Jacek Karpińśki, the computer genius the communists couldn't stand (2017)

Post by tgv » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 6:07 AM UTC

jojobas wrote: post #78

garaetjjte wrote: post #66

Officials weren't keen on these bespoke machines because there was a Comecon push to standardize on unified system based on IBM 360, with compatible peripherals manufactured in many Eastern bloc countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ES_EVM K-202 was later developed into MERA 400, which was somewhat more successful. https://mera400-pl.translate.goog/Strona_g%C5%82%C3%B3wna?_x... One of interesting things from moder…

It was incredibly expensive to have dozens of research institutes work on esoteric architectures at their pleasure. The majority of the population worked their asses of in poverty to make thousands of tanks and dozens of submarines, not entertain some computer scientists.

Post by yetihehe » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 6:31 AM UTC

tgv wrote: post #101

jojobas wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was incredibly expensive to have dozens of research institutes work on esoteric architectures at their pleasure. The majority of the population worked their asses of in poverty to make thousands of tanks and dozens of submarines, not entertain some computer scientists.

I don't get it. Are you arguing that the majority of Poles enjoyed being forced to pay (indirectly) for military equipment, and that that particular pleasure or pride and its consequences hence can be used to browbeat everything and everyone else? "Comrade, stop whistling? Don't you know you cannot be happier than us, who have to work for planes and guns?"

Post by throwuxiytayq » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 6:45 AM UTC

jojobas wrote: post #95

drekipus wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the problems of acrappy economic theory

The theory might or might not have worked if the leadership wasn't hell-bent on converting the entire world into their ideology by military force. Which it kind of had to do lest their citizens noticed they live in abject poverty compared to other countries.

Post by psalminen » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 7:11 AM UTC

lolinder wrote: post #97

jojobas wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The theory might or might not have worked if the leadership wasn't hell-bent on converting the entire world into their ideology by military force. Which it kind of had to do lest their citizens noticed they live in abject poverty compared to other countries.

So in other words the crappy economic theory drove the militarism, lest the population recognize the fallout of the theory for what it was?

Post by mordae » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 7:34 AM UTC

lo_zamoyski wrote: post #79

karaterobot wrote: post #19

> It’s believed that Karpiński paved the way for today’s common use of paging in computer memory systems. So, I didn't know anything about the K-202, so this is very interesting to me. However, are we sure that it influenced anything , given that only about 230 of them were ever made, and those were destroyed at the factory? How would knowledge of his team's innovations, let alone specific information, have leaked ou…

> Soviet Poland Small correction and historical note: Poland, like the other USSR-aligned countries such as Czechoslovakia and Hungary, while under the oppressive thumb of the Soviet regime and the regimes they installed in those countries, were not part of the Soviet Union. So they weren't Soviet, but they most certainly were communist, or rather, socialist people's republics.