Recently the [Chornobyl Family] got their hands on an ES-4001 control panel for a 1970s-era Soviet mainframe, with the intention to restore it to full working order. Not just because they’re really into cool old Soviet technology, but also because of the connection that this control panel holds to the Chernobyl nuclear accident that was so instrumental to the area in modern times.
During the 1970s the USSR felt that it could not be left behind in the race to create better digital computers. This led them to not only create a few original designs, but also effectively clone the IBM System/360 and System/370. This resulted in the ES EVM-series of mainframes, with an ES-1060 finding itself installed at the Duga-1 early warning radar system near what is now the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
Although the radar arrays are the most well-known feature of the Duga-1, below it is the computer center where the ES-1060 was installed. It was never put into service following the ChNPP Unit-4 accident — all that remains of a once pinnacle of Soviet engineering are the picked-over carcass of the mainframe and its control panel.
The control panel in question was obtained was from the early 1980s, serving a more gentle service life in a datacenter and looks to be in a mostly good condition. That said, there was still enough to be done to make it work and undo the damage of its violent removal from the mainframe. Along the way we also learn how the system was used and how the control panel works.
Although similar in some ways to the System/370, it’s still very different, and with only about 300 of these mainframes produced, it’s worth saving whatever elements still remain today, along with the surviving documentation.
Great to see a piece of Soviet mainframe history being brought back to life. The way the ES series copied the System/360 architecture while still having its own front panel quirks makes this restoration really interesting to follow.
Wow, you really are trying to steer traffic to your site, aren’t you.
They’re doing something cool. And you just can’t help being a jerk about it, can you.
Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. It’s not obvious at all how Glitch Magazine sneakily is bringing traffic to them. There’s no links in the comment. Glitch magazine, a British publication, whether through click or inputting the name, doesn’t bring one anywhere near an article about the ES series. The yt video is made by a team in Slovakia, Chernobyl Family. Do you really think a nerdy article on recreating 50 yo Soviet computer is done to raise traffic? Would much of anyone, beyond a specific Hackaday audience have any interest?
The link is in the user name. Note how it is yellow rather than white. In the HaD comment system, user names in yellow are a link to a URL provided by the user.
Having had a look at the site behind the link. I’ve decided it is spam which I’ll be reporting.
Would report, except that the “report post” button is missing again.
No. Not the article. The comment. Glitch Magazine has been posting vapid, cloying, content-free comments, with a link in the name.
I wouldn’t have even noticed the name or the link if you hadn’t pointed it out. They should be thanking you for your comment :-)
Streisand Effect, perhaps?
incident. Or disaster. Not accident.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here. Just that there were so many, in a series of accidents and negligence, that it shouldn’t be described as a singular “accident”? OR that there was a conspiracy by Soviet leaders, perhaps in Moscow, to detonate a nuclear plant? But then the prevailing winds were moving northeast into Russian territory(remember that it was close to the border, and the reason it was named “Chernobyl” was to pretend it wasn’t in Pripyat, but three kilometers further into Ukraine, in the town of Chernobyl) -and this is a big reason why Putin isn’t going to blow up the whole site, the fallout is likely to end up in Russian territory. Although, are you suggesting it was Ukrainian separatists? Whatever, you can’t make a “correction” like this without having a justification. It’s not obvious at all why it shouldn’t be called an “accident”.
Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice, and therefore it’s fair to reject the ‘accidental’ classification.
ChOrnobyl’ Disaster. The worst part wasn’t the disaster itself, but how it was (mostly improperly) handled by all kinds of self-anointed “managers” who had zero business being anywhere near.
Yes, I HAD relatives who were basically forced to handle the cleanup. No, civil engineers, they were unlucky in a sense that they were living in Ukraine, not far from Chornobyl.
Regardless, hairsplitting an politics can be left out (on a separate note, I have friends who still live near Tri-Mile Island, no, nothing major happened to them, but the scare was real, and no comparable al gores were seen near the site handing out their books and/or reading lectures, and I’ll stop at that).
Now makes me think.
Why weren’t there a hybrid combining the best of both kinds? Modulo Math is blistering fast at parallel additions, subtractions and multiplications, so why not hand over divisions (the really weak spot) to the binary CPUs instead? Have a hybrid/combined CPU that could do both reliably, and using look-ahead pre-planning would decide the best/fast route?
Though, of course, using what’s already done and working quite well is easier than inventing from scratch. By then (late 1960s/early 1970s) IBM had already well-established mainframe solution, and it simply was easier to go the IBM route.
Something like that.
That pic of the mainframe in an old soviet decayed office building is possibly the most cyberpunk thing I’ve ever seen
The terms “Soviet” and “Cyberpunk” make me think of Snatcher.
It’s a Japanese graphics adventure/visual novel originally from 1988.
It also had an catastrophe in USSR mentioned in the story.
So not quite that unrelated here.
https://www.mobygames.com/game/7524/snatcher/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snatcher_(video_game)
Of course, fiction and real-world history are not same thing.
I don’t mean to downplay the tragedy of Chernobyl (Chornobyl) and what it meant to the people.
My condolence to those who miss beloved ones.
Let us hope that it doesn’t host any kind of soviet AI (like Arnim Zola conscience in Captain America: The Winter Soldier) that will start launching everything when power on.
Is this A.I. drivel?
The vid voice sounds like it
Niet komrade, ziz iz how thikk zlavik akcent zoundz while zpeaking englizh.