ES EVM
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ES EVM (ЕС ЭВМ, Единая система электронных вычислительных машин) was a Soviet clone series of IBM's System/360 computer. They were produced in subseries known as Ryad (Ряд 1, Ряд 2, Ряд 3, Ряд 4).
First works on the cloning began in 1968; production started in 1972.
The IBM/360 technology was not legally available to the Soviet Union due to the CoCom's restrictions. No official relations were maintained between the USSR and IBM, so the cloning was done using information obtained through unofficial channels. Much of the IBM software was also (illegally) copied.
The common operating system was OS ES, a clone of OS/360.
Officially, the computers and software were "developed" in Moscow, at the Scientific-Research Center for Electronic Computer Machinery (НИЦЭВТ), in Yerevan, and later in Minsk, Belarus, at the Scientific-Research Institute of Electronic Computer Machines (НИИ ЭВМ). The electronics were based on ECL-type design.
Some Russian computer engineers have suggested that the adoption of the copied IBM/360 crippled the Russian computer industry, as Russian computer engineers were forced by the KGB to implement the stolen IBM system instead of developing indigenous Russian computers to their own designs. The decision effectively subordinated the Soviet computer industry to the KGB and destroyed the morale of computer engineers.
They were manufactured in Minsk, at Minsk Production Group for Computing Machinery (Минское производственное объединение вычислительной техники (МПО ВТ)).
The ES EVM computers have also been produced in other countries of the Eastern bloc: Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and the GDR.
The ES EVM hardware was generally less advanced than that of IBM.
The last ES EVM computers were produced in 1995.
The total number of ES EVM computers produced was in excess of 15,000.
Today some of the Russian institutes that have worked on ES EVM are cooperating with IBM to continue legacy support for both genuine IBM mainfraimes and ES EVM systems.