M-20

Home * Hardware * M-20



M-20, (M20) was a Soviet digital general purpose mainframe computer developed at the Institute of Precise Mechanics and Computer Engineering, and manufactured from 1958 to 1964 at Kazan Plant of Computing Machines. Chief designer was Sergey Alekseevich Lebedev, who already created the first Soviet computer, the MESM in 1950, and further the BESM-1 and 2. Chief developer assistants were M.K. Soulim and Mikhail R. Shura-Bura et al..

=Architecture= The M-20 was a single-processor computer with several original architectural solutions implemented, like overlapping execution aka pipeline processing, accelerated addition and multiplying operations due to improved carry circuits, introducing the "rough" carry chain in addition to fly-through carry, and multiplying a factor by two bits at a time. M-20 used 45-bit binary floating point notation, had a ferromagnetic core memory of up to 4096 words, and magnetic drums and tapes as peripheral memory. Logical circuits used semiconductor diodes, registers and latches electronic tubes. The computer performed 20 thousand instructions per second. The operating system IS-2, Algol 60 and Fortran compiler were developed by Mikhail R. Shura-Bura and Andrey Ershov.

=Successors= Later, M-220, M-222 and BESM-4 semiconductor models were developed, which had increased storage volume and were software compatible with the M-20. They were mass-manufactured until 1974 and used in computer centers all over the Soviet Union. BESM-4 was used to create the first ever computer animation in 1968.

=Chess Programs=

Shura-Bura's Program
A chess program was already developed around 1961 under direction of Mikhail R. Shura-Bura at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics.

ITEP Chess Program
The ITEP Chess Program, forerunner of Kaissa, developed since 1963 at Alexander Kronrod’s laboratory at the Moscow Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) by Georgy Adelson-Velsky, Vladimir Arlazarov, Anatoly Uskov, Alexander Zhivotovsky, A. Leman, M. Rozenfeld and Russian chess master Alexander Bitman is mentioned to ran the Stanford-ITEP Match on a M-2 computer, while it was also ported to run on the M-20.

Eureka
After Mikhail Botvinnik introduced his early computer chess ideas concerning attack maps and trajectories at Moscow Central Chess Club in 1966, with the skeptical Georgy Adelson-Velsky and others attending, he found Vladimir Butenko as supporter and collaborator. Butenko first implemented the 15x15 vector attacks board representation, determining trajectories on a M-20 computer in a program which apparently was a forerunner of Pioneer, which evolved to Eureka after he refused further cooperation with Botvinnik in 1970.  =Selected Games= David Bronstein - M-20 [Event "Computer Match"] [Site "Moscow Mathematics Institute"] [Date "1963.04.04"] [Round "1"] [White "David Bronstein"] [Black "M20 (Computer)"] [Result "1-0"]

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e5 Ng4 5.d4 g5 6.Nc3 Ne3 7.Qe2 Nxf1 8.Ne4 Ne3 9.Nf6+ Ke7 10.Bd2 Nxc2+ 11.Kf2 Nxa1 12.Nd5+ Ke6 13.Qc4 b5 14.Nxg5+ Qxg5 15.Nxc7+ Ke7 16.Nd5+ Ke6 17.Nxf4+ Ke7 18.Nd5+ Ke8 19.Qxc8+ Qd8 20.Nc7+ Ke7 21.Bb4+ d6 22.Bxd6+ Qxd6 23.Qe8# 1-0

In his Advances in Computer Chess 8 conference paper, Bronstein mentioned he played Kaissa in 1963 with queen odds, so one may assume it was already an early version of the ITEP Chess Program running on a M-20. However, according to Mikhail Donskoy, the development on ITEP started in 1963. In The Early Development of Programming in the USSR, Andrey Ershov and Mikhail R. Shura-Bura note that in the end of the 1950's a group of Moscow mathematicians began a study of computerized chess which eventually led to the victory at the WCCC 1974.

=See also=
 * M-2

=External Links=
 * M-20 Computer from the Russian Virtual Computer Museum
 * M series (computer) from Wikipedia
 * Minsk family of computers from Wikipedia
 * Minsk Family of Computers from the Russian Virtual Computer Museum
 * Anatoliy Nikolaevich Myamlin from the Russian Virtual Computer Museum
 * The chess games of M20 (Computer) from chessgames.com
 * m20 - Emulator of M-20, soviet vacuum tube computer - Google Project Hosting
 * Architecture - m20 - Emulator of M-20, soviet vacuum tube computer - Google Project Hosting


 * GreKo - Download has a listing of the ITEP Chess Program for the M-20 computer, hosted by Vladimir Medvedev
 * GreKo - Download (c) 2002-2011 Vladimir Medvedev


 * Infobulletin Nr.28 UdSSR - Computer Geschichte (1948-2000) (German)

=References=

Up one Level