran was "... ordered not to sleep, not to drink, not to eat, but to quickly make our Soviet alternative to Colombia, which the Americans had already launched before that time.

    Many different organizations were connected to the project. In a word - Buran was made by the whole country. Programmers interacted with each other and with experts on-board systems. The problem of programming languages ​​has become acute, ensuring effective cooperation of all developers of the software part of the orbital ship control system.


    President of the USSR Academy of Sciences G.I.Marchuk presents the Order of Lenin for work on the Buran project.

    The program department of Mikhail Romanovich Shury-Bura took an active part in creating a complex of languages ​​for writing source codes for programs and tools that would allow us to switch from source texts to worked-out, verified ones. properly modeled object codes stored in the airborne and ground equipment.

    The joint efforts of programmers and on-board systems specialists created two programming languages ​​- PROL-2 (a special problem-oriented real-time programming language based on Russian service words) for developing on-board systems and Dipole for developing ground-based verification software, as well as a special object description language Phlox, which ensured their integration among themselves, the modeling language Lax. Later, these three languages ​​were replaced by one universal, convenient and well thought out - graphic language DRAGON .

    Merits of the PM PM Mikhailovich Shura-Bura branch



    The creation of the EU computer and the SM computer was the largest joint project of the socialist countries. 20 thousand scientists and designers, 300 thousand workers and technicians at 70 factories took part in the project.

    In 1979, 240 types of EC computers were developed in the socialist countries. Over the years of cooperation, 31 types of processors have been developed, 17 of them in the USSR.



    All this happened not without the participation of Mikhail Romanovich IPM programming department. They were faced with the task of ensuring software compatibility of EU computers with the most widespread family in the West - IBM / 360. The workshops that focused on this issue studied the architecture and software of IBM / 360.

    In 1978, work was completed on the development of the EU software (unified system) of computers. For this, Shura-Bura was awarded the USSR State Prize.

    Another merit of the Shura-Bura department was the creation of the original architecture of the EU 1191 scalar-vector multiprocessor computer, although this machine could not be called successful because only the domestic element base was used, which was significantly inferior to the western one (1.5 thousand valves / crystals compared to 200 thousand). But her software corresponded to the world level.

    Creation of an operating system for computers Spring - also need to be recorded on the account of the Department of Applied Mathematics, Mikhail Romanovich. This was the first full-featured operating system in the USSR for a serial computer that supported multi-program operation, batch processing, and time-sharing mode.


    High-performance general-purpose semiconductor computer Spring

    Creation and implementation of non-procedural programming language Normwas also carried out by the program department under the leadership of Shura-Bura. The primary elements of the Norm language are symbols (letter, number, and special characters). Identifiers can be of any length, the number of significant characters is determined in the description of the translator's input language, the letters of upper and lower case are different, the type and value of the constant is determined by the way it is written.


    Keywords


    Writing the constant

    'Hello, world!'
    'Body Volume'

    String Record

    Research in the field of computational complexity theory and logic programs has gained wide popularity both at home and abroad. Many results obtained at the IPM in the field of the theory of computational complexity and logic programs have become the theoretical basis for creating large instrumental automation systems for logical programming (for example, the HESIOD system).

    The scientist devoted much time and attention to the training of young specialists; several generations of highly qualified programmers were his pupils. The first programming textbook was written by him in collaboration with Lyusternik, Abramov, Shestakov ("Programming for electronic computers")

    As one of the founders of computer science in the USSR, Mikhail Romanovich Shura-Bura made a significant contribution to the creation and development of the first computer models. He was a pioneer of programming automation, the creator of the first software in the USSR. His work played a crucial role in the spread of algorithmic languages ​​in the USSR as a programming tool. Under the leadership of Mikhail Romanovich, the first in the USSR translator from the full language Algol-60 was created, the interpretive system IS-2 was developed for the M-20 machine.

    His contribution to the design of domestic computer designs is huge. Shura - Bura developed the logical structure of the M-20 machine, the logic and multiprogramming system of the Spring computer.

    Decisive was his contribution to the creation of the Buran spacecraft software.

    In 1970-1991, Mikhail Romanovich Shura-Bura was a professor and head of the system programming department of the faculty of computational mathematics and cybernetics (VMiK) of Moscow State University.


    In the museum of astronautics. Washington, 1992.

    An outstanding scientist, creator of electronic computers Mikhail Romanovich Shura-Bura died on December 14, 2008 at the age of 90. His time was full of almost round-the-clock work, because, as he said, he was at the forefront of science.


    Mikhail Romanovich with his family


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