ES EVM
Encyclopedia
ES EVM was a series of clones
of IBM
's System/360
and System/370
mainframe
s, released in the Comecon
countries under the initiative of the Soviet Union
since the 1960s. Production continued until 1998. The total number of ES EVM mainframes produced was more than 15,000.
In the period from 1986 to 1997, there were also produced a series of PC-compatible desktop computers, called ПЭВМ ЕС ЭВМ (Personal Computers of ES EVM series); the newer versions of these computers are still produced under a different name on a very limited scale in Minsk
.
or Minsk
. The first works on the cloning began in 1968; production started in 1972. In addition, after 1968, other Comecon countries joined the project.
During 1960s-1970s, several other companies, such as Amdahl
, Siemens
and Hitachi
, had also cloned the IBM architecture without IBM's approval. With the exception of only a few hardware pieces, the ES machines were recognized in the Western countries as independently designed, based on legitimate Soviet patents. Unlike the hardware, which was quite original, mostly created by reverse-engineering, much of the software was based on slightly modified and localized IBM code. In 1974-1976 IBM had contacted the Soviet authorities and expressed interest in ES EVM development; however, after the Soviet Army entered Afghanistan
, in 1979, all contacts between IBM and ES developers were interrupted, due to the US embargo on technological cooperation with the USSR.
Due to the CoCom
's restrictions, much of the software localization was done through disassembling
the IBM software, with some minimal modification. The most common operating system
was ОС ЕС (OS ES), a modified version of OS/360; the later versions of ОС ЕС were very original and different from the IBM OSes, but they also included a lot of original IBM code. There were even anecdotal rumors among the Soviet programmers, that this supposedly Soviet operating system contained some secret command, which outputs the American national anthem
. Today some of the Russia
n institutes that worked on ES EVM are cooperating with IBM
to continue legacy support for both genuine IBM mainframes and the ES EVM systems.
The ES EVM were developed in Moscow
, at the Scientific-Research Center for Electronic Computer Machinery (НИЦЭВТ), in Yerevan
, and later in Minsk
, Belarus, at the Scientific-Research Institute of Electronic Computer Machines (НИИ ЭВМ), in Penza
Scientific-Research Institute of Computer Machinery (Пензенский НИИВТ) and manufactured in Minsk
, at Minsk Production Group for Computing Machinery (Минское производственное объединение вычислительной техники (МПО ВТ)), in Penza, at Penza Electronic Computer Plant (Пензенский завод ВЭМ). Some models had been also produced in other countries of the Eastern bloc
: Bulgaria
, Hungary
, Poland
, Czechoslovakia
, Romania
and East Germany; some peripheral devices were also produced in Cuba
.
The ES computers were produced in subseries, known as Ряд 1, Ряд 2, Ряд 3, Ряд 4 (Ryad means series).
and operated at 10-450 kIPS
, and the more rare and advanced versions, incompatible with the IBM versions: 1022, 1032, 1033 and 1052. The electronics
of the first models were based on TTL
circuits; the later machines used ECL
design. ES 1050 had up to 1M RAM and 64-bit
floating point registers. The fastest machine of the series, ES 1052, developed in 1978, operated at 700 kIPS.
The second subseries, released in 1977-1978, included the models 1015, 1025, 1035, 1045, 1055 and 1060, analogous to System/370
and operated at 33 kIPS - 1.050 MIPS
. ES 1060 had up to 8M RAM.
The third subseries, released in 1984, were analogous to System/370
with some original enhancements, and included 1016, 1026, 1036, 1046 and 1066. ES 1066 had up to 16M RAM and operated at 5.5 MIPS. The fourth subseries had no direct IBM analogs and included 1130, 1181 and 1220. The last machine in the series, ES 1220, released in 1995, supported a number of 64-bit CPU commands, 256M RAM and operated at 7 MIPS, but was not successful; only 20 such machines were ever produced, and in 1998 the whole production of ES mainframes was stopped.
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...
of 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...
's 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...
and System/370
System/370
The IBM System/370 was a model range of IBM mainframes announced on June 30, 1970 as the successors to the System/360 family. The series maintained backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path for customers; this, plus improved performance, were the dominant themes of the...
mainframe
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...
s, released in the Comecon
Comecon
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance , 1949–1991, was an economic organisation under hegemony of Soviet Union comprising the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with a number of communist states elsewhere in the world...
countries under the initiative of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
since the 1960s. Production continued until 1998. The total number of ES EVM mainframes produced was more than 15,000.
In the period from 1986 to 1997, there were also produced a series of PC-compatible desktop computers, called ПЭВМ ЕС ЭВМ (Personal Computers of ES EVM series); the newer versions of these computers are still produced under a different name on a very limited scale in Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
.
Development
In 1966, the Soviet economists suggested creating a unified series of mutually compatible computers. Due to the success of the IBM System/360 in the USA, the economic planners decided to use the IBM design, although some prominent Soviet computer scientists had criticized the idea and suggested instead choosing one of the Soviet indigenous designs, such as БЭСМBESM
BESM is the name of a series of Soviet mainframe computers built in 1950-1960s. The name is an acronym for "Bolshaya Elektronno-Schetnaya Mashina" , literally "Large Electronically Computing Machine". The series began as a successor to MESM...
or Minsk
Minsk family of computers
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 first works on the cloning began in 1968; production started in 1972. In addition, after 1968, other Comecon countries joined the project.
During 1960s-1970s, several other companies, such as Amdahl
Amdahl Corporation
Amdahl Corporation is an information technology company which specializes in IBM mainframe-compatible computer products. Founded in 1970 by Dr. Gene Amdahl, a former IBM employee, it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu since 1997...
, Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
and Hitachi
Hitachi, Ltd.
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Marunouchi 1-chome, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company is the parent of the Hitachi Group as part of the larger DKB Group companies...
, had also cloned the IBM architecture without IBM's approval. With the exception of only a few hardware pieces, the ES machines were recognized in the Western countries as independently designed, based on legitimate Soviet patents. Unlike the hardware, which was quite original, mostly created by reverse-engineering, much of the software was based on slightly modified and localized IBM code. In 1974-1976 IBM had contacted the Soviet authorities and expressed interest in ES EVM development; however, after the Soviet Army entered Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, in 1979, all contacts between IBM and ES developers were interrupted, due to the US embargo on technological cooperation with the USSR.
Due to the CoCom
CoCom
CoCom is an acronym for Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls. CoCom was established by Western bloc powers in the first five years after the end of World War II, during the Cold War, to put an arms embargo on COMECON countries.CoCom ceased to function on March 31, 1994, and the...
's restrictions, much of the software localization was done through disassembling
Disassembler
A disassembler is a computer program that translates machine language into assembly language—the inverse operation to that of an assembler. A disassembler differs from a decompiler, which targets a high-level language rather than an assembly language...
the IBM software, with some minimal modification. The most common operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
was ОС ЕС (OS ES), a modified version of OS/360; the later versions of ОС ЕС were very original and different from the IBM OSes, but they also included a lot of original IBM code. There were even anecdotal rumors among the Soviet programmers, that this supposedly Soviet operating system contained some secret command, which outputs the American national anthem
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
. Today some of the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n institutes that worked on ES EVM are cooperating with 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...
to continue legacy support for both genuine IBM mainframes and the ES EVM systems.
The ES EVM were developed in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, at the Scientific-Research Center for Electronic Computer Machinery (НИЦЭВТ), in Yerevan
Yerevan Computer Research and Development Institute
The Yerevan Computer Research and Development Institute was founded by USSR government decision in 1956 for the development of computer equipment. It became major center for development of computers and automatic control systems for civil and defense purposes. At YCRDI's peak it employed over...
, and later in Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
, Belarus, at the Scientific-Research Institute of Electronic Computer Machines (НИИ ЭВМ), in Penza
Penza
-Honors:A minor planet, 3189 Penza, discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1978, is named after the city.-Notable residents:...
Scientific-Research Institute of Computer Machinery (Пензенский НИИВТ) and manufactured in Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
, at Minsk Production Group for Computing Machinery (Минское производственное объединение вычислительной техники (МПО ВТ)), in Penza, at Penza Electronic Computer Plant (Пензенский завод ВЭМ). Some models had been also produced in other countries of the Eastern bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
: Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and East Germany; some peripheral devices were also produced in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
The ES computers were produced in subseries, known as Ряд 1, Ряд 2, Ряд 3, Ряд 4 (Ryad means series).
Hardware models and technical details
The first subseries (ЕС ЭВМ-1) of the ES EVM, released in 1969-1978, included the models 1010, 1020, 1030, 1040 and 1050, which were analogous to System/360System/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...
and operated at 10-450 kIPS
Instructions per second
Instructions per second is a measure of a computer's processor speed. Many reported IPS values have represented "peak" execution rates on artificial instruction sequences with few branches, whereas realistic workloads typically lead to significantly lower IPS values...
, and the more rare and advanced versions, incompatible with the IBM versions: 1022, 1032, 1033 and 1052. The electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
of the first models were based on TTL
Transistor-transistor logic
Transistor–transistor logic is a class of digital circuits built from bipolar junction transistors and resistors. It is called transistor–transistor logic because both the logic gating function and the amplifying function are performed by transistors .TTL is notable for being a widespread...
circuits; the later machines used ECL
Emitter coupled logic
In electronics, emitter-coupled logic , is a logic family that achieves high speed by using an overdriven BJT differential amplifier with single-ended input, whose emitter current is limited to avoid the slow saturation region of transistor operation....
design. ES 1050 had up to 1M RAM and 64-bit
64-bit
64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...
floating point registers. The fastest machine of the series, ES 1052, developed in 1978, operated at 700 kIPS.
The second subseries, released in 1977-1978, included the models 1015, 1025, 1035, 1045, 1055 and 1060, analogous to System/370
System/370
The IBM System/370 was a model range of IBM mainframes announced on June 30, 1970 as the successors to the System/360 family. The series maintained backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path for customers; this, plus improved performance, were the dominant themes of the...
and operated at 33 kIPS - 1.050 MIPS
Instructions per second
Instructions per second is a measure of a computer's processor speed. Many reported IPS values have represented "peak" execution rates on artificial instruction sequences with few branches, whereas realistic workloads typically lead to significantly lower IPS values...
. ES 1060 had up to 8M RAM.
The third subseries, released in 1984, were analogous to System/370
System/370
The IBM System/370 was a model range of IBM mainframes announced on June 30, 1970 as the successors to the System/360 family. The series maintained backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path for customers; this, plus improved performance, were the dominant themes of the...
with some original enhancements, and included 1016, 1026, 1036, 1046 and 1066. ES 1066 had up to 16M RAM and operated at 5.5 MIPS. The fourth subseries had no direct IBM analogs and included 1130, 1181 and 1220. The last machine in the series, ES 1220, released in 1995, supported a number of 64-bit CPU commands, 256M RAM and operated at 7 MIPS, but was not successful; only 20 such machines were ever produced, and in 1998 the whole production of ES mainframes was stopped.