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PDP-11s
behind the Iron Curtain
The PDP-11, as the PDP-8 before
it, was cloned and copied extensively behind the so-called Iron Curtain.
A number of plants produced PDP-11 compatible systems in the Soviet Union,
including Elektronika-79 (11/70) and several machines without direct DEC
analogues (DWK-4 with proprietary video controller).
Nobody knows how much of these
clones were issued by many of the plants in the countries of the Warsaw
Pact,
but I believe that the total amounts of units should counted by hundreds of
thousands.
AFAIK the following countries issued a DEC clones of computers and peripherals:
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Soviet Union (SM-4,
SM-1420/xxx, SM-1600/xxx, Electronika-xxx, DWK-n, UKNC,...)
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Bulgaria (SM-4, SM-1420/xxx)
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Eastern Germany
"DDR" (SM-1420/xxx)
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Poland (Mera-xxx)
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Hungary (SM-4)
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Note that `SM' appears as
`CM' in Cyrillic (see discussion below regarding Cyrillic letter usage on
this page)
Not all clones had analogues at
DEC product line, but most of them were very close to some model (not in quality
though).
All DEC software and Unixes runs on these computers without problems
(in fact, Soviet users used adopted versions of software because the KGB stole
ALL
source codes for RT11 and RSX11 and made it freely distributed;
after a while it was modified to have support for Russian language and some
nonstandard devices/architectures,
RT11 became RAFOS, FOBOS, and FODOS, and RSX11 became OSRV).
Computers
We can divide the clones into
four categories:
Below is the list of clones we
know of so far:
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MINICOMPUTERS
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* SM-3 UNIBUS. 11/05
clone. There's some argument that better be described as a microcoded
11/20.
Eventually, someone will have to sit down with the English and
Russian
spec sheets and cross-match to determine the best description...
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* SM-4 UNIBUS. Produced
in SU and most other Warsaw Pact countries. Analog of the 11/40. most
had core memory.
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* SM-1420/xxx
(SM-1420/xxx, SM-1600/xxx, Elektronika 100/xx, Mera-xxx) UNIBUS.
Most popular models, analogues of 11/34-/55 depending on the
"xxx" (even 11/74 extensions)
and had lots of options. Based on bit-slice processors.
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* TPA-11/40 UNIBUS. From
Hungary. Direct PDP-11/40 clone.
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* TPA-11/48 UNIBUS. An
enhanced TPA-11/40.
The enhancements included 22 bit maps, split I/D, cache, etc, so that it
looked enough like an 11/70 to fool DEC OSes.
Ran much more slowly than a real 11/70 (actually, the 11/48 was slower
than a TAP-11/40).
No MASSBUS (on any TPA model?).
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* TPA-11/110 aka
TPA-Janus. From Hungary.
A multi-processor machine, with a Russian Elektronika-MC1201.01 CPU
(LSI-11 clone) and a Z80 as secondary processor. There could be 2 or 3
Z80s on the QBUS.
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- MICROCOMPUTERS
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* Electronica-60
QBus/LSI. Very popular microcomputer in the beginning of 80's VERY
similar to the original LSI-11.
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* DWK-n line Single chip
CPU (K1801BMx), QBus. Most popular computer of the 80's ranged from
DWK-1 to 4.
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DWK-1 - PDT 11/130.
-
DWK-2 - PDT 11/150.
-
DWK-3 had an 1801BM2
CPU with the same features as DWK-1/2 (technically, a DWK-2M)
plus a built-in MMU and was equipped with a proprietary
black&white graphical display and two floppies (each 200KB, 40
tracks, single-sided).
No direct DEC analogue.
-
DWK-3M was a DWK-3
with 400KB floppies (80 tracks, 10 sectors, double-sided),
a 10MB CM5508 hard disk (made in Bulgaria). Later models have a
color graphics controller.
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DWK-4 had a EIS/FIS
enhanced CPU (1801BM3), 1MB of memory, a 20MB hard disk
(MC5405/MC5410, made in Rostov-on-Don, Russia) and vt100-compatible
programmable colr display.
Some models were equipped by 5MB RD50-like HDD (sometime these HDDs
worked ;). No direct DEC analogue.
-
DWK-5 is based on the
1801BM4, with the same peripherals as the DWK-4.
No one has yet admitted to having seen one, though.
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* Elektronika-85, models
MC0585 and MC0585.1.
Used the 1811B1 processor, and had 512KB of memory (on the motherboard,
rather than the DEC Pro's CTI-slot memory). There were three hard disk
options: 5MB MC5401 (made in Rostov-on-Don),
10MB MC5402 (Rostov-on-Don) and CM5508 (Bulgaria), and 20MB MC5405 and
MC5410 (Rostov-on-Don).
The system is still in production in Voronezh (where I living), Russia,
not far from Rostov-on-Don.
There's a rumour that some later E-85s were produced with the 1831BM1
processor, but no one admits to having seen them.
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* TPA-11/170. From
Hungary. A J11-based microPDP-clone, designed around 1986-1987.
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* TPA-EMU-11. A
microprogrammable universal processor built on a UBUS board. It could be
reprogrammed,
but the basic microcode made it behave like a -11. I don't know if this
beast was ever used, or if it was only planned.
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* MICRO 11/23 SYSTEM 2500
TEAM COMPUTER. Produced by MIKI, did several (metric) QBUS systems based
on Elektronika's CPU products (the M2 and M6, LSI-11 and KDF-11A clones,
respectively).
The PSU, CPU, and SLUs are Elektronika boards, everything else
(parallel port, disk controllers, floppy controller, enclosure) was made
by MIKI. "Kind of" OEM.
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- HOME/SCHOOL COMPUTERS
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* UKNC - designed to be
basic School computer of Gorbachev's period of '80s. Proprietary design
and peripherals.
The MC0511 has two 1801WM2 CPUs. The "system" CPU has 56KB of
regular memory, 8K I/O page,
and 8K of hidden memory (see WM2 discussion below).
The "peripheral" processor has 32KB RAM and 32KB PROM with
built-in peripheral service routines.
Also, this machine has a 3*32KB graphic video memory.
Originally, it came with two floppies and no hard disk.
Several MFM and IDE controllers have become available since then,
however.
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* BK-001x - first Soviet
home PC, based on 11/2 CPU with proprietary chipset to serve
RAM/Peripherals.
32Kb RAM, no OS - ROM BASIC or FOCAL interpreters.
In the SU this computer had a success similar to TRS-80.
Late models had more memory and CPU from DWK-3.
Many enthusiasts created peripherals to this beast as it has
QBus-compatible socket on the rear side.
Note that it shipped with no operating system because it shipped with no
peripherals.
Hence the provisioning of such by enthusiasts.
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PROPRIETARY BUS
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TPA-11/440. From Hungary.
32-bit internal bus called the X-bus, but since there weren't many
devices
for it (only the ones the KFKI (where the TPA's were built)
produced),
it used the UBUS (KFKI-version of the UNIBUS, electronically the same
with mechanical differences).
Its designers said it had 0.7-0.8 of the performance of the MicroVAX
II
(which was introduced by Digital around the same time), but users say it
was less (around 0.6-0.7).
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TPA-11/420. Based on the
J-11 chip, with the X-bus of the TPA-11/440.
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