ACNews #61 21 января 2016

Comments on "Red Clones" article - Few comments on it.

- Few comments on it." alt="Comments on "Red Clones" article - Few comments on it.">

                Comments on "Red Clones" article
                        by Alone Coder

IEEE Annals of the History of Computing published an article on 
Spectrum clones:
http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/an/2015/01/
man2015010012-abs.html

Few comments on it:

Leningrad is thought to be a descendant of Novosibirsk variant 
or earlier Lvov variant that was the first USSR's Spectrum clone
(its authors wrote the story in several numbers of Optron
e-paper). They are not as known as Leningrad because they
weren't mass produced. Clones that can be traced to Leningrad
are Composit, Спектр 48, Урал-48К, Веста ИК-30, Электроника
КР-005, Kontact, CIЧ-48, Сункар (these are thought to be close 
copies), then Scorpion and KAY and maybe other St.Peterburg's
clones. The main point of these boards that they have single
memory field with M1 CPU cycle aligned to even t-state. There is
no information about mentioned Delta N online (just a photo),
but other Deltas weren't Leningrads, they had two memory fields.

Moscow's variants resulted in Pentagon 48K byRAЗAO (circa 1989) 
that was contentionless and became a popular base to add
Beta 128 disk interface (some of the boards were made with this 
interface onboard). It's an ancestor of Pentagon 128, ATM Turbo,
Profi, GRM, 777, and maybe Compact. 

Note, ALL THE MENTIONED MODELS WERE RARE (i.e. intended either
for radioamateurs or for "serious users", not for a regular
gamer) compared to factory models that were generally 48K with
some kind of TЗЧVG1 chip inside. Sadly these toys were mostly
destroyed by their users in the 90's because they couldn't
compete with Dendy ( NES clone) or "serious" clones.

Korvet's failure was because it lost the call for bids for a 
school computer (computerization of schools was planned by
Gosplan back in 1980, the document is inErshov's archive - but
went long because since 1965Kosygin's reform we had more
"hozraschyot" (free trade between factories) than plan).

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ 
A film named "Игра с Компьютером" / Playing with a Computer
(USSR, 1986) was shot most possibly because of a decree of
Central Commitee of CPSU and Council of Ministers of the USSR
from 28th of March, 1985: 271"О мерах по обеспечению
компьютерной грамотности учащихся средних учебных заведений и
широкого внедрения электронно-вычислительной техники в учебный
процесс" /"About the measures for reaching the computer 
literacy between the students of middle schools and broad
implementation of electronic computing equipment in school
process" according to the results of plenum of Central Committee
of CPSU in April, 1984. So, this film is about implementation of
computing in schools.

Maybe everything started with an excerpt from single target
complex scientific-technical program 0.Ц.047"Автоматизация в
отраслях народного хозяйства на базе микропроцессорной техники
машин, оборудования и технологических процессов во всех звеньях
производства" /"Automation in breaches of people's economy, 
based on microprocessor devices, for machines, equipment and
technology in all elements of manufacture" that was approved by
ГКНТ (State Commitee for Science and Technics), Academy of
Sciences, and Gosplan of the USSR, with decree 30.12.83
766/164/333: "Develop and produce a pilot run of typical
computing class for schools and other educational institutions, 
with microprocessor devices". 

The deadline for a specification was initially 1984, corrected
for the 1st quarter of 1985. In fact, the technical requirements
were ready by 20.06.1985, and the specification was finished at
07.08.1985.

I haven't seen all the decree from 30.12.83 but there is an
extract:
http://ershov-arc.iis.nsk.su/archive/eaimage.asp?lang=1&did=7950
&fileid=106332

There was also a General Agreement between member states of
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, 10.06.82, about a
cooperation for development and broad usage of microprocessors
in people's economy, and it mentioned school computing:
http://ershov-arc.iis.nsk.su/archive/eaimage.asp?lang=1
&did=42896&fileid=226730

And there was a decree from ГКНТ, Gosplan, and Academy of
Sciences, 475/251/131 from 12.12.80, program 0.80.14, task
33.09, and resolution of Academy of Sciences from 26.05.81:
http://ershov-arc.iis.nsk.su/archive/eaimage.asp?lang=1
&did=42872&fileid=226678
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ 

One source from Academy of Sciences mentioned thatGorbachov
visited a plant producing ZX Spectrum in the U.K. in December
1984:http://www.novsu.ru/file/866256
A number of Western machines was considered.Gorbachov also
visitedCDC:http://forum.ixbt.com/topic.cgi?id=64:3394-179#4282

UK-NC (Elektronika MS-0511) won the tender. Around 310000 UK-NC 
machines were produced and installed in schools - only in
schools. There also was DVK computer partially compatible to it
and BK-0010/0011, 200000 units of DVK were produced, some of
them sold in retail (as well as 162000 BKs ).
MSX and IBM school classes were also bought by the state 
(Michail Ryazansky mentioned 5500 units of MSX1 and around
20000 units of MSX2. "In 1989 Kato told me that he sold 80000
units of MSX2 in USSR. Most likely that was a desired size of 
purchases, and there wasn't enough money" ), so later our 
computers had no chance. Although there were even Spectrum-based
classes ( Hobbit, YuLDUZ, andiS-DOS based).

The bad thing was, we didn't produce floppy disks until 1991.
They were imported via joint ventures. And the makers of Hobbit
and Profi were joint ventures.

The economic situation was as follows:
We had "nalichny raschot" (i.e. money), "beznalichny raschot"
(i.e. virtual money in Gosbank and Stroybank) and "valyuta"
(i.e. foreign currency you can't buy but you can have
"certificates" if, say, you are a writer and your book was
published abroad, and the foreign publishing house paid you via
an agency namedVAAP ).

These three were not convertable between each other, that helped
to control money flow. So, you bought food and home electronics
for "nalichny raschot" in shops, you bought luxuries for
"valyuta" or "certificates" in "Beryozka" shops, and you never
lay your hand on factory's virtual money. Gosbank could convert
"nalichny" to "beznalichny" and back only by a written document
signed by factory director (that was to convert shops'
"vyruchka" i.e. revenue to "beznalichny" and convert factories'
"beznalichny" money to "nalichny" salaries).

Computer parts were produced for "beznalichny raschot" (i.e.
sold for virtual money between factories) and were rarely sold
officially. Radio markets sold parts stolen, defective or
removed from some apparatus.

The system was broken in 1986-1987, with the laws "O
predpriyatii" (about а company), "O kooperatsii" (about
cooperation), "O sovmestnom predpriyatii" (about а joint
venture). Since that, a company could convert "nalichny" to
"beznalichny", buy "valyuta" at auction, and they ofcourse did
that a lot to buy foreign goods to sell them for roubles. The
state quickly lost all the "valyuta" it earned for its export
(oil and gas were low then) and went in a big debt. Also
"nalichny"/"beznalichny" flow became uncontrollable that
resulted in great inflation of 1991-1993. But that also resulted
in the emerge of free market.

In 1987, TsNTTMs (centers for scientific-technical creativity of
youth) were established for young inventors and businessmen.
NTKs (scientific-technical cooperatives) were formed there. For
example,NTK Plus that sold the first Beta 128 disk interfaces
was from there, andMicroArt that made Pentagon 128 and
ATM Turbo are almost certainly from there too. They had
"Association of creative youth" (the original meaning ofATM ), 
and their shop was located directly at VDNKh of the USSR (see
Radio 1990-11 p.30)