History of Computers

Military Computers

T
he present generation of specialists on information technologies knows almost nothing about the history of development and use of computers in domestic weapon systems and assets. Meanwhile computers and sets of software for military equipment created in the period from the 1950s to the 1980s boasted a plethora of original solutions and ensured parity with the West in this area of information processing and control of complex systems. In the 1950s, the initial stage in the development of domestic computer technology, the developers focused on creating computers designed to solve difficult mathematical problems. These were bulky machines geared to solve problems regardless of real time and dynamic change of parameters of outside objects. They later formed the biggest class of universal computers in the world.
By the late 1950s defense industries and Defense Ministry organizations developed an interest in using computers for information processing and for command and control purposes in military systems. But this path was strewn with many difficulties. First, the new problems, which computers were due to address, were much different in nature from their predecessors. Besides, it became clear that universal computers could not be used in military systems for real-time command and control. The search for solutions to this problem led to the development of mobile computers mounted on mobile or movable facilities. Special features of functional tasks, application specifics, as well as strict interdepartmental barriers and secrecy regulations brought about a situation, where information exchanges on R & D for specialized mobile computers between specialists of different industries and enterprises were dramatically restricted. There was almost no information on technical characteristics and design of foreign machines in this class. This state of affairs resulted in the designing of hundreds of computer types with different architecture and...