Did you know that the world's first personal computer was created not by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the Palo Alto garage, but by a simple Soviet designer Arseny Anatolyevich Gorokhov at the Omsk Research Institute of Aviation Technologies?
We wind back time.
1950s. Computers are huge, bulky, expensive. The Soviet "Whirlwind" of 1951, the first machine with a display of data on the screen, has only 512 bytes of RAM, while occupying a two-story house. The American peer, Univac, has a magnetic metal tape drive, a high-speed printer, but weighs 13 tons and costs about $ 1.5 million. The Bendix G-15, released in the USA in 1956, is called a mini-computer - in fact, it weighs 450 kg and costs at least $ 50,000. Not a single car pulls the title of personal.
1960s. Computers are getting faster, more powerful, more compact. In the USA, the first commercial computer equipped with a keyboard and monitor is produced - "PDP-1". The dimensions of the new apparatus are about three refrigerators, the price is ten times lower than the cost of an ordinary large computer. A broad step forward, but insufficient for the widespread introduction of technology. Only 50 copies were sold in total.
The Honeywell Kitchen Computer, introduced in 1969 in the United States, claims to be the first home computer. It weighs about 65 kg, costs $ 10,600, is a pedestal with a built-in cutting board, a panel of lights and buttons. It performs only one function - storage of various recipes. Working with a "kitchen computer" requires a two-week course because the recipes are displayed in binary. Those who wish to purchase such an expensive "cookbook" have not been found.
1970s. With the creation of the first microprocessor, the era of personal computers begins. Inventors around the world compete to build their own models. American entrepreneur Edward Roberts was the first to realize how great the potential of the 8-bit Intel 8080 microprocessor, released in 1974, is and creates the Altair 8800 microcomputer on its basis. Thanks to the deal with Intel for the wholesale purchase of microprocessors ($ 75 apiece, at a retail price of $ 360), Roberts sets a record price for his invention - only 397 "tanks"! A 1975 cover advertisement for the respected Popular Electronics magazine does its job. In the first month, the developers sell several thousand copies of the Altair 8800. However, the received order comes as a surprise to buyers:the kit is a set of parts and a box for the case. Users have to solder, test, create programs in machine language themselves. (Which, of course, is also not bad, because it is on the Altair 8800 that Microsoft founders BillGates and Paul Allen test their famous program - Basic.)
Be that as it may, Roberts' computer is a godsend for inventors, and "mere mortals" are still left without technology. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs come to their aid in 1976, deciding to sell their Apple I, assembled for personal use in a Palo Alto (California) garage. The cost of a new computer is $ 666.66. And the main advantage is that, unlike the Altair 8800 and many other machines of that time, the Apple I is offered already assembled. Operation requires only a case, keyboard and monitor. But they will also be included in the kit two years later, in the serial production of the color, sound "Apple II".
This is the history of the personal computer.
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Stop, stop, stop … But what about the Soviet scientist, Omsk and the Research Institute of Aviation Technologies ?!
Oh yes! Completely forgot. There is also a dark page in the history of personal computers.
Here is how it was. Back in 1968, 8 years before the first "apple", the Soviet electrical engineer Arseny Anatolyevich Gorokhov invented a machine called "A device for setting a program for reproducing the contour of a part." So, in any case, it is indicated in the patent, copyright certificate No. 383005, dated May 18, 1968. The name is not accidental, because the developed apparatus was intended, first of all, for creating complex engineering drawings. The inventor himself prefers to call the device "intelligent device".
According to the drawings, the "intellector" had a monitor, a separate system unit with a hard disk, a device for solving autonomous tasks and personal communication with a computer, motherboard, memory, video card and others, with the exception of a computer mouse.
The invention was patented, but they did not give money for a prototype, they asked to wait. The simple Soviet engineer did not manage to get the necessary 80,000 rubles himself. He took on new projects, and the great discovery remained on paper. In 1970, the “intelligence” scheme was published in the Bulletin of Inventions, Discoveries, and Trademarks, making it available to everyone.
Could she fall into the hands of American engineers? Judge for yourself: Soviet bulletins and patents in the United States have always been translated with great care.
Could a Soviet engineer bring honor and glory to the Motherland? A rhetorical question. Arseny Anatolyevich himself once remarked: "If there is funding, it would be possible to create a computerization industry in Russia in seven years."
Can. Would. Should he, the owner of 40 copyright certificates and patents, not know this? But are these certificates and patents needed when the guarantee obligations of the state are strong only on paper?
Put it on the back burner - let it go forever. Therefore, the history of the personal computer for the United States is the present, and for Russia it is the past.
Gorokhov Arseny Anatolievich
