BESM

BESM (БЭСМ) is the name of a series of Russian mainframe computers. It stands for "Большая Электронно-Счётная Машина" (Bolshaja Elektronno-Schetnaja Mashina) in Russian, which can be translated as "Large Electronic-Computing Machine" or simply "Large Computer". taken from website, no copyright on this image ever existed File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... taken from website, no copyright on this image ever existed File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as big iron) are large and expensive computers used mainly by government institutions and large companies for legacy applications, typically bulk data processing (such as censuses, industry/consumer statistics, ERP, and bank transaction processing). ...

Several types of BESM have been built.

BESM-1 was built in 1953 using approximately 5,000 vacuum tubes. Only one such machine has been built. At the time of completion, it was the fastest computer in Europe. The floating point numbers were represented as 39-bit words: 32 bits for the numeric part, 1 bit for sign, 1 + 5 bits for the exponent. It was capable of representing numbers in the range 10^-9 — 10¹⁰. BESM-1 had 1024 words read-write RAM based on ferritic cores, and 1024 words of read-only memory based on semiconducting diodes. It also had external storage: 4 magnetic tape units of 30,000 words each, and fast magnetic drum storage with capacity of 5120 words with access rate of 800 words/second. The computer was capable of performing 8—10 KFlops. The energy consumption was approximately 30 kW, not accounting for the cooling systems. 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... In electronics, a vacuum tube (American English) or (thermionic) valve (British English) is a device generally used to amplify a signal. ... An SI prefix is a prefix which can be applied to any unit of the International System of Units (SI) to give subdivisions and multiples of that unit. ... In computing, FLOPS is an abbreviation of floating point operations per second. ... Power kilowatt (symbol: kW) is a unit for measuring power, equal to one thousand watts. ...

BESM-2 also used vacuum tubes In electronics, a vacuum tube (American English) or (thermionic) valve (British English) is a device generally used to amplify a signal. ...

BESM-3M and BESM-4 were built using transistors. Their architecture was similar to that of the M-20 and M-220 series. Word size was 45 bits. (30 BESM-4 machines have been built.) Photo of transistor types (tape measure marked in centimeters) Transistor in the SMD form factor The transistor is a solid state semiconductor device used for amplification and switching. ...

BESM-6 was a completely new supercomputer system. It was designed in Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering in 1965, production started in 1967. This is a mainframe type computer. BESM-6 was made up of discrete components, i.e. it did not use integrated circuits. Word size was 48 bits, address size 15 bits, addressable memory in base configuration 32K words (192K bytes) extendable upto 128K words, working frequency 10 MHz, nominal performance 1 MFlops. BESM-6 was widely used in USSR in 1970s for various number-crunching tasks. 355 such machines have been built. Production ended in 1987. The Cray-2; worlds fastest computer 1985–1989. ... Lebedev Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering (IPMCE) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. ... 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... 1967 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as big iron) are large and expensive computers used mainly by government institutions and large companies for legacy applications, typically bulk data processing (such as censuses, industry/consumer statistics, ERP, and bank transaction processing). ... An integrated circuit (IC) is a thin chip consisting of at least two interconnected semiconductor devices, mainly transistors, as well as passive components like resistors. ... A kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix kilo-) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one thousand bytes. ... An SI prefix is a prefix which can be applied to any unit of the International System of Units (SI) to give subdivisions and multiples of that unit. ... In computing, FLOPS is an abbreviation of floating point operations per second. ... Events and trends Although in the United States and in many other Western societies the 1970s are often seen as a period of transition between the turbulent 1960s and the more conservative 1980s and 1990s, many of the trends that are associated widely with the Sixties, from the Sexual Revolution... 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

BESM-6 was the first Soviet computer that was provided with an operating system and a Fortran compiler. In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ... Fortran (also FORTRAN) is a statically typed, compiled programming language originally developed in the 1950s and still heavily used for scientific computing and numerical computation half a century later. ... A diagram of the operation of an ideal compiler. ...

The later development of BESM-6 was Elbrus. Elbrus (ЭЛЬБРУС) is the name (after the mountain) of a series of Soviet supercomputer systems developed in Russia by Elbrus MCST and/or ITMiVT since the 1970s; its current models are compatible with U.S.-developed SPARC designs. ...

See also

• Sergei Alekseyevich Lebedev
• List of Soviet computer systems

Categories: People stubs | 1902 births | 1974 deaths ... This article gives a list of Soviet computer systems. ...

External link

• BESM-6 Nostalgia Page (http://www.mailcom.com/besm6/)