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TECH~O10 GY-~-~

A Summary

by Michael E. Marotta

aus: Loomparzics Ca~alog 88

	Yevgeny P. Velikhov is in charge of
trying to make the USSR computer liter-
ate. He knows the score fnll well. Ile
admits that the Soviets are "five to seven
years behind the West."6 In fact, he owns
an IBM-PC.7 Velikhov is a top scientist
with direct access to the highest Soviet
o~icials. If he owns an IBM-PC, you can
bet that there is no equ~valent machine
produced in the USSR.

	Some kinds of personal computing
devices are made in the USSR. Ihey cost
about $500 to $750.e,9 These computers
are about like American varieties from
the early 1980s. They have random
access memories (RAM) of 32 kilobytes.
They plug into a TV set.'0

"Even if Ihe USSR catches
ap instantly to where we
are right now' today, they
will fall behind by suorise
tomorrow. Americans
invent new tools every
day."

	In all, the Soviets have produced per-
haps more than 50,000 personal compu-
ters." In America, there are about 25
million homes with computers.'2 There
are many reasons for this and chief
among them is that America is still prim-
arily a trade oriented nation. Very few
computers are actually made in America.
We import chips, disk drives, monitors,
and so on. But the USSR iealously guards
its hard currency. They are very cautious
about baying 4,000 PC clones from
Yamaha of Japan.' 3 Buying 10,000 IBM
PCs could take ioreverP4

	Even if they avoid buying from the
West, the USSR will continne to import
much from its satellites. Disk drives are
made in East Germany, Hungary and
Bulgaria.'5The [JSSR has an abysmal
record for manufacturing computers.
Consider the story of the Agat computer.

	The USSR spends billions of dollars
importing technology from the West.
According to the CIA they go through
independent agents. They pay with letters
of credit deposited with the agent's
bank.'

"The USSR spends bil
lions of dollare import
ing technology from the
West."

	They want technology that can be app-
lied to military efforts. They also buy
"dual purpose" items. For instance, a
device to test integrated circuits is a tool
that can be used for military projects,
even though it is not inherently a wea-
pons system. In addition to equipment
and materials, they also acquire docu-
ments. Many have come from the US
Department of Commerce which operates
the National Technical Information
Service.2

	The USSR is quite possibly ahead of the
USA in designs and theories: They lag in
applications and engineering.3 This is
because their society is based on stealing
from the able to provide for the needy.
This means that smart people go in for
those things that cannot be expropriated.
Chess masters keep their assets in their
heads.

	It i6 easy for the USSR to Iceep up with
the West by acquiring current technology.
The Reds c~nnot easily "leapfrog,' the
West. They cannot develop NI?W technol-
ogy.4 This is because they lag behind
America in persona] computers.

	The KGB is actively recrniting Ameri-
cans to give (or sell) them information
about computer design. They supposedly
have 300 people in Moscow who evalu-
ate this information.5 What they do with
this information is not easy to figure out.
Obviously/ they do not produce personal
computers.

	Dr. Leo Bores of Scottsdale, Ari?ona, is
a surgeon who specializes in myopia. He
uses methods developed in the lJSSR and
has strong ties with colleagues there. He
evaluated the Soviet "Agat" computer for
By~e magazine.'6

	The Agat was an Apple II clone. Instead
of a single board, it used several chip
modules. The Agat used Cyrillic letters.
However, these characters were created
with the Apple Tool Kit. When Dr. Bores
first "boot strapped" the Agat, it ran with
the Russian alphabet. But when he res-
tarted the machine, it came up with a
garbled American character set.'7

'`The KGB is act~vely re-
crulting Amerinans to
g~ve (or sell) them infor
mation abont computer
design."

	The ROM (read ouly memory) still had
Steve Wozniak's name in memory.'8
(Steve Wozniak, with Steve Jobs, fnunded
the Apple Computer Corporation. Woz-
niak wrote the system software.)

	Eventually, the computer was discon-
tinued. One reason offered was that the
Reds ran out of parts.'9 It is also likely
that the $17,000 price tag helped sink
the marketing effort.20,2~

	This was not the first time the Reds
have copied Western technology. The ES-
105S, made in East Germany, is a cloned
IBM 370. The IBM 370 was introdoced

over 15 years ago.rEhe ES-1055 is the
usnal choice for Soviet factory
managers.2Z

	The Soviets have also built copies of
the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-
11. Like the Agat/Apple, this is a down-
grade of the equipment we know in
America. (The PDP- l I was replaced by
the DEC VAX line 10 years ago.) The PDP-
11 was controlled by the LSI-11 inte-

