Strela computer

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Strela computer (ЭВМ "Стрела") was the first mainframe computer manufactured serially in the Soviet Union since 1953. Strela means arrow.

The chief designer was Yuri Bazilevsky (Ю.Я. Базилевский). Among his deputies was Boris Rameyev, chief constructor of the Ural computer series. It was designed at Special Design Bureau 245 (СКБ245; Argon R&D Institute (НИИ "Аргон") since 1986), Moscow.

Strelas were manufactured by the Moscow Plant of Computing-Analytical Machines (Московский завод счетно-аналитических машин) during 1953-1957; 7 copies were manufactured. They were installed in the Computing Centre of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, Moscow State University, and in computing centres of some ministries (related to defense and economical planning).

This first-generation computer had 6200 vacuum tubes and 60,000 semiconductor diodes.

Its speed was 2000 operations per second. Its floating-point arithmetics was based on 43-bit words with a signed 35-bit mantissa and a signed 6-bit exponent. Operative Williams tube memory (RAM) was 2048 words. It also had read-only semiconductor diode memory for programs. Data input was from punch cards or magnetic tape. Data output was to magnetic tape, punch cards or wide printer.

The last version of Strela used a 4096-word magnetic drum, rotating at 6000 rpm.

In 1954 the designers of Strela were awarded the Stalin Prize of 1st degree (V. Alexandrov, Yu. Bazilevsky, D. Zhuchkov, I. Lygin, G. Markov, B. Melnikov, G. Prokudayev, B. Rameyev, N. Trubnikov, A. Tsygankin, Yu. Shcherbakov, L. Larionova (Александров В. В., Базилевский Ю. Я., Жучков Д. А., Лыгин И. Ф., Марков Г. Я., Мельников Б. Ф., Прокудаев Г. М., Рамеев Б. И., Трубников Н. Б., Цыганкин А. П., Щербаков Ю. Ф., Ларионова Л.А.)).