Biography. Lebedev Sergey Alekseevich S and Lebedev's contribution to computer science in brief

In 1951, S.A. Lebedev went to work in Moscow, where he headed a laboratory at the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Technology (ITM and VT) of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1953 until the end of his life he was the director of this institute. At ITM and VT, Lebedev led the work on creating several generations of computers. Realizing how important it is to train specialists for a new direction, from 1953 until the end of his days Lebedev headed the department of “Electronic Computing Machines” at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev at ITM and VT led the work on creating several generations of computers. In the early 60s, the first computer from the series of large electronic calculating machines (BESM) - BESM-1 - was created. When creating BESM-1, original scientific and design developments were used. This computer was then the most productive machine in Europe (8-10 thousand operations per second) and one of the best in the world. Under the leadership of S.A. Lebedev, two more tube computers were created and put into production - BESM-2 and M-20. In the 60s, semiconductor versions of the M-20 were created: BESM-3M, BESM-4, M-220 and M-222. When designing BESM-6, the method of preliminary simulation of the operation of the operating system of a future computer was used for the first time, which made it possible to find a number of solutions for organizing the computing process that ensured the longevity of BESM-6, unprecedented in the history of computer technology.
In addition to fundamental developments, S.A. Lebedev performed important work on the creation of multi-machine and multi-processor systems.

The first step in the international recognition of Sergei Alekseevich’s merits in the field of computer science was the awarding of the Computer Pioneer Award medal to him in 1996 for outstanding innovative work in the field of creating computer technology.

Outstanding designer of computer technology Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev.
Sergei Alekseevich was born on November 2, 1902 in Nizhny Novgorod.

In 1921, S. A. Lebedev entered the Moscow Higher Technical School. N. E. Bauman to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. At the institute, S.A. Lebedev immediately became involved in scientific creativity. Specialized in the field of high voltage technology. His teachers and scientific supervisors were outstanding Russian electrical engineers Professors K. A. Krug, L. I. Sirotinsky and A. A. Glazunov. All of them took an active part in the development of the famous electrification plan of the USSR - the GOELRO plan. To develop this plan and, most importantly, for its successful implementation, unique theoretical and experimental research was required. Of all the problems that arose in this case, S. A. Lebedev, while still a student, paid his main attention to the problem of stability of parallel operation of power plants. And it should be said that he was not mistaken in his choice - all further domestic and foreign experience in creating high-voltage power interconnections identified the problem of stability as one of the central ones, on the solution of which the efficiency of long-distance power transmission and AC power systems depends.

Received a diploma in electrical engineering in April 1928. His diploma work, completed under the guidance of the outstanding scientist K.A. Krug, was devoted to the problem of stability of parallel operation of power plants and was of great scientific and practical importance.
S.A. Lebedev became a teacher at MSTU. Bauman and at the same time a senior researcher at the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute named after. IN AND. Lenin (VEI). Soon he headed the group, and then the laboratory of electrical networks. In those terrible 30s, when snitching and informing were commonplace, in the VEI department, which was headed by Sergei Alekseevich, employees felt confident and calm.

In 1935 he received the title of professor, and in 1939 he defended his doctoral dissertation without being a candidate of science. It was based on the theory he developed of the artificial stability of power systems.

A notable feature of Lebedev’s scientific activity, which appeared from the very beginning, was the organic combination of great depth of theoretical study with a specific practical orientation.
Almost every work of a scientist in the field of energy required the creation of computing tools to perform calculations during the process or to include them in the devices being developed.

In 1936-1937, his department began work on creating a differential analyzer for solving differential equations. Even then, S. A. Lebedev was thinking about the principles of creating digital computers based on the binary number system.

Due to the outbreak of war, his department was oriented towards the defense industry. In September 1941, Sergei Alekseevich was evacuated from VEI to Sverdlovsk.
In 1945, Lebedev created the country's first electronic analog computer for solving systems of ordinary differential equations, which are often encountered in problems related to energy.

The binary system also did not remain outside the field of view of the scientist. His wife, Alisa Grigorievna, recalls how in the first months of the war in the evenings, when Moscow was plunged into darkness, her husband would go into the bathroom and there, by the light of a gas burner, he would write ones and zeroes that she did not understand.

In 1946, S.A. Lebedev was elected academician of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and moved to Kyiv. He became director of the Institute of Energy. A year later, on the basis of this institute, two were created - electrical engineering and thermal power engineering. S.A. Lebedev was appointed director of the Institute of Electrical Engineering. Here, together with L.V. Tsukernik S.A. Lebedev carried out research on the management of power systems and the development of automation devices that increase the stability of power systems.
In 1947, a laboratory of modeling and computer technology was organized at the Institute of Electrical Engineering
Since the fall of 1948 S.A. Lebedev began developing the Small Electronic Computing Machine (MESM) - the first domestic computer. Already a year after the start of work (MSEM), the basic diagram of the machine blocks was determined. And soon the MSEM will be installed in a two-story building of a former monastery in Feofania.
On November 6, 1950, a test launch of MESM was carried out. Already at this stage she can solve problems of the form Y""+Y=0; Y(0)=0; Y(?)=0;
At that time, a similar machine worked only in England - EDSAC by Maurice Wilkes, 1949, and in EDSAC the arithmetic device was sequential.

In March 1950, he was appointed head of the laboratory of the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Technology (ITM and VT), whose director was M.A. Lavrentyev.
In parallel, S.A. Lebedev began developing a high-speed electronic calculating machine (BESM). Development of the arithmetic device BESM S.A. Lebedev instructed P.P. Golovistikov, and control devices - K.S. Neslukhovsky. Students-interns from universities also worked on BESM, completing their diploma works - prototyping individual blocks and describing the corresponding sections of the BESM preliminary design: V.S. Burtsev, V.A. Melnikov, A.G. Lauth, I.D. Vizun, A.S. Fedorov and L.A. Orlov. In total, laboratory No. 1 by the spring of 1951 consisted of about 50 people.
At all stages of his work, Sergei Alekseevich showed a personal example of dedication. After a busy day of work, he sat at the console or oscilloscope until 3-4 o'clock in the morning, actively participating in debugging the machine.

By December 25, 1951, MESM passed tests and was accepted into operation by the USSR Academy of Sciences Commission headed by Academician M.V. Keldysh.

In 1952, the MESM solved the most important scientific and technical problems in the field of thermonuclear processes (Ya.B. Zeldovich), space flights and rocket technology (M.V. Keldysh, A.A. Dorodnitsyn, A.A. Lyapunov), long-range power lines (S.A. Lebedev), mechanics (G.N. Savin), statistical quality control (B.V. Gnedenko).

In April 1951, the State Commission chaired by M.V. Keldysh accepted the preliminary designs of the BESM and Strela machines.

In the first quarter of 1953, BESM was established, and in April 1953 it was accepted into operation by the State Commission. Due to the shortage of electron tubes, which were then supplied only for Strela, for the first three years the BESM was operated with memory on acoustic mercury tubes. This reduced the performance of the BESM to the level of the Strela and added a lot of worries. The mass of mercury for a full-volume RSU should have been several hundred kilograms. The RZU included 70 mercury tubes about a meter long: 64 for storage, one tube monitored the clock frequency, 5 were spare. All the tubes were placed in a huge thermostat, mounted in a special room with fume hoods, where work with mercury was carried out.
In 1956, BESM was adopted by the State Commission for the second time - with memory on potentialoscopes.
It performed an average of 8 thousand three-address operations per second. Its maximum possible performance was 10 thousand operations per second.

In 1956, a report by S.A. Lebedev's announcement of BESM at an international conference in Darmstadt created a sensation - BESM was on par with the best American machines and the fastest in Europe.

In 1958, BESM with a memory on ferrite cores with a capacity of 2048 words was put into mass production; it was produced under the name BESM-2 by the plant named after. Volodarsky.

In 1955 S.A. Lebedev began developing the M-20 (the number in the name indicated the expected performance - 20 thousand op./s). No machine in the world had such a computing speed at that time. By decree of the USSR Government, the creation of the M-20 was entrusted to ITM and VT and SKB-245. S.A. Lebedev became the chief designer, M.K. Sulim (SKB-245) - his deputy. The ideology and structure of the M-20 was developed by S.A. Lebedev, command system - M.R. Shura-Bura, circuit design of the element base - P.P. Tadpolistics. M.K. Sulim led the development of technical documentation and the production of a prototype at SKB-245.

In 1958, the State Commission accepted the M-20 and recommended it for mass production.

For the first time in domestic practice in M-20 S.A. Lebedev, in order to increase productivity, implemented automatic modification of the address, combining the operation of an arithmetic device and fetching commands from memory, introducing a buffer memory for data arrays printed, combining input and output of data with counting, and the use of fully synchronous signal transmission in logical circuits.

Later, semiconductor versions of the M-20 were developed, implementing the same architecture: M-220 and M-222 (chief designer - M.K. Sulim); BESM-3M and BESM-4 (chief designer - O.P. Vasiliev).

ITM and VT, after completing work on the tube BESM-2 and M-20, began designing the semiconductor BESM-6, which had a speed of 1 million op./s. The chief designer of BESM-6 was S.A. Lebedev, his deputies are his students V.A. Melnikov and L.N. Korolev.

In 1967, the State Commission chaired by M.V. Keldysh received BESM-6 with high praise and recommended it for mass production.

BESM-6 had full software. Many leading programmers of the country took part in its creation.

Based on BESM-6, collective computing centers for scientific organizations, automation systems for scientific research in nuclear physics and other fields of science, and information and computing systems for real-time information processing were created. It was used to simulate complex physical and control processes in software design systems for new computers.

BESM-6 was produced by the Moscow Plant of Calculating Analytical Machines (CAM) for 17 years. For the development and implementation of BESM-6 its creators (from ITM and VT - S.A. Lebedev, V.A. Melnikov, L.N. Korolev, L.A. Zak, V.N. Laut, V.I. Smirnov , A.A. Sokolov, A.N. Tomilin, M.V. Tyapkin, from the SAM plant - V.A. Semeshkin) were awarded the State Prize.

In the early 70s, Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev could no longer lead the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Science; in 1973, a serious illness forced him to resign as director. But he continued to work from home. The Elbrus supercomputer is the latest machine, the fundamental provisions of which were developed by Academician Lebedev and his students. He was an ardent opponent of the copying of the American IBM/360 system that began in the early 70s, which in its domestic version became known as the ES Computer. He understood the consequences this would lead to, but was no longer able to prevent this process.

On July 3, 1974, Pyotr Petrovich Golovistikov, who came from Kyiv, visited Sergei Alekseevich in the hospital and said that he had visited Feofaniya, where MESM was once created. Lebedev listened attentively, but did not look at him, but somewhere into the distance. Pyotr Petrovich remembered this look for the rest of his life. Then the seriously ill scientist perked up - perhaps he remembered the extremely difficult, but so memorable with the happiness of a fulfilled plan, years spent in Kyiv. This day was the last in the life of the great Worker, the brilliant Scientist, the wonderful Person - Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev. He is buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Name S.A. Lebedeva now wears ITM and VT. Students of S.A. Lebedev created their own scientific schools and teams. A number of his works, unfortunately, remained unfinished. Entire scientific teams are working in the main directions outlined by S. A. Lebedev.
The result of the activities of S.A. Lebedev began publishing more than 50 scientific papers.
Under his leadership, 15 types of computers were created, starting with tube computers (BESM-1, BESM-2, M-20) and ending with modern supercomputers on integrated circuits.
In the year of the ninety-fifth anniversary of the birth of S.A. Lebedev, recognition of the scientist’s merits came from abroad. As a pioneer of computing, he was awarded the medal of the International Computer Society (IEEE* Computer Society), which reads: “Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev. Developer and designer of the first computer in the Soviet Union."
The Russian Academy of Sciences established the S. A. Lebedev Prize for outstanding work in the field of computer systems development.

Sergei Lebedev was born on November 2, 1902 in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of the remarkable educator Alexei Ivanovich Lebedev and Anastasia Petrovna, a junior school teacher at a public school. Father - Alexey Ivanovich Lebedev - was known in Russia as the author of the famous “ABC” and “Dictionary of Incomprehensible Words”. Soon after the revolution, he was invited to work in Moscow by the People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky, and the Lebedev family moved to the capital. In 1921, 19-year-old Sergei passed the external exams for high school and entered the Moscow Higher Technical School (MVTU) named after. N. E. Bauman to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering.

In 1928, he received a diploma in electrical engineering from Moscow Higher Technical School. Bauman and remained there to teach, while simultaneously holding the position of junior researcher at the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute (VEI). Soon he headed a group there, and then a laboratory of electrical networks.

In 1933, together with the famous scientist P.S. Zhdanov, he published the monograph “Stability of parallel operation of electrical systems,” supplemented and republished in 1934. A year later, the Higher Attestation Commission awarded him the title of professor. In 1939, Lebedev, without being a candidate of science, defended his doctoral dissertation. It was based on the theory of artificial stability of energy systems he developed.

Lebedev worked in Moscow for almost 20 years, ten of which he headed the automation department, dealing with issues of modeling and regulation of energy facilities. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in September 1941, Sergei Alekseevich was evacuated from the VEI to Sverdlovsk. Here, in a surprisingly short time, he designed a system for stabilizing a tank gun when aiming, which was quickly adopted. This system made the tank less vulnerable and saved the lives of many tankers, as it allowed the gun to be aimed and fired without stopping the vehicle.

For this work, Lebedev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.” To create a stabilization system, he used the so-called. analog elements on vacuum tubes.

The son of S.A. told about the history of moving to Kyiv. Lebedeva. It turns out that, having received an offer from the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Lebedev still doubted whether to accept it. Then Lebedev’s wife Alisa Grigorievna suggested casting lots. Two folded pieces of paper with the inscriptions “Kyiv” and “Moscow” were placed in a hat and thoroughly mixed. Kyiv fell out.

Having received at his disposal an institute where two incompatible scientific directions were developing - electrical engineering and thermal engineering, the new director decided to divide them into two institutes. Lebedev himself became director of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.

Initially, he established a simulation and control laboratory and continued his previous research on the development of compounding devices for power plant generators that increase the stability of power systems and improve the performance of electrical installations. In 1950, for these works, together with L.V. Tsoukernik awarded him the USSR State Prize for these works.

The binary system also did not remain out of sight of the scientist. If it were not for the war, the scientist would have started work on creating a computer using the binary number system earlier - the employees who worked with him recalled this. At that time, there were no sufficiently complete publications about the binary number system and the methodology of operations on binary numbers. The methodology developed by S.A. Lebedev for performing arithmetic operations in the binary number system and previously developed numerical methods for solving mathematical problems became the theoretical basis for building a digital computer conceived by S.A. Lebedev.

After moving to Kyiv, starting from the end of 1948, Sergei Alekseevich devoted himself entirely to the fulfillment of what he had long planned - the creation of an electronic digital calculating machine. According to Lebedev himself, in 1948-1949 he had already developed the basic principles of their construction. At the first stage of work, Lebedev’s new brainchild was called the Electronic Computing Machine Model (MESM). In November 1950, the first calculations were already performed on the MESM - calculating the sum of the odd series of the factorial of a number and exponentiation, and in December 1951, the MESM was accepted into operation by the State Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In March 1950, Lebedev was concurrently appointed director of Laboratory No. 1 at the Moscow Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Technology (ITM and VT) of the USSR Academy of Sciences and began active work on the Large Electronic Computing Machine (BESM). In 1952, he moved to Moscow, leaving in Kyiv the development of a specialized computer (SESM), which began on his idea, for solving systems of algebraic equations. Former graduate student Lebedeva Z.L. was appointed chief designer of the machine. Rabinovich.

According to the recollections of employees who worked with Sergei Alekseevich in Kyiv, he was an ideal leader. He imagined the work he planned down to the smallest detail. Suffice it to say that he designed the future MESM himself, involving employees only after the necessary explanations of what and how to do it.

He never raised his voice even at those who were clearly guilty, and treated everyone extremely evenly and fairly. He had no “favorites”; he always celebrated even the small successes of his employees. In the process of debugging the machine, he had no equal; he was superior to everyone in understanding the problems and failures in the machine. Sergei Alekseevich had his own “methods” to determine faults with an accuracy of a block. “In many units of the first BESM, ferrite transformers, rather than resistances, were used in the anode circuit of the lamp,” says V.S. Burtsev. – Since these transformers were made in a handicraft way, they often burned out and emitted a pungent specific odor. Sergei Alekseevich had a remarkable sense of smell and, sniffing the counter, pointed to the defective block with precision to the block. There were practically no mistakes."

MESM was performed in one copy. Serial production of machines developed at the ITM and VT AS of the USSR began seven years later in 1958.

In 1958, the ITM and VT team under the leadership of Lebedev developed and put into serial production two computers: BESM-2 (modernized BESM) and M-20. BESM-2 implemented a random access memory device on ferrite cores, widely used semiconductor diodes, and also improved the design (small-block). On this machine, the solution of important problems has already begun, in particular, the flight path of the rocket that delivered the pennant of the Soviet Union to the Moon was calculated.

The M-20 computer was the first to use automatic address modification; combining the operation of an arithmetic device and fetching instructions from memory; Buffer memory was used for arrays to be printed. The technical speed of the machine was 20 thousand operations per second.

In 1965, a computer based on BESM-4 semiconductor elements appeared, which had software compatibility with the M-20 computer.

In 1967, the BESM-6 computer, the first second-generation supercomputer in the USSR, was put into serial production. BESM-6 had a speed of 1 million operations per second.

In 1990, one of the BESM-6 copies was transported to London and installed in the Science Museum as the best supercomputer of its time in Europe.

Among the specialized computers designed at the ITM and VT of the USSR Academy of Sciences, it is worth noting the computers associated with research into the construction of missile defense (ABM) “Diana-1” and “Diana-2” (1955) (designer V.S. Burtsev). These were sequential machines with a switched processing program, having automatic data acquisition from a surveillance radar station with object selection from noise and calculation of the trajectory of a possible target.

In 1958, the M-40 computer was created with a floating operation control cycle and an interrupt system. For the first time, the combination of operations with exchange, a multiplex exchange channel, work in a closed control loop as a control link, and work with remote objects via radio relay duplex communication lines were used. The M-40 introduced time storage equipment for the first time, using ferrite transistor elements and a fixed point. The speed of the M-40 was 40 thousand operations per second. A few years later, a modification of the machine appeared - the M-50 computer, designed for use in an experimental missile defense system.

Then, in 1963, the 5E92 computer was released (S.A. Lebedev, V.S. Burtsev, etc.) with the widespread use of ferrite transistor elements in low-frequency devices and the use of specially developed monitoring and recording equipment with the ability to remotely record information coming from high-frequency communication channels.

Its modification 5E92b, released in 1965, became one of the first all-semiconductor computers. The speed of the large machine was 500 thousand operations per second, the small machine was 37 thousand operations per second. The 5E92b computer formed the basis of the Main Command and Computing Center (GKVC) of the Soviet Union's missile defense system.

In 1970, ITM and VT put into operation the 5E65 computer - a transportable high-performance computing complex for special applications, providing real-time research in field conditions with a high degree of reliability through the use of non-destructive readout memory, full hardware control, and means of eliminating the consequences of failures. The efficiency of the computing process was facilitated by the variable word length and the magazine organization of the arithmetic device. Using the complex, studies were carried out on various on-board radio measurements and radio navigation in the atmosphere and space.

In 1973, a modification of this machine, the 5E67 computer, appeared - a transportable multi-machine high-performance complex with a common external memory field and hardware and software reconfiguration tools at the machine level. It provided operation in harsh climatic conditions, as well as unique radio measurements of moving objects in the upper atmosphere in real time.

The last development of Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev during his lifetime, which he managed to launch into mass production, was the first mobile multiprocessor high-performance structure with modular computer memory 5E26 (S.A. Lebedev, V.S. Burtsev, E.A. Krivosheev, etc.). It easily adapts to various performance and memory requirements in special-purpose control systems. It was the first machine with automatic redundancy at the module level, which ensured the restoration of the computing process in the event of failures and hardware failures in control systems. It also worked in real time, was equipped with advanced mathematical software, an effective programming automation system, and the ability to work with high-level languages. The 5E26 computer implemented a non-volatile memory of commands on microbiaxes with the possibility of electrical rewriting of information by external recording equipment and introduced an effective operating system with a two-level localization of a faulty cell, ensuring the efficiency of equipment restoration by average technical personnel.

The experience of creating the 5E26 computer served as the basis for the design of the Elbrus family of supercomputers. The name was suggested by Lebedev. The appearance of "Elbrus" completed the creation of the USSR missile defense system, but he himself no longer had time to take part in their creation.

In the year of the 95th anniversary of the birth of S.A. Lebedev’s merits as a scientist were also recognized abroad. As a pioneer of computer technology, he was awarded a personalized medal of the International Computer Society with the inscription: “Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev 1902–1974. Developer and designer of the first computer in the Soviet Union. Founder of Soviet computer engineering.”

Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev(lived 1902 - 1974) - founder of computer technology in the USSR, academician, developer of power plants, developed advanced weapons systems during the Second World War.

Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev (1902 - 1974)

S. A. Lebedev trained scientific personnel; he headed the computer department at MIPT, gave lectures, and personally supervised the scientific work of many graduate and postgraduate students. Over twenty years, under his leadership, 15 high-performance computers were created.

In the process of designing, setting up and putting into operation the MESM, BESM, M-20 machines, he acted as the chief designer, as a commissioning engineer, and if circumstances required, then as an installation technician. Later, with the advent of qualified specialists, Lebedev entrusted them with a significant part of the work, leaving himself the most difficult areas associated with the justification of innovations, with the theoretical justification of the structure and parameters of the computer.

S A Lebedev Biography

S. A. Lebedev was born on November 2, 1902 (October 20, old style) in Nizhny Novgorod. In 1921, Lebedev began studying at the Moscow Higher Technical University at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, from which he graduated in 1928, becoming an electrical engineer. The results of his further work were used in the operation of domestic power plants and high-voltage transmission lines. In 1939, Lebedev defended his doctoral dissertation on the theory of artificial stability of power systems.

During the war, Lebedev was involved in the development of homing torpedoes and developed a system for stabilizing a tank gun when aiming. Lebedev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”

In 1945, Lebedev was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and became director of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. At the end of 1947, a prototype of a digital electronic calculating machine (MESM) began to be created at this institute, the trial launch of which took place on November 6, 1950. MESM could calculate factorials of natural numbers and solve the equation of a parabola.

At the same time, Lebedev, in laboratory No. 1 of ITM and VT in Moscow, worked on the creation of BESM, a high-speed electronic calculating machine. Lebedev himself developed the BESM structure and drew up a plan for implementing the project for its development; he constantly monitored the progress of this project, which was successfully completed in April 1953.

In June 1953, Lebedev was appointed director of ITM and VT, which has been named after him since 1975. On October 23, 1953, Lebedev was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. He became the first academician to specialize in calculating devices. For the creation of BESM, Lebedev was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1954, and in 1956 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

After the creation of the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences in February 1955, ITM and VT were tasked with preparing BESM for serial production. Almost all major computer centers in the country were equipped with BESM-2 machines. BESM-2 carried out calculations during the launches of artificial Earth satellites and the first spacecraft with a person on board.

In October 1955, in Darmstadt (Germany), at the International Conference on Electronic Computing Machines, Lebedev’s report on BESM was read to foreign specialists. This report created a sensation: BESM turned out to be the best computer in Europe!

After the success of BESM, Lebedev began to create the principles and architecture of the new M-20 computer, which was supposed to become the fastest in the world. Many textbooks were written to work with this computer, and courses on studying the M-20 and programming for it were included in the university curriculum.

In parallel with the development and creation of universal computers, Lebedev paid great attention to work related to the country's defense. On his initiative, in 1955, special vehicles Diana-1 and Diana-2 were developed to guide fighters to aerial targets. The future academician and director of ITM and VT V.S. Burtsev participated in this work; their continuation led to the creation of a whole series of computers designed to solve missile defense problems. On the basis of these machines, the country's first missile defense system was created, for which its authors, including Lebedev and Burtsev, received the Lenin Prize.

The pinnacle of Lebedev’s work on creating universal computers was the world’s most famous domestic computer BESM-6 (1967). Based on the results of work on BESM-6, Lebedev with a group of ITM and VT employees, which included the future academician V. A. Melnikov and the future chief designer of the modular conveyor processor (the best computer in Russia in the 90s) A. A. Sokolov, received the State Prize .

S. A. Lebedev set himself the goal of creating a computer with a speed of 100 million op/s. The work began with a computer complex for the air defense system, known as the S-300, which is still in mass production in a modernized form. The element base tested on machines for the S-300 was used in the development of the Elbrus 1 MVK.

An important result of his developments was the AC-6 multi-machine real-time information and computing complex, which was actively used in spacecraft flight control centers.

The Russian Academy of Sciences established the S. A. Lebedev Prize, which is awarded once every two years to Russian scientists who have made a major contribution to the development of domestic computer technology.

The article is devoted to a brief biography of S. A. Lebedev, the man who stood at the origins of the creation of computers in the Soviet Union.

Brief biography of Lebedev: the formation of a scientist

Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev was born in 1902. His family belonged to the creative intelligentsia, which left a positive imprint on the formation of the personality of the future scientist.
In 1920, Lebedev's family moved to Moscow, where Sergei entered a higher technical school and graduated with a diploma in electrical engineering. In Soviet Russia, a large-scale electrification program was unfolding and people with Lebedev’s education were in extreme demand.
Lebedev works at the Electrical Engineering Institute, and after the creation of a special energy institute, he becomes a teacher there. The scientist’s scientific developments are widely used in the creation of new power plants in the country. In 1936, Lebedev was awarded the title of professor for his success in scientific work.
30s were a time of unprecedented terror, under the threat of which no one felt safe. The practice of informing for personal interests, with the aim of moving up the career ladder, has become common. To Lebedev’s credit, it should be noted that the employees working under his leadership felt absolutely safe and could concentrate exclusively on scientific work. The scientist was brought up in the traditions of the real Russian intelligentsia and could not afford unworthy actions and deeds. He demanded the same from his employees.
Lebedev's scientific work combined deep theoretical developments with the obligatory practical orientation of all research.
During these years, the scientist began to seriously study the binary number system and the possibilities of its practical application.
During the war, all efforts of Soviet science were aimed at achieving victory, creating new weapons and improving existing ones. Lebedev is the author of the homing torpedo project. Another of his achievements was the creation of a stabilization system for firing from tanks. The scientist's work was awarded major government awards.

Brief biography of Lebedev: creation of a computer

After the war, Lebedev moved to Kyiv. Here he heads the Institute of Energy. Over many years of work, the scientist was engaged in a large number of mathematical calculations that required a lot of effort and attention. He addresses the problem of automating this kind of cumbersome calculations. For this purpose, scientists carried out a lot of work, the result of which was the creation of a small electronic calculating machine (MESM) with program control - the prototype of the future computer. Despite the fact that in our time Russia is significantly inferior to the West in the field of computer technology, it was in the Soviet Union that the first working prototype of a modern computer was created.
Under the direct participation of the scientist, a significant breakthrough was made in the field of high technology in the Soviet Union. For a long time, these developments were revolutionary in nature, but were mainly used exclusively in the field of the military industry. In particular, with the help of MESM, the most complex calculations were carried out for the needs of space and rocket technology, as well as in the field of thermonuclear processes.
The scientist’s work took place in the strictest secrecy, as it was carried out in the interests of the military industry. The government of the Soviet Union was seriously interested in Lebedev's developments. He was transferred to Moscow, where he created a new model - a high-speed electronic calculating machine.
In 1956, Lebedev made an international report on his work, which caused a sensation. The computer model created in the USSR turned out to be the fastest in Europe and was not inferior to the best American analogues.
Over the course of his life, under Lebedev’s leadership, fifteen computer models were created, starting with lamp-powered samples and ending with devices based on integrated circuits. Health problems forced the scientist to leave official work, but he continued to engage in scientific work at home. Lebedev's latest research was used in the development of the Elbrus computer. The scientist spoke out sharply against copying American computer developments, defending domestic designs and considering them more promising.
Lebedev died in 1974, going down in history as the father of domestic computer technology. He became the owner of many government awards and titles. Made a huge contribution to the development of the domestic computer industry. The scientist’s works were deservedly appreciated abroad, where he was recognized as one of the pioneers of computer technology and the creator of the Soviet computer.