Stefano Bodrato
email: stefano.bodrato@progettohmr.it

Fabrizio Caruso
email: fabrizio.caruso@progettohmr.it

Giovanni A Cignoni
email: giovanni.cignoni@progettohmr.it

Discovering Eastern Europe PCs by Hacking Them … Today

Keywords: 8-bit computers, Emulators, Hacking, Retrocomputing Communities, Software Development Tools

A rich array of personal computers was developed in Eastern Europe during the later years of the Cold War. Because computer science would not be the same without personal computers, these devices deserve greater attention in the history of computing. The story in the West, the so-called PC revolution, started in the late 1970s: it was rooted in hobbyist and do-it-yourself clubs and brought the discipline closer to many people. A revolution took place also on the other side of the Iron Curtain: it happened a few years later, yet in a comparable way. Faced with an embargo that limited the availability of the first western PCs, Eastern Europe companies and hobbyists innovated on their own, providing the users with a number of home and personal computers. Today, the scenario of personal computing has completely changed; however, the computers of the 1980s are still objects of fascination for a number of retrocomputing fans who still enjoy using, programming and hacking the old 8-bits. Yesterday's hobbyists have become today's retrocomputing enthusiasts: they provide an important window into these Eastern Europe PCs, which otherwise would have been forgotten. In this article we give an overview on about fifty Eastern Europe PCs from the late 1970s to the 1980s. A few were clones of Western PCs, others shared some hardware and were compatible, others used significant portions of the firmware. Besides the preservation of old hardware and software, the retrocomputing community is engaged in the development of emulators and cross-compilers. Such tools can be useful for historical investigation based on reverse engineering. For example, we used one of them to investigate the originality of the BASIC interpreters loaded in the ROMs of Eastern Europe PCs.

Introduction

The diffusion of home and personal computers has brought information technology and computer science closer to many people. Actually, it has changed the computer industry by orienting it toward the consumer market. Today, personal computing is perceived as a set of devices -from smartphones to videogame consoles -made just to be used. The average customer of personal IT is hardly interested in programming.

At the beginning, it was different. Programming, even hacking, was a common activity among the owners of the first PCs. It was so in the West, but also in the East. In the West, hobbyists and clubs like the well-known "Homebrew Computer Club" were determinant in the beginning and in the initial rise of the PC industry [START_REF] Levy | Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution[END_REF]. During the following years, hacking groups [START_REF]Hacking Europe -From Computer Cultures to Demoscenes[END_REF] emerged and often competed against each other to prove who was the most skilled programmer. In Eastern Europe, the computer hobbyist movement developed later, only a few years indeed, yet a significant delay. Western computers were impossible to obtain and the availability of the few Eastern-made models was very limited. Even though, this kind of hacking attitude existed [START_REF] Stachniak | Red Clones: The Soviet Computer Hobby Movement of the 1980s[END_REF].

Nowadays, the meaning of the hacking attitude has shifted and hackers have been institutionalized. Meanwhile, the term itself mutated its original, positive, meaning into an evil one. However, one place where hackers remain active is inside the communities of retrocomputing enthusiasts -in fact, some of them actually never stopped: they were hackers back in the 1980s.

Besides preserving old pieces of hardware and software for the purpose of using them as in the past, these present-day hackers also enjoy programming their machines. Moreover, to ease their coding activities they develop new tools like emulators and cross-compilers able to run on modern PCs to generate binaries for vintage computers. Writing a program using the screen editor of the Commodore 64 is fun, it is even an immersive way to revive the spirit of the era. Nevertheless, working on a modern PC using a full-featured editor and a cross-compiler, and then testing the result on an emulator running in a side window, is far more productive.

In this paper, we highlight the continuity between yesterday's hobbyists and today's retrocomputing enthusiasts. Focusing on a particular subset of 8-bit machines -the Eastern Europe PCs -we show how the retrocomputing community is playing an important role as unofficial, but valuable, repository of knowledge about old technologies. Moreover, the tools the community is developing and maintaining are useful to dig inside the old machines and discover relevant facts about their history, like measuring the similarities between different systems and giving better meanings to words like "compatible," "copy," "clone" -which in the particular context of Eastern Europe PCs have some relevance.

The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 provides a list of the computers that were produced in Eastern Europe in the late 1970s and early 1980s; we do not go into technical details, but rather we try to provide an organized and representative map of the fascinating Eastern Europe PCs galaxy. Section 3 and 4 describe some modern development tools for 8-bit computers, focusing in particular on those that make it possible, today, to enjoy programming/hacking old East Europe 8-bit computers. Section 5 provides an example of using such tools to prove or disprove the originality of some of the computers produced in Eastern Europe.

A Diverse Galaxy

In the West, the beginning of the PC era was characterized by a plethora of attempts. Many of the first commercial PCs had very limited success and short lives: Radio Electronics Mk8, Sphere 1, Sol-20, ISC Compucolor 8001, just to cite some. Better luck had the MOS Technology KIM-1, from which originated the Commodore PET series, and the Apple-1, which started the well-known success story. While all of these PCs were based on a little set of microprocessors (MOS Technology 6502, Zilog Z80, Intel 80xx, Motorola 6800), no real standard was in place. Some of the early proposals were a bit more popular, like the Altair 8800: its S-100 Bus had limited success as a compatibility layer. The CP/M as an operating system had success only among 8-bit business computers. More successful models like the Commodore PETs, the Apple ][, the Tandy TRS-80 were "standard" only because of their good numbers on the market. In 1981 the introduction of the IBM PC eventually gave a de facto standard for the PC world while the home segment, for few years more, was still dominated by Commodore and Sinclair with a significative -at least as standard attempt -presence of the MSX Consortium.

The Eastern Europe scenario was not on par with the large variety of machines that in the late 1970s and early 1980s were available in the West. Nor was possible to replicate the selling results of the West. This was mainly caused by the CoCom [START_REF] Lewis | COCOM: An International Attempt to Control Technology[END_REF] embargo, which made it hard to sell Western technologies to the Soviet Bloc. However, a remarkable diversity existed: the embargo did not stop Eastern Europe countries from designing their own computers as well as cloning Western computers by all sorts of reverse-engineering techniques [START_REF] Stachniak | Red Clones: The Soviet Computer Hobby Movement of the 1980s[END_REF].

In the following section we list those models for which it is possible to speak of "production." There were also handmade projects built in very few exemplars, but these are beyond our survey.

Many Eastern PCs were clones of Western popular machines (e.g., the ZX Spectrum, the Apple ][, the TRS-80) as well as less common ones, some even built under license. The iconic Commodore 64 is remarkable for its absence. The probable reason was its use of custom chips (the VIC-II and the SID), which were hard/expensive to clone. Some Western products were also marketed in Eastern Europe countries and a few computers that sold poorly in the West had some luck in the East (e.g., the Commodore 16 and 116 in Hungary or the British Sord M5 in Czechoslovakia), but these were Western computers and are therefore outside of our survey.

2.1

The Map

In the Appendix, we summarize a "map" of 8-bit personal computers that were produced in Eastern Europe. The map does not aim for a technical comparison and details are limited to the essential. It focuses on the models that can be considered PCs, excluding, for example, borderline products such as learning boards (e.g., Poly-computer 880, PMI-80) or computerized chessboards (e.g., Schachcomputer-SC2).

The table is grouped by categories. The choice of categories is obviously subjective, yet it helps to have a presentation order. We propose four categories: do-it-yourself projects, home computers (generally targeted to entertainment and education), personal computers (targeted to business), and clones. Inside each category, the order is chronological with respect to the date of first introduction.

As a last note, we have to remark that, despite the definitions, few home computers were actually used in Eastern Europe homes. For most of the 1980s, given the high costs and demand by industries and educational institutions, computers were not easy to buy for personal use.

Insights and Stories

A detailed narration of the events related to the development of personal computers in Eastern Europe is beyond the objectives of this paper. In the following, we collect just some of the most relevant facts.

The Microprocessors. The PCs produced in Eastern Europe countries were usually based on CPUs that were equivalent to the most common Western CPUs. Eastern chips were made either from copies of the original die masks or by reverse engineering the chips. One notable case was the K1801 series, which was able to run binary code compiled for the DEC PDP-11, but did not have a correspondent Western chip and had to be mounted on specific circuit boards. The following summarizes the facts about the CPU families present in our map. In few cases Eastern PCs were mounting chips made outside the Iron Curtain, like the CDP182 that was made by RCA or the UM6502 that was a 6502-equivalent made by UMC in Taiwan. Other PCs based on "original" CPUs probably used second-source chips, maybe coming from the South East Asia were Western brands were starting to outsource their production. Technologies and components were sometimes shared among different countries of the Eastern Bloc under Comecon agreements. Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) was an economic organization under the leadership of the Soviet Union. Soviet Union. During the Khrushchev era, until the mid-sixties, computer production had been identified as strategic and sustained through government policies. However, in the 1970s the competition among different government departments led to the lack of standards and to a wider gap with respect to the West. At this point, the Soviet government decided to abandon the development of original computer designs and instead tolerate the pirating of Western systems.

The computer hobby movement emerged in the Soviet Union during the early 1980s. In 1978-79, G. Zelenko, V. Panov and S. Popov at the Moscow Institute of Electronic Engineering built a computer prototype based on the new KR580IK80 microprocessor and named it Micro-80. Eventually, the schematics were published in Radio magazine becoming the first Soviet do-it-yourself computer. The project was successful and later led to the development of another DIY successful computer: the Radio-86RK [START_REF] Gorshkov | Personal radio ham's computer Radio-86RK[END_REF].

The Agat started as an educational project commissioned by the USSR Ministry of Radio. It was inspired and compatible with the Apple ][, but it was not exactly a clone. The first version in 1983 suffered from reliability problems and was discontinued. The Agat-7 and Agat-9 models were mass produced and were often used in schools.

Piracy was common and copies of Western applications were widespread. In July 1984, the CoCom embargo was partially lifted on common desktop and microcomputers. This made it possible for the Soviet Union to purchase thousands of Western computers in 1985.

During Perestroika, a program to expand computer literacy in Soviet schools was started in 1985 [START_REF] Tatarchenko | How Programmable Calculators and a Sci-Fi Story Brought Soviet Teens Into the Digital Age[END_REF]. A common computer in schools was the Elektronika BK-0010 which, while being a home/educational computer, was inspired by the PDP-11 architecture. In 1987, as part of an educational program, it was followed by the Elektronika MS-0511, which was still PDP-11 compatible and featured enhanced graphics. In 1987, the Vector-06C was also released; still aimed at education, it had similar capabilities to the MS-0511, but was based on an 8080/Z80 architecture. Clones of the Sinclair Spectrum computers were common and many hobbyists built their own versions. It is impossible to track all versions because many assembled and modified them in different ways. The Pentagon [8] and ZS Scorpion [9] models were common. Both were clones of the Spectrum 128k. The Pentagon, designed by Vladimir Drozdov in 1989 and manufactured by amateurs all over the Soviet Union, was the most common model. In 1994 the ZS Scorpion was released and manufactured by Zonov and Co. While less common, the ZS Scorpion was a more accurate clone.

In 1987, the Law on Cooperatives allowed independent worker-owned cooperatives to operate the Soviet Union. As a consequence, there was a proliferation of small companies selling hardware and software. Moreover, during the late Perestroika years, Western technology embargoes were relaxed further, leading to decline of local production in favor of the adoption of Western systems such as IBM-compatible PCs.

German Democratic Republic. Commercial East German home computers were manufactured by VEB Mikroelektronik and by VEB Robotron. In particular, the KC "Kleincomputer" [START_REF]Robotron[END_REF][START_REF] Kc-Club | [END_REF] home computers were built by VEB Mikroelektronik and later by VEB Robotron. This resulted in a conflict between the two companies [START_REF] Höltgen | Resume: Hands-on Retrocomputing[END_REF]. The KC home computers were based on the U880 CPU. They were mostly used in schools. For personal reports on Robotron from its former employees see [START_REF]Robotron[END_REF] and [START_REF] Merkel | VEB Kombinat Robotron -Ein Kombinat des Ministeriums für Elektrotechnik und Elektronik der DDR[END_REF] From a technical point of view, the Robotron home computers can be divided into four series, not compatible among them. The KC 85/1 (originally Z9001) and KC 87 models were produced from 1984 until 1989 by VEB Robotron-Meßelektronik "Otto Schön" in Dresden. The KC 85/2 (originally HC900), KC 85/3, KC 85/4, were produced from 1984 until 1989 by VEB Mikroelektronik "Wilhelm Pieck" in Mühlhausen. The Z 1013, presented in 1984, was produced from 1985 and sold as a kit by VEB Robotron in Riesa. The A5105, also known as BIC (for "Bildungscomputer," i.e., educational computer), was produced from 1989 until 1990 by Robotron in Dresden.

In 1984 VEB Büromaschinenwerk Sömmerda developed the PC1715 and PC1715W computers and presented them to the public. Serial numbers span the years 1985-1989. They used the UA880 processor RAM and were meant primarily as office PCs [START_REF]Die Geschichte der Computertechnik der DDR[END_REF].

Robotron produced also educational boards with a limited built-in display, for instance, the Polycomputer 880, introduced in 1983. At the very end of the GDR, Robotron produced and sold in small quantities the KC Compact, an Amstrad CPC clone close to the Amstrad CPC 6128 and 664 models. Bulgaria. Most of the home computers produced in Bulgaria were manufactured in the city of Pravetz and so a number of different models were named Pravetz. For the most part they were clones of the Apple ][; the first one was named IMKO-1 and was released as early as 1979. The 8D was instead a clone of the British Tangerine Oric. ZOT had already produced computers of the ES EVM series (Soviet clones of the IBM/360) under a Comecon agreement. In the 1980s IZOT produced the IZOT 1030, based on East German-made U880, and later several IBM PC and PC/XT clones.

Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was not a member of the Warsaw Pact and therefore was less affected by the CoCom blockade on technology imports. A notable home computer was the Yugoslav Galaksija [START_REF] Galaksija | [END_REF], built in 1983 by Vojislav Antonic, whose schematics were published as a DIY project in a special issue of the SAM popular science magazine. It is estimated that at least 8,000 people bought the kit to build this computer, but others may have bought the required chips separately. It was also adopted by many schools.

Less successful computers that were built in Yugoslavia were the Lola 8, Pecom 32 and 64, Galeb, Orao, Ivel Ultra and Ivel Z3.

Czechoslovakia. The main producer of computers in Czechoslovakia was Tesla (for "Technika Slaboprouda," or low-voltage technology). As a major electronics factory, Tesla was involved in building computers since the late 1960s. For a detailed and personal account on the Czechoslovakian home computers, refer to [START_REF] Malý | Home Computers Behind the Iron Curtain[END_REF].

In the 1970s, Eduard and Tomáš Smutný designed the industrial computer JPR-12, based on the Israeli Elbit version of the PDP-11 and pushed it into production by Tesla. Some years later they made the JPR-1, a simple 8-bit computer based on the Intel 8080. The complete schematics of these computers were later (1983) published in the hobby magazine Amatérské Rádio. A Z80-based and CP/M-compatible version was also released. In 1985, the U880-based Ondra was introduced.

Other Tesla computers were designed by Roman Kišš. The PMI-80 single board computer was used in schools. The PMD-85 series was very popular in Slovakia due its graphics capabilities. The PMD had some clones (MAŤO, Zbro-jováček, Didaktik Alfa/Beta) that were built mainly for schools. In the Czech region the IQ-151, built by ZPA, was common in schools. Didaktik Skalica also built the Didaktik Gama (1987), Didaktik M (1991) and Didaktik Kompakt (1992), which were ZX Spectrum-clones. Some Western computers were available through the state-run Tuzex shops. In addition to the most common and known computer models (ZX Spectrum, Atari 800 XL, Sharp MZ800), the Sord M5 developed quite a rich hobbyist scene.

Hungary. Hungary produced both Western clones as well as original home computers. In the early 1980s, the Budapesti Radiotechnikai Gyar (Radiotechnical Factory of Budapest) produced the BRG ABC-80; it was a re-branded Swedish Luxor ABC-80 built under an official license and meant for schools. From 1983, Híradástechnika Szövetkezet built the HT-1080Z and the HT-2080Z computers, which were rebranded versions of the Honk Kong-made EACA VideoGenie I computers, which, for their part, were an evolution of the TRS-80 Model I. In 1986 Videoton built the TV Computer, which was derived from the British Enterprise computer and was used in schools.

From 1984, Microkey manufactured the Primo A and B [START_REF]Primo[END_REF] as an original project which, unfortunately, suffered from poor assembly and a inferior keyboard. The Home-Lab-2 was an original Hungarian design by József & Endre Lukács. It was also marketed under the name Aircomp-16. The successor HomeLab-3 was sold in kit form.

Emulation to Keep Old Hardware Alive

All the different systems presented above are rare nowadays and inaccessible. Some completely died-out. To keep them alive, emulation is one solution. By emulators here we mean any program that can reproduce the behavior of a given system at a specified interface level. We are interested in the machine-language level (excluding, for instance, simple BASIC-level compatibility). In practice, the effects of the instructions are reproduced exactly. In other words, it should not be possible to write a program able to detect that it is running on a machine different from the original. Emulators can be based on different approaches to hardware modelling and simulation; they may for instance replicate the hardware at very low level (e.g., discrete logic). For the historian however, the most relevant fact is the ability to run legacy 8-bit binaries and (re)discover how software ran decades ago.

As far as Eastern Europe computers are concerned, for most cases, the best choice is the well-known "universal" MAME emulator [START_REF] Mamedev | [END_REF]. Although originally targeted to be a multiple arcade machine emulator, it has, over time, become a generic emulation platform well suited for many PC architectures. The code used to emulate some common hardware components is shared by different systems. This results in a huge base library that is constantly updated to support new systems -a valuable starting point in the emulation of less-known systems like the Eastern Europe computers. Moreover, MAME is not meant for retro-gamers: the project's goal is accurate emulation of systems with no extra frills such as net-play, ROM hacks, improved graphics, and so on. They are actually forbidden as part of the rules governing the community of MAME developers.

MAME provides emulation for the East German Robotron KC series, the Yugoslav Galaksija, the Bulgarian Pravetz 8D, the Hungarian Primo series and many more. For the Galaksija, there is no usable alternative because the other existing emulators (e.g., GalaxyWin [START_REF] Galaxywin | [END_REF]) are no longer maintained.

For a few specific Eastern Europe systems there are dedicated emulators that, currently, may be more accurate than MAME. For the Robotron KC series and nearly all other East German home computers from the 1980s, a good alternative is JKCEMU [START_REF]JKCEMU[END_REF], which is a specialized multi-system emulator for East German computers. For the Pravetz 8D there is Oricutron [22], which is an emulator for the full Oric series, clones included. Concerning the Sinclair Spectrum clones, many good Spectrum emulators support them. A notable example is the Fuse emulator [START_REF]FUSE Emulator[END_REF], which supports both the Soviet Pentagon and ZS Scorpion clones.

Other Tools for Hacking and Discovering

The scenario of personal and home computers made in Eastern Europe was quite rich.

A likewise rich community of retrocomputing enthusiasts is playing an important role as an unofficial, but valuable, repository of knowledge about the memory and the technologies of such machines. Moreover, the community is developing and maintaining tools to continue programming the old Eastern Europe PCs. As a testimony to the continuity between yesterday's hobbyists and today's retrocomputing enthusiasts, we propose a brief survey of the development tools for Eastern Europe computers that are currently available and actively maintained.

The most widespread and, among the retrocomputing developers, most appreciated development tools are the ANSI C cross-compilers and cross-assemblers. The prefix "cross" means that the compiler/assembler does not run on the system for which it is generating the binary code. Compilers and assemblers have old 8-bit systems as targets but run on modern computers.

Today's cross-assemblers can be used within modern integrated development environments for those who still want to code in the Assembly language for maximum efficiency; or just on principle: out of nostalgia or to exhibit skill. Assembly is, in practice, a human-readable form of machine language. Therefore, it is portable, at best, only across computers with the same architecture.

On the other hand, C is a universal language; yet it is very efficient. C was used extensively by old PC programmers that had to make the best possible use of every byte of memory and of every processor clock cycle. Thanks to modern compiler optimization algorithms and to the power of today PCs, cross-compilation produces by far better code than compiling through original compilers running on the old 8-bit systems: carefully written C code can today be almost as fast as manually written Assembly code. Among larger projects, the currently most active are CC65 [START_REF]CC65 A Freeware C Compiler for 6502 Based Systems[END_REF], for the systems based on the MOS 6502 microprocessor, and Z88DK [START_REF] Z88dk | The Development Kit for over Fifty Z80 Machines[END_REF], for those based on the Zilog Z80. A project that supports many modern 8-bit CPUs, as well as a few legacy CPUs, is the retargetable cross-compiler SDCC [START_REF]SDCC -Small Device C Compiler[END_REF]. Some projects have a very long history; both Small-C [START_REF] Cain | A Small C Compiler for the 8080s[END_REF] and ACK [START_REF] Tanenbaum | A Practical Tool Kit for Making Portable Compilers[END_REF], for instance, were born as native 8-bit compilers and assemblers in the early 1980s.

4.1

The Z88DK Development Kit

The Z88DK kit was, in the beginning, an evolution of the Small-C compiler (SCCZ80) in its variant for the Z80 CPU. The project started in 1998 to support the Cambridge Z88. The portable computer was released ten years before (by one of the many companies founded by Clive Sinclair) yet had a community of enthusiastic users. The first releases of Z88DK were very appreciated as well as the first experimental port to the ZX Spectrum. Many supported the development with feedbacks and contributions. Over time, the software architecture of the project has evolved toward greater flexibility. Currently Z88DK supports development in both C and Assembly for about 70 PC architectures based on the Z80 and its close relatives. Recently, the inclusion of SDCC as a second compiler required relevant changes on the assembler, a global revision of the libraries and the adaption of many other elements like the compiler frontend and the optimizer. Beyond the technical details, the integration of SDCC is a demonstration of the maturity of the project and of the ability to collaborate with other groups of developers.

Despite being a Small-C descendant, Z88DK compilers (SCCZ80 and SDCC) are mostly ANSI compliant and include features that were not present in the original Small-C such as function pointers and floating-point arithmetic. Z88DK provides cross-target libraries: i.e., routines that can be used with the very same interface to build binaries for different systems. A developer may compile its code for different systems without any modification. Compared to other similar projects such as CC65, Z88DK is by far the largest in terms of supported targets, development activity and library support.

4.2

The Amsterdam Compiler Kit (ACK) is a retargetable cross-compiler suite and tool-chain written by Ceriel Jacobs and Andrew Tanenbaum, author of Minix [START_REF] Tanenbaum | [END_REF], which originally used ACK as its native tool-chain. It currently supports various 8-, 16-and 32-bit architectures including the Intel 8080.

Developing for All the 8-bit Systems through Abstractions

All the cross-compilers mentioned above provide a common library and allow writing "universal" code across one architecture, i.e., the same code can be compiled for different systems within the same CPU family.

CrossLib [START_REF] Caruso | Cross Chase: A Massively 8-Bit Multi-System Game[END_REF] extends this concept: it is a universal 8-bit library that, heavily exploiting the C preprocessor, provides a hardware abstraction layer across all 8-bit systems: computers, consoles, handhelds, pocket calculators, etc. Code using only Cross-Lib for input/output can be compiled by different development kits like Z88DK, CC65, CMOC, etc. to produce binaries for nearly any 8-bit system.

The action game Cross Chase is an example to demonstrate CrossLib. It is written in ANSI C with CrossLib. Basically, it can be compiled, without any code modification, for nearly all 8-bit architectures of the 1980s, including many Eastern Europe computers such as the Robotron series and the Galaksija.

CrossLib and CrossChase prove the maturity of the above compilers in terms of both ANSI compliance and efficiency. They also demonstrate the technical level reached by the communities behind the development tools that enable us to keep old systems alive.

5

Proving the Originality of Some Eastern Europe PCs

The tools described above testify to the creativity and the longevity of the hobbyist movements born around the first PCs. They are still active as international retrocomputing communities. Moreover, thanks to the deep knowledge of the systems gained in the development of such tools and to the hacking techniques they support, it is possible to discover new insights to the history of the original systems. For instance, the origins of the BASIC interpreters loaded in the PC ROMs or shipped as external cartridges, cassettes and disks can be shown. Tracing such relationships may hint to a different level of technological connections within the Eastern Bloc and the West.

BASCK, the BASIC Check Tool

Among the Z88DK tools, BASCK is a utility to support library development. The main use of BASCK is to detect the entry points for BASIC and other firmware routines in computer ROMs. If entry points of common routines are known, then they can be made available through a C library allowing the user's code to call them. Maybe ROM routines are not the best on the performance side, yet relying on them may save memory e and coding effort. The main reason for writing the BASCK tool was that documentation on ROM routines was scant and information could be only partially retrieved by disassembling the ROM. As of 2018, the BASCK tool is capable of detecting common ROM or disk routines for multiple Sinclair, Microsoft and HuBasic variants for both the Z80 and 6502 architectures. BASCK is also capable of finding equivalent routines that share the same core logic.

How BASCK Identifies Routines

BASCK uses sets of Sinclair, Microsoft and HuBasic patterns. The patterns are "hardcoded" in the BASCK sources. From this point of view, BASCK is less flexible than other approaches and tools [START_REF] Manber | Finding Similar Files in a Large File System[END_REF] that search for generic partial matches; however, it drastically reduces the chance of false positives. BASCK scans ROM files and searches for multiple patterns of the portions of the code that call the ROM routines. If it finds one of these patterns, it extracts the address from parameters of calling instructions such as CALL, JP, JR.

BASCK is not meant to tell whether two systems are similar, yet it can be used to detect with high accuracy portions of code that are derived from multiple variants of either Sinclair, Microsoft or HuBasic firmware.

Other methods may be used to test the originality of Eastern Europe PCs. For instance, a common test is to check at start-up whether the command "?A" produces "0" as result, i.e., whether "?" is an alias of "PRINT" and variables (e.g., "A") are initialized to "0." Because these are both peculiar features of Microsoft BASIC, a positive test is considered a clue of a Microsoft BASIC clone. However, on a strict logic, it is only an indication of a Microsoft compatible BASIC, and in fact, late HuBasic ROMs behave like Microsoft BASIC in this respect. The findings obtained by BASCK are more accurate because they depend on the actual implementation of the binary code instead of its external behavior.

BASCK Discoveries

We used BASCK to detect whether one specific BASIC interpreter from Eastern Europe was derived from either Microsoft BASIC, Sinclair BASIC or HuBasic. Using BASCK on multiple Eastern Europe systems, we found, as expected, that most systems either cloned the Microsoft BASIC or the Sinclair BASIC. However, there are two very notable exceptions: the East German Robotron Z 1013 and the Hungarian HomeLab-2 (Aircomp 16). These systems seem to use original BASIC implementations. Moreover, we can confirm that the Yugoslav Galaksija uses original code even though its BASIC implementation started as a heavily modified version of Microsoft Level 1 BASIC. The only code from Microsoft Level 1 BASIC left on the Galaksija ROMs are the parser and some floating point routines.

On the other hand, BASCK gives a different result for the Hungarian Primo: we suspect that it uses a derivative of the Microsoft BASIC and not an independent BASIC developed by SZTAKI (Szamitastechnikai Kutato Intezet, Computer Technology Research Institute) as generally claimed (see for instance [START_REF] Tanenbaum | A Practical Tool Kit for Making Portable Compilers[END_REF]).

Conclusions

In this paper we have described the remarkable and maybe unexpected diversity of the galaxy of 8-bit Eastern Europe PCs. We have also shown how today's enthusiasts have built modern development tools for these computers. These tools allow us to easily write code for these computers for educational, recreational and historical purposes. By using these new tools -by coding, experimenting, disassembling and hacking the old 8-bit computers -it is possible to preserve them for future generations of historians and to discover some of the secrets of these machines. These may hint to bigger technological relationships within the Eastern Bloc and to the West hard to obtain from the archives. Furthermore, through hacking of old systems, knowledge is preserved about the work of people who were active in the 1980s and, sometimes, are still active in the retrocomputing "scenes" of today. Among the many, we want to thank Henrich Raduska for his historical account on the Czechoslovakian 8-bit computers.

Romania.

  In Romania, both Western clones and original computers were created in the 1980s [15]. In many cases they were designed by Adrian Petrescu from the Politehnica University of Bucharest. The most notable original computer was the aMic, designed by Petrescu, in 1982 and later produced at Fabrica de Memorii in Timișoara until 1984. It was used in research, education and in the industry. From 1985 to 1994, Romania produced mostly the HC family of computers (HC 85, HC 85+, HC 88, HC 90, HC 91 and HC 2000). They were all clones of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, originally designed by Adrian Petrescu and later redesigned for mass production by ICE Felix, a brand which was already selling the Felix PC (1985-1990), an IBM-compatible, as well as other lines of micro and mini computers, including a line inspired by the IBM/360. Poland. During the 1980s, Poland produced primarily clones of Western computers [15]. Meritum I and II were released in 1983 and 1985, respectively, by Mera-Elzab, a brand originally specialized in cash registers. They were clones of the Tandy TRS-80.The 800 Junior (1986) and the 804 Junior PC (1990) were ZX Spectrum clones primarily intended for education and they were produced by the Elwro plant for schools.

CC65 Development Kit

  SDCC provides very basic and generic C libraries that can be used on all its targets. This means that SDCC routines cannot invoke ROM routines. A modified and optimized version of SDCC is part of the Z88DK development kit.CMOC [29] is, currently, the only actively maintained compiler for systems based on the Motorola 6809 CPU. It is developed by Pierre Sarrazin and features a very limited library for input and output.

	4.3	Other Actively Maintained 8-bit Cross-Compilers
	Small Device C Compiler (SDCC) is a retargetable cross-compiler which supports a
	multitude of legacy and modern 8-bit architectures, including the Z80. Unlike CC65
	and Z88DK,
	CC65 is a complete cross development package for 6502-based systems. It includes a
	macro assembler, a C compiler and several other tools. It is based on a C compiler that,
	in the early 1990s was adapted for the Atari 8-bit computers by John R. Dunning. The
	original C compiler in CC65 is a Small-C descendant, but without most of Small C
	shortcomings: CC65's compiler is mostly ANSI compliant; it still lacks an implemen-
	tation of floating-point arithmetic, but it supports function pointers.
	CC65, as Z88DK, provides cross-target libraries that can be used by different sys-
	tems. However, CC65 is a smaller project than Z88DK in terms of number of supported
	targets, development activity and library support.

Appendix. A List of 8-bit Personal Computers Produced in Eastern Europe

Model


Marina Smolevitskaya
email: msmolevitskaya@yandex.ru

Honoring the 100th Anniversary of His Birth

Keywords: B. I. Rameev, URAL, Electronic Digital Computing Machine, Museum, Archive

Bashir Iskandarovich Rameev fulfilled one of the main roles in the informatization of Russia as the developer of Ural computer. In English publications, information about him and his contribution to science is practically absent. Nevertheless, he left a valuable legacy in the form of his developments of the family of universal automatic digital computing machines "Ural" with advanced software. The engineering heritage of B. I. Rameev is kept at the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow. The tube automatic digital machine "Ural-1" takes a special place in the computer collection at the Museum. The personal documentary collection of B.I. Rameev is voluminous and unique in its content. The documents of his collection reflect the entire history of the creation and development of domestic electronic computing machines. Among these documents the project "Automatic Digital Computing Machine" of I. S. Brook and B. I. Rameev and patent No 10475 (USSR author's certificate) on 4 December 1948 are preserved. This patent was the first officially registered invention in the field of electronic digital computers in the USSR. On the suggestion of the Polytechnic Museum, 4 of December 1948 is considered (not yet officially) to be the birthday of Russian informatics. It is impossible to overestimate the contribution of B. I. Rameev to domestic electronic computing equipment.

Introduction

In the Soviet Union, the engineer and chief designer of the computer family "Ural" В. I. Rameev together with scientists such as academicians S. A. Lebedev and V. M. Glushkov, corresponding members A. A. Lyapunov and I. S. Brook stood at the origins of the creation of domestic electronic computers. The merits of Lebedev, Glushkov and Lyapunov were recognized by the international scientific community. They received the rank "Computer Pioneer" from the IEEE Computer Society. These scientists created their computers in the system of academic science; they themselves took part in international conferences. Therefore, their names are better known abroad. For example, only the computers of Academician Lebedev are mentioned in the dissertation of Peter Wolcott "Soviet advanced technology: The case of high-performance computing" [START_REF] Wolcott | Soviet advanced technology: The case of high-performance computing[END_REF]. Furthermore, Wolcott Likewise, almost nothing is known about Brook's computers and the computers developed in SDB-245 in the international literature. Alex Bochannek, a researcher of the Computer History Museum in California, showed in his paper [START_REF] Bochannek | What Did the Americans Know? A Review of Select Periodicals. In: Материалы второй Международной конференции Развитие вычислительной техники и ее программного обеспечения в России и странах бывшего[END_REF] that information about general computing work done in the Soviet Union was available in unclassified environments. The merits of Brook and Rameev in this area are almost unknown abroad, while they are not less significant. Rameev is one of the founders of electronic computers in the Soviet Union. The merits of Rameev in the field of creating digital computers are recognized by all domestic scientific schools unconditionally. Representatives of various organizations that created computers in the Soviet Union regularly meet in the Virtual Computer Museum [START_REF]Eduard Proydakov's project[END_REF] and all they agreed that Rameev's contribution to domestic electronic computing was significant.

An attempt to present Rameev's contribution to the creation of computers in Eastern Europe is done in this article. The collections of the Polytechnic Museum can serve as sources for further research by historians of computer technology [4, 5, 6,].

As known, at the turn of the 1950s the development of the first electronic computers was conducted in the USA, England, Germany and France. Since the machines were developed mainly for military purposes, the publications on them were very terse. Most machines were built on electromechanical relays, not electronic tubes. Rameev received his knowledge of electronics working at the Institute of Electronics No 108, and also he was fond of radio amateurs. Once he heard the BBC broadcasts that the electronic computer ENIAC was produced in the USA [START_REF] Малиновский | История вычислительной техники в лицах. -Киев: фирма «КИТ[END_REF], interest in this new technology led Rameev to correspond with academy member I. Brook. Brook was interested in computing and was engaged in the development of analog computers already before the second World War. He was happy to find such an able assistant. In May 1948, Rameev received a position as computer engineer in the Laboratory of Electrical Systems at the Power Engineering Institute of USSR Academy of Sciences.

In the collection of Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, electronic digital computing machines of domestic production from the 1950s to 1990s are presented together with the developments of leading scientific schools, research institutes and plants, that created them. This collection is the only one in the whole territory of the former Soviet Union. All the exhibits that make up the collection are unique: from the operative memory device on the cathode-ray tubes of the first domestic serial computer "Strela" to the onboard computer complex "Argon-16," which controlled flights of space vehicles. The tube computer "Ural-1" is given a special place in the collection (Fig. 1). Its chief constructor was B.I. Rameev (Fig. 2).

B. Rameev's Engineering Heritage

The primary source of B. Rameev's biography and the description of his contribution to electronic computer technics is B. N. Malinovsky's book The History of Computer Science in Persons, published in 1995 [START_REF] Малиновский | История вычислительной техники в лицах. -Киев: фирма «КИТ[END_REF]. The chapter "The son of an epoch" of this book was written by Malinovsky in many respects thanks to the materials that Rameev himself gave him. Later, there were memories about Rameev of other people who knew and worked with him. Margarita Badrutdinova, director of the museum of the Kazan's Electronic Computers Plant, not only carried out scientific research on the roots of Bashir Iskandarovich Rameev concerning his father and grandfather, but also compiled a list of his inventions ( given in Appendix 5.1) [8, 9,]. Rameev's companion on the "Ural" family of computers, Gennady Smirnov, made a unique contribution to the description, study and preservation of Rameev's legacy. He wrote several books about the school of construction of Rameev [10, 11,] and compiled a bibliographic index The Computer "Ural" in the World of Publications and Documents 1945-1972 [START_REF] Эвм «урал | в мире публикаций и документов 1945-1972[END_REF]. The biography of Rameev in English is given in [13, 14,]. Also, according to Rameev's biography and his heritage in the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, one can trace the entire history of the development of electronic computers in the Soviet Union. Almost all his conscious life since 1948 he created electronic computers, and he one of the pioneers was in this area. Rameev was an active developer of the very first computers in the Soviet Union: the first serial domestic computer "Strela" and the Small automatic digital computer "Ural-1."

2.1

The First Domestic Serial Electronic Computer, "Strela" In 1953, the experimental model of "Strela" was tested by a state commission and recommended for serial production. In fact, the seven computers were not absolutely identical because some corrections were always implemented in each following piece after testing the previous one. They were placed in the Applied Mathematics Institute of USSR Science Academy (USSR SA), the Computing Center of USSR SA and computer centers of some ministries. They were used mainly in tasks related to nuclear power and space research. In 1954 Rameev and other collaborators of "Strela" team were awarded the USSR State Bounty. The exposition of Polytechnic Museum devoted to B. I. Rameev, Yu. Ya. Bazilevskiyi, SDB-245 and the Electronic Computer "Strela" are shown in Fig. 6.

In 1955, Rameev moved to Penza with a group of talented young specialists from SDB-245. In Penza, Rameev became chief engineer of the Penza branch of SDB-245, and then deputy director for research at the Penza Scientific Research Institute of Controlling Computing Machines, later called Research Institute of Mathematical Machines. In Penza, Rameev created his own computer science school. Many leading computer designers began their activity in the Penza school: V. V. Przhialkovsky, V. Ya. Pikhtin and others from the Minsk branch like V. V. Rezanov Severodonetsk [START_REF] Смирнов | Рамеевская школа конструирования ЭВМ. История разработок в фотографиях. 1948 -1972[END_REF]. There, he worked on the construction of the The Small Automatic Universal Electronic Computer "Ural-1".

2.2

The Small Automatic Universal Electronic Computer "Ural-1"

In the years 1930 -1940, USA, Great Britain, France and Germany imposed restrictions on the supply of a number of goods on the Soviet Union. In 1949, the Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Control (CoCom) was established by these countries to impose an embargo on the supply of goods to Comecon countries. So the development of the first computers was carried out in isolation from the developments that were carried out in western countries, that actually established a regime of secrecy for the exchange of scientific and technical information.. 1 According to Academician S. Lebedev, the available foreign publications that were received in those years in the USSR were of an "advertising nature." It should be recognized that, unfortunately, later foreign publications to many Soviet specialists remained unknown. In addition, the publications of Soviet specialists were very rare. The exchange of experience occurred with the US was mainly at the level of personal meetings and visits to enterprises [START_REF] Смирнов | ЭВМ «Урал». Страницы истории разработок[END_REF]. In October 1955, in Darmstadt (Germany) S. Lebedev and Yu. Ya. Bazilevsky presented BESM-1 as the fastest computer in Europe with RAM consisting of potentialoscopes, special cathode ray tubes. Furthermore, they presented on the Small Automatic Universal Computing Machine "Ural-1" and on mastering the serial production which had already begun [START_REF] Iu | The Universal Electronic Digital Machine (URAL) for Engineering Research[END_REF] (see Appendix 5.1 for a technical description of the Ural-1 computer). In 1956, Rameev presented the report "Universal Automatic Digital Computer of the type Ural" at the conference "Ways of Development of Soviet Computing Engineering" [16] in Moscow. This was the first scientific conference in the Soviet Union on this subject. One of the first samples of the "Ural-1" computer was used mainly for training specialists at the Computing Center of the USSR Sciences Academy. Since 1957, these machines have been supplied to computer centers, research institutions, military schools and other organizations. At the same time, the Computing Center of the Baikonur Cosmodrome was created on the basis of the Ural-1 computer.

By the early 1960s, "the Ural-1" computer was the most widespread machine in the USSR; it was operated in 128 cities. More than 30 machines operated abroad in 25 countries: in the GDR, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Turkey, England, Egypt and many more. Differently from bigger machines and chiefly used by large computer centers, Ural-1 was the first computer to be widely implemented by relatively small enterprises [START_REF] Смирнов | ЭВМ «Урал». Страницы истории разработок[END_REF].

Despite the very low speed of 100 operations per second, especially by today's standards, the research and training institutes of the country were lining up behind this machine. For many years, the "Urals" had become the main "labor force" in our computer centers. It also became a "primary school" for numerous constructors, mathematicians-programmers and maintenance specialists.

"Ural-1" was followed by universal computers with the same electron valves-based circuitry, mainly used for civil purposes: "Ural-2" (1959), "Ural-3," "Ural-4" (1961) with ferrite cores RAM and extended ROM on magnetic drums (8x8 K words) and magnetic tapes (12x260 K words). Besides universal computers, "Ural" Rameev produced several special machines: "Weather" for meteorological calculations, "Granite" for probability characteristics of the experimental data arrays, "Crystal" for crystal structure X-ray analysis, a special computer for (geographic) bearings defined from radio detection data, etc.

In 1968, Rameev moved to Moscow and went to work at the Scientific-Research Center of Electronic Computer Technology to engage in a promising project: the Uni-fied Computer System. He negotiated with the English firm ICL on scientific and technical cooperation in the field of computer production. Documents on cooperation between the State Committee of the USSR on Science and Technology, the Ministry of Radio Industry of the USSR and the English firm ICL are indicating this. They are presented in the documentary collection of Rameev in the Polytechnic Museum [START_REF] Рамеев | Универсальная автоматическая цифровая вычислительная машина типа[END_REF]. Also, in this collection there are documents on Soviet-American cooperation 1972 -1974 in the field of computer application in management within the framework of the Meetings between the Governments of the USSR and the USA on cooperation in the field of science and technology. These are work plans and reports of a mixed Soviet-American group. Rameev also took an active part in the discussion of the problem of copying IBM-360 machines. The minutes of the meetings concerning the copying of the IBM 360 machines from December of 1969 testify to the intensive discussions held.

Rameev did not agree on the decision of the country's leadership on copying IBM-360 machines. Notwithstanding, he went to work for the State Committee on Science and Technology of the USSR [START_REF] Малиновский | История вычислительной техники в лицах. -Киев: фирма «КИТ[END_REF]. Here he conducted the large scientific and organizational work on the formation of the all-Union scientific and technical programs for the creation of computer hardware and software. He coordinated the construction of systems for the automation of scientific research and design work, as well as for the introduction of automated control systems into practice. Furthermore, he contributed to the creation of the State Fund for Algorithms and Programs. Only the absence of a diploma on graduation did not allow him to run for a full membership in the Academy of Sciences, of which he would have deserved to be a member. Rameev came from the family of the largest gold miners in Russia. Bashir's grandfather was a famous Tatar poet. His father was repressed and perished in labor camps during Stalinist purges. Bashir Rameev, who by that time was a sophomore at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, was named the son of an "enemy of the people" and was expelled from the institute [7. Many years later, in 1962, forty-four-year-old Bashir Rameev was awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences without defending his dissertation. Positive recommendations were given by academicians S. A. Lebedev, A. I. Berg and Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences I. S. Brook [START_REF] Малиновский | История вычислительной техники в лицах. -Киев: фирма «КИТ[END_REF].

In 2018, Rameev would have turned 100 years old, but there are specialists still alive who remember him very warmly, both as an outstanding scientist and as an extremely modest and talented person. They remember his kind eyes and smile, but at the same time remember his intransigence if he were convinced of anything. They remember his ability to gently convince, but firmly to achieve the ideal performance of all the necessary work. The many specialists who worked with Rameev note his attention to detail and the broadest technical intuition, the basis of which was the deep knowledge from different fields of technics. His commitment to unification, which is considered the cornerstone of effective mass production, showed a high level of computer construction. Rameev's name was often absent in the list of venerable speakers at various conferences, but this did not in the least interfere with his authority and popularity of the Penza scientific school he was leading. This holds true also thanks to the enormous creative work invested by him and his team in the development and production of universal computers.

In 2015, a technological park in the sphere of high technologies was named after Rameev to commemorate him. Technopark "Rameev" is an association of legally independent small and medium-sized innovative enterprises in Penza. The purpose of the technopark is to create favorable conditions for the development of small and mediumsized enterprises engaged in the development and implementation of innovative projects.

3

Exhibits and Documentary Collection of B. I. Rameev at the Polytechnic Museum

"Ural-1"

To date from the hundreds of UDSSR first-generation tube computers, only a single one has survived in full equipment -at the Polytechnic Museum. In 1967, the Voronezh State University gave the Small Automatic Universal Computing Machine "Ural-1" to the Polytechnic Museum (Fig. 1). Of course, the museum exhibitions in which the device is turned on and demonstrated how it worked cause the greatest interest of museum visitors. All of the authentic parts of the "Ural-1" computer are almost impossible to restore, but the processor and the RAM can be implemented on modern microchips. When studying the state of the "Ural-1" computer, it turned out that the control panel and the display panel are still working and can be used to demonstrate the operation of this machine. In 2007, two students developed the demonstration complex based on the Small Universal Automatic Electronic Computer "Ural-1" in the Polytechnic Museum. This complex along with authentic machine parts includes a number of additional blocks implemented on programmable logic microchips. This demonstration complex fully supports the command system of the computer "Ural-1" and with its help it is possible to solve any problems which were possible to solve on the original machine.

The bit grids and the ways of representing numbers and operations on numbers correspond completely to the real "Ural-1" computer.

The created demonstration complex includes:

1. Power supply system of the "Ural-1" computer.

2. The control panel of the "Ural-1" computer.

3. The display panel of the "Ural-1" computer. 4. The processor, which is the full functional analog of the "Ural-1" computer processor and implemented on the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip XC3S200-4FT256C from "Xilinx". 5. The operative memory simulating the operation of a magnetic drum of the "Ural-1" computer, implemented on an asynchronous memory chip IS61LV25616AL-10T, manufactured by ISSI. 6. The device for long-term data storage simulating the operation of a tape and / or magnetic tape drive, implemented on the microchip M25P16, manufactured by "ST Microelectronics".

In order to fully interface authentic devices of the "Ural-1" computer and devices simulating the operation of the processor, operative and long-term memory, the following devices were additionally developed:

7. The block of interrogation of the section of buttons and toggles of the control panel, and also the block of interrogation of keyboard sections of the control panel, realized on microchips ИР22 and ИД7. 8. The output unit implemented on the registers ИР 27, ИД 3 and ИД 7 decoders, as well as the buffer elements HCF4050BE.

9. The optoelectronic isolation block, implemented on optotriacs (triode for alternating current) MOC3041, manufactured by "Motorola". The operation of the "Ural-1" computer was demonstrated to all categories of museum visitors until the closure of the main building of the Polytechnic Museum for major overhaul in 2014. The following mathematical problems were proposed for solving: demonstration of binary number system, demonstration of counting and displaying numbers in Gray code, demonstration of addition of small integer binary numbers, demonstration of operations of subtraction and multiplication based on addition operation, game "Guess Number," game "Tic-Tac-Toe," demonstration of the normalization of fractional numbers with a fixed point and obtaining floating-point numbers. The language of the intermediate presentation of the Ural-1 computer programs, called UASM'07 (Ural Assembler), was specially developed for this demonstration complex.

An automatic translator of this language in the machine codes has also been developed.

Documentary Collection

The exhibits of the collection "Electronic digital computing machines" of the Polytechnic Museum were complemented and supplemented by a documentary in printed and pictorial materials [4, 5, 6,]. From 1989, the museum implemented the program "History of Engineering Thought in Russia". One of its goals was the creation of a database on the heritage of outstanding Russian scientists. The results of this program were reflected in the series of publications "Problems of Cultural Heritage in the Field of Engineering". Within the framework of this program, items related to the biography, scientific and official activities of the computer creators in the Soviet Union and Russia were collected and continue to be collected. An important component of the documentary collection is the personal documentary collections of the founders of domestic computer technics.

We opened fourteen personal documentary collections on "Domestic Science and Engineering Schools in the Field of Computing and Informatics." The Polytechnic museum holds documentary collections of academician S.A. Lebedev, academician V.M. Glushkov, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences I.S. Brook, his disciples -M. A. Kartsev and N. Ya. Matyuhin, talented creator Rameev and Yu. Ya. Bazilevskiyi, the developer of the only ternary computer in the world, N. P. Brusentsov, mathematician S. N. Mergelyan, organizer and leader of the first in our country hydraulic analogies laboratory V.S. Lukyanova, Director of the Moscow Factory Accounting Machines V. S. Petrov, founders of the national school of cybernetics A. A. Lyapunov and A. I. Kitov and academician V. S. Burtsev.

Among the above-mentioned collections, the personal collection of B. Rameev is the most voluminous and unique in its content. The documents of this collection reflected the entire history of the creation and development of domestic electronic computers. Rameev was not only the constructor of a number of domestic computers, but for more than 20 years he was engaged in coordinating the development and application of domestic computers, assessing their technical level and efficiency, the formation of scientific and technical programs, and the creation of the State Collection for Algorithms and Programs. In 1971, B. Rameev moved to the Main Department of Computer Technology and Control Systems of the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology. Because Rameev became deputy head of this department, documents related to the state policy of the development of computer technics are presented from the 1960s to the early 1990s.

In 1994, the activity of the researchers of the Polytechnic Museum on the acquisition of the Rameev personal documentary collection was timed to coincide with the anniversary date -the 40th anniversary of his basic development of the "Ural-1" computer. Rameev personally took part in the selection of documentary materials from his archive. For him, the manuscripts of academicians S. A. Lebedev or A. I. Berg and the office notes of the Penza period were equally important. Probably, due to his accuracy, discipline and careful attitude to the "memory" of the documentary, Rameev managed to keep a rich archive -both in terms of importance and volume of documents. Unfortunately, for health reasons, Rameev was unable to complete the work begun. However, the firm decision to keep the archive exactly where his first and most important brainchild, "Ural-1," is located, has found understanding and support of Rameev's relatives. Until 1998, the wife of the scientist, Vera Ivanovna Rameeva, continued to work with the museum. For four years, from 1994 to 1998, 438 items of storage were transferred, and the number of sheets of the documentary collection totals about tenthousand.

In 1999, after systematization and scientific processing, the personal collection of B. Rameev was opened at the Polytechnic Museum [START_REF] Рамеев | Универсальная автоматическая цифровая вычислительная машина типа[END_REF]. It included items of clothing stock -the student's briefcase, the logarithmic ruler, the folder for papers, the Badge of Honored Inventor of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Medal of the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy, etc. The most valuable items are the badge of the USSR State Prize and the Order of the Labor Red Banner.

The first textbooks on electronic digital machines by A. I Kitov and programming by V. N. Bondarenko, I. T. Plotnikov and P. P. Polozov were included in the collection of printed publications. They mainly document operational experience of "Ural" series computers and the development of their software. Also, famous domestic scientists and designers M. A. Kartsev, N. P. Brusentsov, and others are among the authors of the books of the Rameev's collection. The most unique printed publications include the materials of the conference "Ways of the Development of Mathematical Engineering and Instrument Making" (1956) and the abstracts of the reports of the V th All-Union meeting of users of the "Ural" computers (1966). The individual books have the stamp with the inscription "From the books of B. I. Rameev". The publications with the dedications from authors and users of the "Ural" computers are of great interest. They testify the wide scientific, business and friendly contacts between specialists (Fig. 7).

For an unknown reason, Rameev handed over a small part of his documents about himself to the State Museum of Political History of Russia in St. Petersburg. In the collections of this museum items like: a leaflet of a candidate for deputy of the Penza Regional Industrial Council of Workers' Deputies (1963), a membership card of the All-Union Society of Inventors (1935), Rameev's letter to chief of the Office for Inventions and Discoveries of the USSR Council of Ministers with a request for the resumption and revision of the case of a high-speed digital computer for the integration of differential equations (1950), and some others are stored.

Throughout his professional life, Rameev actively communicated with the leading developers of electronic computers in the Soviet Union. In particular, Rameev worked with Academician A. P. Ershov [18] on software issues. The archive of this scientist is stored in the Institute of Informatics Systems of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences [19]. It contained documents on the AutoCode project for a number of "Ural" computers, a single programming language for the "Ural" family of computers; on the draft technical specification of the software systems of the Unified Computer System "Ryad-3"; documents related to the work of the Interdepartmental Scientific and Technical Commission on Software of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on Science and Technology; documents on the reception of the delegation from the United States and so on.

Rameev's documentary archive, together with pictorial sources, was collected and formed personally by scientist throughout his creative work. The main custodian of the sources of Rameev's creative heritage in Russia is the Polytechnic Museum [START_REF] Рамеев | Универсальная автоматическая цифровая вычислительная машина типа[END_REF]. A brief description of his personal documental fund is given in the Appendix. Rameev's granddaughter Anna Belkina-Tentler was doing a cartoon about him and published an article entitled "System Preferences: Animated Documentary about B. I. Rameev" [START_REF]Personal Documentary Collection of B.I[END_REF]

Conclusion

Bashir Rameev fulfilled one of the key roles in the creation of domestic electronic computers and in the computerization of the Soviet Union. He left valuable legacy in the form of his developments of the family of universal automatic machines "Ural," a whole computer family with advanced software.

The main features of the new generation of computers embodied in the new series of "Ural," briefly boil down to the following. The machines of different capacities must be constructive, schematic and software compatible with each other. They should have a flexible block structure and a wide range of devices with a standard connection method, which allows selecting the computers package most suitable for a particular application and maintain the machine parameters in the process of operation at the level of changing customer needs and new device developments.

The exceptional merit of Rameev was the creation in the USSR not of individual computers, but of a whole family of computers compatible with software, the production of which he put on an industrial basis.Later, the institute created by Rameev in Penza was the "forge of cadres" for many institutes of computer technology in a number of cities of the Soviet Union. At the Main Administration of Computer Technology and Control Systems of the State Committee on Science and Technology of the USSR he was in charge of building an extensive system of computer facilities by organizing automated management systems for planning and processing information for various purposes and creating a state network of computer centers, united by communication channels. It is impossible to overestimate the contribution of Rameev to domestic electronic computing equipment. His name should be preserved in the history of Russia.

Appendix

Rameev's Inventions

Rameev constructed the radio-controlled model of an armored train that moved along rails, shot a cannon, created a smoke screen. He presented it at a contest in Moscow. At the age of 17, he became a member of the All-Union Society of Inventors.

1940-41

Rameev proposed the method for detecting darkened objects from an airplane by infrared radiation passing through the curtained windows. He also invented a relay device for turning on loudspeakers in case of an air alarm. 1953 Rameev chose a key method for developing small universal digital machines for engineering calculations: unification of circuit, constructive and technological solutions. The symmetrical trigger on a 6H8S tube, tested as the main element of the "Strela," became the basis for all new machines. Rameev made new decisions on the construction of panels, frames-corpuses, on the power supply and cooling systems of machines and others decisions [START_REF] Малиновский | История вычислительной техники в лицах. -Киев: фирма «КИТ[END_REF][START_REF] Бадрутдинова | История жизни замечательных людей России -Башира Искандаровича Рамеева, его отца[END_REF][START_REF] Бадрутдинова | Developments of B.I Rameev[END_REF].

1945-46

1954

A team of developers, including B. Rameev, received the State Bounty for the first domestic serial electronic computer "Strela".

1955-68

In Penza under the leadership of B. I. Rameev, universal electronic computers "Ural-1-4," (1955)(1956)(1957)(1958)(1959)(1960)(1961), specialized machines "Weather," "Crystal," "Granite," M-17, M-27, M-30, M-46, M-56 (1954 -1961) and universal computers "Ural -11, 14, 16" (1964 -1969) were developed. The main characteristics of the universal electronic computers "Ural" and the number of machines produced by year are given in Appendices 5.1 and 5.2.

1963

For the first time in the USSR, Rameev proposed the principle of building computers and computer systems in the form of a number of software and information compatible machines. They were of various performance and completeness, built on the single element base with standardly connected peripheral devices. This principle was implemented in the models "Ural -11, 14, 16" and the digital computers of subsequent generations.

1965-68

He participated in the creation of systems for collective use and computer networks, as well as in the creation of automatized control system (ACS): "Bank", "Stroitel", "Lotus".

1968

Rameev suggested creating a number of software and constructively compatible computers based on the architecture of the System 4 family of the English firm ICL (International Computers Limited).

1971-94

Rameev was engaged in assessing the technical level of domestic digital computers, the formation of scientific and technic computerization programs in Russia and the creation of the State Collection for Algorithms and Programs.

Main Characteristics of Universal Electronic Computers "Ural"

With an occupied area of about 70 square meters, the Ural-1 machine contained more than 838 electron tubes, consumed about 7 kW of power and was able to perform 100 operations per second: addition, subtraction, transition and multiplication. The division operation was performed four times slower. The operative memory was realized on a magnetic drum. Its capacity was 1024 machine words or about 4.5 kB. A punched tape drive and a magnetic tape drive were used for data input and output of programs and data. The usual medium at that time was punched tape. An engineering control panel was used to control the machine. The machine printed the solution of a problem on a narrow strip of paper. A detailed technical description of the Small Universal Automatic Electronic Computer "Ural-1" can be found on the Virtual Computer Museum website [START_REF] Belkina-Tentler | System Preferences: Animated Documentary about B.I. Rameev. In: Материалы второй Международной конференции Развитие вычислительной техники и ее программного обеспечения в России и странах бывшего[END_REF]. ). Among the above documents it is necessary, first of all, to single out the project "Automatic digital computer," carried out in conjunction with I.S. Brook, as well as "Project considerations for the organization of a special design bureau for the development and construction of the Automatic Digital Computing Machine. The Advance project of the family of Ural-type automatic digital computers ("Ural-11," "Ural-12," "Ural-13," "Ural-14," "Ural-15") in five parts and the "Ural project -25" are of unconditional interest. These documents reflected the genius of B. Rameev, as the general designer of computers. ) and 5 certificates of registration of inventions ("Ural-1," "Ural-2," "Kristall" computers, etc.).

Ural

• II.6. The materials on the computer series "Ural" (1956 -1973 years, No. 27108 / 234-259) -the documents related to the development, production and practical use of a computer series "Ural," the comparative author's analysis of the computers "Ural" with foreign similar computers, the prospects for the development of the "Ural-25" computer. The acts of interdepartmental testing of computer software systems for Ural- There are letters of official and creative nature, among the correspondents of Academician V.M. Glushkov and N.P. Fedorenko, Professor N. Panin, and others, as well as the Glavtochmash enterprise, Numbered plant 732-a, The Plant of Counting and Analytical Machines, SDB-245, and others. The letter from Numbered plant M-5539 with the report on use of "Ural-11" and "Ural-14" under the program "Soyuz-Apollo" and "Rainbow" is interest of particular.

V. Fine Materials

Pencil black and white and color drawings:

Fig. 1 . 2014 Fig. 2 .

 120142 Fig. 1. The Small Automatic Universal Electronic Computer "Ural-1" at the Polytechnic Museum, 2014

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. The Flowchart for the Project of the Automatic Digital Computing Machine. Polytechnic Museum, Personal Documentary Collection of B. Rameev No 221.

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. The manuscripts of Rameev. Polytechnic Museum, Personal Documentary Collection of B. Rameev No 221.

Fig. 5 .

 5 Fig. 5. Author's certificates of B. Rameev. Polytechnic Museum, Personal Documentary Collection of B. Rameev No 221. Since 1971, Rameev worked in the Main Administration of Computer Technology and Control Systems of the State Committee on Science and Technology of the USSR. He was the deputy head of the department. The Main Department of Computer Engineering and Control Systems had become an organization which coordinated and organized interdisciplinary complex scientific research and experimental development in the field of improvement in the national economy. They were in charge of building an extensive

Fig. 6 .

 6 Fig. 6. The exposition devoted to B. Rameev, Yu. Bazilevskiyi, SDB-245 and the Electronic Computer "Strela" in Polytechnic Museum, 2014.

Fig. 7 .

 7 Fig. 7. The books on programming for the "Ural" computers. Polytechnic Museum, Personal Documentary Collection of B. Rameev No 221.

Fig. 8 .

 8 Fig. 8. The certificate of Rameev "Honored Inventor of the RSFSR" of the Supreme Soviet Presidium of the RSFSR. Polytechnic Museum, Personal Documentary Collection of B. Rameev No 221.

Fig. 9 .

 9 Fig. 9. The documents from Rameev's collection at Polytechnic Museum, No 221.

•

  B. Rameev in the school years (1930-1935) (Fig 10). • Friendly cartoon and congratulations on the occasion of awarding Rameev the title of Doctor of Technical Sciences with poems (1963) (Fig 10). Black-and-white photographs are included (1930-1987 years, No. 27108 / 405-434): • B. Rameev for adjusting the Ural-1 computer, at the meeting of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), in the Mission Control Center, in the staff of the State Committee for Computing Engineering, portraits of different years (1952-1997). • The team of developers of the computer "Strela" (1955).• Portraits of the staff of the Penza Research Institute of Mathematical Machines, the creators of the "Ural" series computer (1970 year). • General view of the computer series "Ural", etc.

  VI. Materials Collected by the Collection MakerBooklets, books, documents, etc., concerning memorable facts and events in the life of Rameev are included years, No. 27108 / 435-437): • The jubilee collection for the 100th anniversary of the New York Times (in English). • The flight program of the "Soyuz T-6" spacecraft (June 24, 1982), etc.

Fig. 10 .

 10 Fig. 10. The friendly cartoon on the occasion of awarding Rameev the title of Doctor of Technical Sciences, with poems. The black and white drawing: Rameev in school years. Polytechnic Museum, Personal Documentary Collection of B. Rameev No 221.

  only mentions the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Technology in Moscow and the Computer Center of the Siberian Department of the USSR Academy of Sciences/Institute of Informatics Systems in Novosibirsk as organizations that developed computers in the Soviet Union. In parallel with Lebedev, the work on the creation of the very first computers was carried out at the Laboratory of Electrosystems of the Energy Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, headed by I. S. Brook, and in the Special Design Bureau SDB-245, formed at the Moscow Plant of Counting -Analytical Machines. Rameev first worked with Brook, and then together Yu. Bazilevskiy in SDB-245.

  II.1. Monographs, articles, texts of speeches (1946-1991 years, No. 27108 / 190-215

	• I.7. Other documents (1947-1988, No. 27108 / 183-189): references, applications,
	medical insurance, etc. The note by Academician A.I. Berg with recommendations,
	what medicines you need to have with you is of interest.
	II. Creative Materials
	•

  [START_REF]Computing in Russia: The History of Computer Devices and Information Technology Revealed[END_REF] and Ural-16 computers and Ural-14 and Ural-16 machines(1970- 1971), calculations for the Ural-14 computer the forecast of the game of hockey players in the world championships and Europe(1973) are of interest. • II.7. Reviews and reviews B. Rameev on the work of other persons (1962-1965 years, No. 27108/260). • II.8. Working drawings (1948, No. 27108 / 261-262) -The flowchart of the "Automatic Digital Computing Machine" is unique. It is author's drawing. • II.9. Notebooks, working scientific diaries (1955-1989, No. 27108 / 263-309) -contain manuscripts related to official and scientific activities, information on cooperation with International Computer Limited, entries in English, sketches of diagrams, drawings and so on. The Minutes of Meetings Concerning the Copy of IBM 360 Machines dated December 4, 1969 and December 18, 1969, written down by B. Rameev, as well as the Terms of Reference for the development of hardware and software for the UCS (manuscript V.K. Levin with a note of B. Rameev from 15.02.93 after his stroke) are of interest. • III.3. Materials on the cooperation of the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Science and Technology with the Ministry of Radio Industry of the USSR and the English firm International Computers Limited (ICL) (1969-1970 years, No. 27108 / 349-350) -protocols of meetings, policy directives, cooperation agreement , working translations, etc. • III.4. Materials on Soviet-American cooperation in the use of computers in management (1972-1974 years, No. 27108/351) -work plan and report on the activities of the Joint Soviet-American Working Group. • III.5. Materials on the creation and development of the computer such as Iskra-226 (1981, No. 27108/352) -the protocol of the technical meeting, letters, computer distribution plan, reference. • III.6. Materials on the concepts "Informatization of society" and "Development of personal computers" (1987-1989, No. 27108 / 373-386) -regulations, resolutions and minutes of the sessions of the USSR State Committee on Computer Science, reports of the Interbranch Science and Technology Complex "Personal computers." • III.7. Materials transmitted by B.I. Rameyev for work (1958-1992, No. 27108 / 361-373), -instructions, recommendations, suggestions, concepts, solutions, photocopies of documents, express information, references, reports, articles by G.I. Marchuk and other persons. • III.8. Pedagogical activity (1951-1953, No 27108 / 381-385) -programs of lectures, abstracts, exam cards on the course "Automatic computing devices of discrete action" in Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (mostly manuscript). Correspondence is systematized according to the following headings: letters to B.I.Rameev (1957-1967, No. 27108 / 386-394), letters from B.I. Rameev (1951-1966, No. 27108 / 395-399), correspondence between the responsible persons related to Rameev (1953-1985, No. 27108 / 400-404).

	• III.2. Materials on the creation of the Unified Computer System (UCS) and the prob-lem of copying IBM-360 (1968-1993, No. 27108 / 339-348) -documents (draft de-cisions, minutes of meetings, certificates, etc.) with comments and notes of B. Ram-eev. IV. Correspondence

III. Materials of

Official, Pedagogical, Scientific and Public Activities • III.1. Disposal documents, plans, schedules, memos, working certificates, etc. (1952-1980 years, No. 27108 / 310-338) are concerned with the official activities of B. Rameev, beginning with the post of head of the Laboratory No. 31 SDB-245 (Moscow) to the Chief Engineer of the Research Institute of Mathematical Machines (Penza), with autographs of B. Rameev, Y.Ya. Bazilevskiyi, M.A. Lesechko and other persons (Fig. 9.).

See Leslie, "From CoCom to Dot-com," and Schmidt, "Socialist Life of a U.S. Army Computer," this volume.

5.4

The Rameev Documentary and Visual Materials Collection in the Polytechnic Museum

The Rameev documentary and visual materials collection (numbers on the Polytechnic Museum Book of receipts: No. 27108 / 115-438), after studying and systematizing, was divided into the following sections:

VII. Materials of Other Persons

The album of poems with the dedication inscribed by the author -an employee of the Penza Research Institute of Mathematical Machines V.I. Burkov, who for many years worked together with B. Rameev and participated in the development of a series of computers "Ural" (1979 year, № 27108/438).