History of Computer Hardware in Soviet Bloc Countries

History Of Computer Hardware In Soviet Bloc Countries

The history of computing hardware in the former Soviet Bloc is somewhat different from that of the Western world. As a result of the CoCom embargo, computers could not be imported in a large scale from capitalist countries. All computer hardware produced in the socialist countries was either designed locally or derived or copied from Western models by the intelligence agencies, tacitly studied, and reproduced. This redevelopment led to some incompatibilities with IEC and IEEE standards, such as Integrated circuit pins on 2.5 mm (0.098 in) spacing instead of 2.54 mm (0.100 in) spacing. This made Soviet chips unsalable on the world market outside the Comecon, and made test machinery more expensive.

Read more about History Of Computer Hardware In Soviet Bloc Countries:  Belarussian Computers, Bulgarian Computers

Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, computer, hardware, soviet, bloc and/or countries:

    Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.
    Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)

    The analogy between the mind and a computer fails for many reasons. The brain is constructed by principles that assure diversity and degeneracy. Unlike a computer, it has no replicative memory. It is historical and value driven. It forms categories by internal criteria and by constraints acting at many scales, not by means of a syntactically constructed program. The world with which the brain interacts is not unequivocally made up of classical categories.
    Gerald M. Edelman (b. 1928)

    A friend of mine spoke of books that are dedicated like this: “To my wife, by whose helpful criticism ...” and so on. He said the dedication should really read: “To my wife. If it had not been for her continual criticism and persistent nagging doubt as to my ability, this book would have appeared in Harper’s instead of The Hardware Age.”
    Brenda Ueland (1891–1985)

    They were right. The Soviet régime is not the embodiment of evil as you think in the West. They have laws and I broke them. I hate tea and they love tea. Who is wrong?
    Alexander Zinoviev (b. 1922)

    Unpleasant questions are being raised about Mother’s Day. Is this day necessary? . . . Isn’t it bad public policy? . . . No politician with half his senses, which a majority of politicians have, is likely to vote for its abolition, however. As a class, mothers are tender and loving, but as a voting bloc they would not hesitate for an instant to pull the seat out from under any Congressman who suggests that Mother is not entitled to a box of chocolates each year in the middle of May.
    Russell Baker (20th century)

    The American adolescent, then, is faced, as are the adolescents of all countries who have entered or are entering the machine age, with the question: freedom from what and at what price? The American feels so rich in his opportunities for free expression that he often no longer knows what it is he is free from. Neither does he know where he is not free; he does not recognize his native autocrats when he sees them.
    Erik H. Erikson (1904–1994)