(Archived document, may contain errors)
12 June 8, 1977 5 THE STRATEGIC DDENSION OF THE U. S. COMPUTER
EXPORTS TO THE U.S.S.R L I. Introduction The ongoing controversy,
in the U.S. government and in the media and in dustry, over the
sale of one of the largest and most' advanced computer sys tems in
the world to the Soviet Union focuses upon one of the most sensi
tive aspects of U.S Soviet cmercial relations: the transfer of one
of the most critical technologies and its products, both of which
are of paramount importance in effective military systems and
sophisti cated in telligence operations.
The Cyber 76 is a "super-computer" developed by the Control Data
Corpora tion of Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a scientific marvel,
processing up to 40 million operations per second and estimated to
be at least 40 times fast er than the best Soviet computer and some
12 to 15 years ahead of the best'indigenous computer system in the
U.S.S.R. and its satellite countries The Cyber 76 serves as the
rain center" of the Pentagon, of the U. S Air Force, of the
super-secret National S ecurity Agency, of the ERDA Energy Research
and Development Administration and of the National Aero nautics and
Space Administration (NASA of the State Department and the Commerce
Department port be thinking when granting permission for sale of
Qber 76 to a state openly attempting to achieve military and
technological superiority and eventual control over the U. S What,
then, can those officials who favor the ex Those in favor of the
deal insist that the Cyber 76 will be used by the Soviet communists
only to process weather forecasting data cede, however, that the
computer has a critical strategic capacity as well.
They do con Proponents of the export also argue that there will
be a system of controls designed to make sure that the Soviet Union
does not div ert' Cyber 76 i c y-3 fo military purposes. One such
control would be the on-site monitoring by one or two Control Data
technicians. CDC, however, so far has sold about 50 large' computer
systems to the Soviet bloc, and only in one instance does w e a e e
the system have on-site inspection. expressed skepticism,' however
A typical statement comes from Ray Chapman director of the
International Security Agency, ERDA, who remarked Because of 'the
similarity between the meteorological and weapons modeliizg pro g
rams in calculational 'characteristics, it is not enough to just
monitor the ac tual program while they are going through the
machine. It is necessary to look at the input and output data When
confronted with Mr. Chapman's statement tie"CDC representative s
said that they will try to spot-check the memory'and input and
output data from the machine for possible Soviet violat'ions. They
admit, however, that the t The majority of computer experts inside
and outsidc the government have checks have to be only sp o radic,
because there would be 3 mountain of tapes requiring enormous
storage facilities which were not available at CDC Congressman
Robert Dornan directed a question, to CDC's director .for public
relations as to what the CDC intends to do if the company d
iscovers that the Soviets are cheating whatsoever c for this the QC
representative had no answer A Congressman Sam Stratton made an
inquiry with the Fentagon regarding safe guards or any other
advanced computer system He was informed that there are no ade q
uate safeguards for Cyber 76 The computer experts contend that
Cyber 76 will provide the Soviet military with critical strategic
capabilities which they presently lack. For ex ample, the Soviets,
with application of Cyber 76, stand to improve their sAp.I! s
effectiveness and as a result could neutralize our entire B-52
bomber force nuclear strategic force capabilities as well as to
penetrate our mi1ita.v and intelligence computer networks Also,
Cyber 76.could assist them to vastly improve their Last fall, t
hen, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger intervened in favor of ex
port to the Soviet Union of Control Data?s Cyber 73 computer system
overruled the objections by the Pentagon and ERDA.
Pentagon's and ERDA's objections to sale of two CDC Cyber 172
computer systems to Red China.
The objections by the Pentagon and ERDA were on the ground that
both com puter systems weapons calculations, for anti-submarine
warfare for large phased-array radar to track enemy ICEWs and for
other military applications Today, the Department of Defense
deploys close to6',000 of the so-called general purpose computers.
The same type of computers, however, could be used in a wide
variety of civil applications from sciences to RED in in dustry, to
crime control and physchiatry He He a lso overruled the the Cyber
73 and Cyber 172, were suitable for nuclear B. rrz 2 r z P 3 c i
Obviously, the national security implications of this trade are
enormous.
Concern in the United States had led the Defense Department's
Science nologies in which t he U. S. enjoys a clear lead over the
U. S. S. R Six high-technology trade associations, however,
vehemently disagreed with the position of the Defense task force.
Their spokesman, Peter F. McCluskey president of the Computer and
Business Equipment hlanuf a ctureres Association has demanded that
the U. S. Congress relax export controls for strategic goods and
eliminate the Pentagonls role as one of the participants in the
export control process. Mr. McCluskey argued, in his testimony
before the House Committ ee on International Relations In civilian
government such as ours the control and administration must reside
apart from the military."
Control Data's chairman and chief executive officer William
Norris, puts it 3 more bluntly Board task force under the cha
irmanship of J. Fred Bucy of Texas Instruments to recamend
restrictions on the transfer of strategic tech to the communist
superpowers and their satellites 4 c j Wur biggest problem isn't
the Soviets, it's the damn Defense i. Department The aforementioned
discussion makes it abundantly clear that we have a ser ious issue
facing the executiveand legislative branches of our government.
The issue is dominated by deep disputes among concerned parties,
and at the heart of the problem is the question of how computers
relate to the vital national security interests of the United
States.
The purpose of this discourse is to shed light upon the problem
by providing some grasp of camputer technology, of its role in
technological competition between the United States and the Soviet
Union, and of its impact.on the strategic balance between the two
superpowers 11. Technological Competition With respect to national
defense, the term "technological competition" re fers to the
efforts of competing politico-economic systems to maintain, or to
achieve,superiority in high-technology areas that are important in
ef fective military systems. The history of such a competition
between the United States and the U.S.S.R. dates back to 1943 when
the Soviet Union be gan its effort to d e velop an atomic bomb. The
unexpected orbiting of the Sputnik" earth satellite by the Soviets
in 1957 shocked the United States and for the first time focused a
broad public attention on the Soviet scientific and technological
capabilities and objectives. T his event also resulted in a rapid
development of our own space science I i I I I I I i I The
competition between the United States and Soviet Union continued in
all phases of med and unmanned space programs_and in the
development of strategic weapon syst e ms logical strength is the
key to our long-range survival as a nation In this era of
unprecedented change, our technoI In his statement before the
Committee on Appropriations of the U.S. House of Representatives
Dr. Malcolm R. Currie, then Director of Def e nse Re search and
Engineering, stated American security, like the American, economy,
stands on a fotm defense technology First, because the openness of
our society tells our adversaries what we are planning in military
tedmo logy while their secrecy force s us to provide for many
possibi lities. Second;in military operations we traditionally
depend on superior quality to compensate for inferior nuhers. Third
in order to interpret vital but fragmentary technical intelli gence
information we must have extensi v e prior experience in the area.1
dation of techriological superiority. Ne need superiority in 3 The
United States continues to hold a technological lead over the
Soviet Union in most critical areas vital to our national security
lead has been diminishing t he Soviets are ahead (e But that In
some very important areas, it is gone directed-energy weapons based
on 'laser beams or other charged particle I eams see Heritage
Foundation Backgrounder #13 Moreover, the technology balance is
dynamic technology balanc e and its dynamics, the qualified
analysts agree that the U.S.S.R. has a very large and determined
effort and that the Soviets are inexorably increasing their level
of technology relative to ours and are in fact, seizing the
initiative m important areas (e pressure weapons).
The technological development is molding future Soviet strategy.
From z all indications, the future Soviet strategy will be world
dominance, with technology as one of the key drivers.2 A crucial
element in our strategy of deterrence is the maintenance of a
margin of military advantage through possession of a number of
sophisticated technologies In examining the current i already men
tioned laser beam weapons surface-effect vehicles an anti-personnel
I 1
11. The Revolution in Warfare: The Computer Impact Th ere is
considerable confusion today about the strategic importance of
computers. Many analysts point out that numerous other technologies
are revolutionizing warfare, such as giros lasers avionics
nucleonics 0 lThe 'kpartment of 'befense Program of Resear c h
Development, Test, and Evalu ation, FY 1975, 93rd Congress,. Second
Session; April 29, 1974 (U.S. Govern ment Printing Office 1974 2For
a useful discussion of the subject see Hearings before the
Conanittee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate, 94th Congress, S econd
Session, on S. 2965 Parts 4, 6, and 11, U.S. Government Printing
Office (Washington 1976 5 metallurgy and propulsion. This is true,
yet in one way or another all emerging teclmologies, including
computer technologies themselves, are de pendent on co m puters
systems (e.g IUIAC IVY Qx: STAR-100, Texas Instnpnent's ASC and
Good year's STARAN IV) were built with the help of several large
computer systems. d 7- 5 For example, the world's most advanced
computer L In short, today's emerging technologies are as dependent
on computers as the technologies of the first industrial revolution
were dependent on energy.
Computers multiply man's brainpower with the same force that the
first in dustrial revolution multiplied man's muscle power lasers,
and nucleonics are inter-related.
Furthermore, computers Corquters are as important and intrusive
as the mathenlatics and the data processing systems required to
conceive, build, and operate complex new machines and to create new
materials cording and interpretation of en tire classes of
observations. They make it possible to handle and quickly recall
large nunibers of information bits.
They are part of communications and are needed for opcrations
analysis.
They assume production and distribution jobs and perform a
nearly limit less number of other vital tasks.
Without computersmdernweapons systems could not be built,
integrated tested, deployed, kept combat-ready and operated. In
fact, weapogs such as missiles, aircraft, tanks, high-performance
satellite-based surveil la nce systems, ABM defense systems, and
submarines incorporate computers as part of their armament.
Avionics are intrinsically computer-linked as is missile accuracy.
Helicopters used against tanks are provided with computers and
computer links to obtain th e real time information needed for
effective battlefield interaction They are indispensable for the re
In .brief, there are no modern weapon systems that are not vitally
dependent upon high-speed computers. A number of strategic missions
are centered on hi gh-performance computers; e.g early warning
systems, anti-ballistic missiles defense, command
control-comications (C-3 anti-submarine warfare space operations
and several branches of intelligence.
Corrputers are not just swift calculating machines which in
clude, in addition to the computers themselves, internal and ex
ternal memory stores, testing and correction mechanisms, and
peripheral equTpment such as display units, input-output links
communications, and software i.e the programing language and other
a ids that assist computer users to avail themselves of the machine
structures--for instance, a missile force or the meteorological and
hydro logical services require several large general-purpose
cowuters and special computers feeding the general-purpose - c
hines plus field com puters on board mobile units such as ships
aiqlanes missiles, and space vehicles. the achievement of superior
military capabilities They are entire systems Big operational For
these systems superior computer technology may also permit I I I 6
For example, in the Apollo program a fairly large computer was
carried in the Saturn booster; one computer was housed in the comd
spacecraft and'two computers were attached to the lunar module. The
launch site had large installation. The Earth Res o urces
Technology ERE) program would be useless without computers to
handle and ltenhancell the inputs from the diverse sensors carried
on the satellite C a large computer installation, the vast tracking
system contained many smaller and several large comp uters, and
mission control had still another ld To summarize, computer
teclmology permeates all phases of the development production,
operation, and support of modern nilitary systems mensions can be
nonexhaustively distinguished and illustrated.
Six di y 1 2 3 4 5 6 Research and Development. Computers permit
a major saving in time and resources aircraft, missiles, and new
warheads laboratory study can be partially displaced, with the pre
sumed result that a better device is achieved, although the
temptat' i on to over-engineer is rarely resisted This is evident
iri the design of Prototyping and Production and quality control
improves the product, mininuze waste and lead to systems less apt
to malfunction in an opera tional environment. The effect is to
incre ase effective ness by having more units operational.
Support and Maintenance. Electronic data processing again
enhances ekfectiveness by providing a higher percentage of machines
in an operationally ready state at any time, pre ceding both
commitment to op erations and recomnitment after sortie recovery,
at least for aircraft Computer-aided design and production
processes Onboard Computers. These devices penit one machine to do
each of several missions better than a mix of simpler
mission-specialized machin e s. On board computers may per mit
'targeting not otherwise possible, such as the redirec tion.in
flight of a missile to a target acquired during that flight.
Certainly such computers lead to improvements in CEP (the missile
accuracy Tactical Fragging. Eff ectiveness increases when the time
ok the cycle--target acquisition, designation, force com mitment,
ordnance loading, routing, comnunications, re covery--is decreased
while its precision is increased.
That is, forces not comnitted on a timely basis are in ef fect
tqorarily useless 3. It is evident that if a CS system deploys in
real time can perform damage assessment, determine I sensor systems
which 7 residual enemy force posture, provide empty-hole informa
tion, perform boost-phase and midcourse trackin g to de termine own
forces at risk, evaluate the evolving enemy main battle.plan,
exercise fingertip control over own forces, and reoptimize plans,
then strategic force effec t.iveness increases because of more
effective applica tions and less waste of com b at capital IV.
Comwter Technolow The term "computer technology" is often used to
mean only the hardware aspects of digital computers. In this
reportcomputer technology will be more broadly defined to encompass
analog computers 1 (still widely used in the S oviet Union) and
digital computer software. Including the latter accentuates the
evident fact that any computer, no matter how capable is of little
use without equally capable software. Indeed, it is now recognized
that in most large-scale computer applic a tions, software de sign
and production are far more difficult and expensive than hardware
development and procurement fort in software than the entire
computer industry does on development of hardware For example, IBM
spends more on R 6 D ef In this compa r ative analysis of computer
technology in the United States and in the Soviet Union, reference
will be made to various types of computer systems and
architectures, computer and component generations, and computer
characteristics terms There are several dim e nsions for
classifying computers the environment in which they are designed to
operate, there are This section will define and briefly describe
these it On the basis of Commercial computers--manufactured for use
in benign environ ments which are establish e d to satisfy the
computer's require ments for floor space, temperature, humidity,
floor stability, and the like Military computers--manufactured to
be used in environments that are only partially controllable and
consequently may be adverse to comercia1 c o mputers. These systems
may have to operate under a wide range of climatic conditions, in
moving vehicles, unattended, and may be e'jcposed to damaging
nuclear radiation 1An analog computer is a computer that operates
with numbers represented by directly m easurable qumtities (as
voltage, resistance, or rotations).
ZKosy, D. W., Air Force Command and Control .Information
Processing in the 1980's: June 1974 Trends in Software Technology,
The Rand Corporation, R-1012-PR,b Both commercial and military
computers may be further categorized as general-purpose computers,
which are designed to handle a wide variety of computational tasks
reasonably efficiently, and s ecial- u ose computers tasks.
computers which are designed to optimize the computation o a spec1
ic class of Many militarized computers are special-purpose digital
or analog 7 The performance of a computer system, especiallyits
processing speed, is a function of the architecture of the computer
system and its hardware.
One criterion for architectural cla ssification of computers is
the degree of parallelism in computation, expressed in terms of the
number of concur rent instruction streams and data streams that the
system can handle. N though there is a continuous, evolution of
architectural concepts, sev eral architectures are sufficiently
well established and widely used to warrant their description.
Table1 on page22 lists these architectures and repre sentative U.S.
computers.
The ability to design and manufacture mini- and microcomputer
systems re presents an important milestone in the advancement of
computer technology and warrants making a distinction in the
subsequent analyses between "con ventional" computers and mini- and
microcomputers. The mdifier 'konven- tionall e.g conventional
computer, conventional uniprocessor) will be used whenever the
intention to exclude mini- and microcomputers is not clear from the
context of the discussion.
Computer hardware and computer syst ems are often discussed in
terms of I components generations and computer generations. The
former refers to the hardware used (components and their packaging
qd the latter de notes both the architectural and software aspects
of computer systems.
On page 29 Table 2 illustrates one set of definitions of
component and computer generations. As in any classification
system, there are ex ceptions generation software technology to
implement third-generation architectures and software
capabilities.
Finally, while the above classification dimensions set a
framework for comparisons of computer technology in the United
States and the Soviet Union, it is also useful to indicate more
specific quantifiable computer system characteristics. ter hardware
characteristics T h us, the well-known CDC 6600 and Cyber 76
computers use second The following are important descriptors of
compu Processing speed. The raw maximum possible) computing speed
in terms of instructions processed per second for a particular
mixture of short and long instructions. Processing speed is a
function of component speeds the algorithms or instructions used in
the mix, and the processor and memory architectures. Usually
expressed in terms of MIPS (millions of instructions per
second).
Data processing rate . The product of the processor word length
in bits and the processor cycle time (usually the time for short
instructions 9 Expressed in bits per second, this measure removes
the variations due to different word lengths, but hides the
.precision of the res u lts Random-access (and mass) memoxysize in
terms of bits, bytes, or words, the maxinnm data transfer rate of
the memorv device. and the access time of a request to the memory
device to obtain These characteristics depend on the type of memory
device and i ts architectural features.
Viabilit Aspects of viability are: reliability (in probabilistic
terms dime between failures, MI'BF availabilit when needed;
mafntain ability when applicable; and rn edness d en subjected to
substantial en vironmental variations or hazar s word 0; a block of
words.
Physical attributes requirements of the computer system.
The size, weight, power consumption, and cooling For the
input-output peripherals, the principal descriptor is the maximum
data rate terms of bits per second, that they can produce or
accept.
Software characteristics are more difficult to quantify. They
depend on the system's architecture (available instructions and
other capabilities that are implemented in hardware or firmware,
e.g using microprogramma ble con .tro1 units users' capabilities
that sharing, interactive terminals, security and be supported (e.g
real time input from other systems or data collection devices It is
also important to note that'.it is the software efficiency that
determines what frattio n of the potential hardware speed of a pro
cessor will actually be achieved, and that the lack of software
reliabi lity is a major reason why systems seldom meet their
plmerational capability dates .l One very crude but comn descriptor
which reflects the e n eral level of operational computers .2
computer applications in a country is the total number o Installed
and V American Computer Technolow-Computer technology in the United
States made substantial advances into the fourth generation--nearly
all new U.S. a nd Soviet Camp uter Technologies i A kyber 76 and
its software are a very good example of a computer with ware the
processing speed can reach 40 MIPS 2 Such possesses only if one
takes into account the difference in performance characteristics or
the effi c iency of their use I given capacity to process 10 to 12
MIPS, and in fact with special soft I f totals are useful for
assessing the computing cxGability a countryc 10 conventional, mi-
and'multiprocessors can support resource sharing by multiple users
fro m remote terminals, provide hardware features fqr im plementing
virtual memory and virtual processor operating systems 1, use
microprogramming techniques and use advanced semiconductor
integrated circuits and memory units The minicomputers of the late
1960 ' s have become minicomputer systems with complete sets of
terminals, auxiliary storage in the form of magnetic tape cassettes
and rtfloppy" disks (inexpensive, phonograph-record-like storage
units and software that includes cortpilers and operating system T
he cost has decreased steadily while performance has improved. For
ex ample, minicomputer kits may be bought for $300 and hand-held
scientific slide-rule" calculators for 90 a llicro2rocessor. chips
are being manufactured in vast quantities for in clusion into other
types of systems; stand-alone microcoquters are also emerging I The
very large capacity computers whose design was begun in the late
1960's e.g& ILLIAC IVY CEC STAR-100) are now in operation and
have been joined by o ers that are commercially m arketed (e.g
Texas Instruments' ASC and Goodyear's STAIiAN IV include over 40
disparate computer systems (includSng the ILLIAC IV) that are
connected by landline, radio, and satellite comnunications
links.
Several other computer networks have been established and are
being expanded.
By 1976 the United States already operated about 150,OO
general-purpose computers 80% of which are third- and
fourth-generation systems The DARPAZ computer network ?xis expanded
to I Soviet Computer Technology By contrast, the U.S.S.R. is
believed to have had by 1976 about 16,000 computers (80% of which
are first- and second generation machines virtually all of which
were allocated to the mili- tary and am industry, and to some
extent to scientific institutions Of course, witho u t a
substantial cagability 'Soviet equipment could not have reached the
moon, Venus, and Mars; and the Soviets could not have developed a
MIRV capability large number of Soviet computers are obsolete and
obsolescent; Soviet com puter memory devices are in f erior;
peripheral equipment is poor; software is inadequate; time-sharing
is poorly organized; and parallelism and multi processors are in
developing stages But there are strong indications that a Computer
technology in the Soviet Union is virtually entir e ly imported
from the West. In the early 1930's, the U.S.S.R. was importing unit
re cord equipment manufactured by Powers ahd Hollerith. The
business machine plant was established in hbscow in 1932 with
Western assistance, c Virtual memory is a particular h
ardware-implemented memory addressing system; a virtual processor
is a software capability in which each user may be served by a
separate operating system. the .Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency.r f e 1 11 and it began to produce copies of Western
machines. This practice of copying earlier models of Western
machines continues to the present time although Soviet
modifications of the Western models are now more fre quent, so that
the copies are not as faithfil as they once were The list of
computer t e chnological advances pioneered in the West that made
their appearance in the Soviet Union after a lag of from three to
twelve years is rather lengthy all significant technological
innovations in computer technology have occurred in the West.
Advances in S oviet computer technology have been without
significant exceptions, direct transplantations this may not always
be the case.
If computer technology in the U.S.S.R receives the required
technological input from the West, and if the Soviet authorities
decide to elevate it high on the scale of priorities and that
appears to be the case--it is reasonable to expect that there will
be independent Soviet contributions to this technology There are
several significant features of Western computer technology that th
e Soviets have failed, thus far, to acquire is the technique of
large-scale mass production of high quality computer components,
subsystems, and systems better quality Soviet computer is a
custom-made item. A second element that the Soviets have yet to mas
t er is reliability engineering and quality control into their
computer industry the kind of creative dynamism so characteris tic
of the Western computer scene c The point to be made is that
literally I I I Obviously The first of these For all practical pur
p oses, each Third, but certainly not least, the Soviets have yet
to inject In computers the Soviet Union is 10 to 12 years behind
the U.S. in de veloping its own hardware techndlogy, and 10 to 15
years in software This is a narrower gap than in the past, b u t
they remain particularly weak in the technologies of mass storage,
microelectronics, and in systems design and software are only 6 to
8 years behind the U.S. due to the confusion in our export control
legislation which has permitted the Soviets to legal ly obtain U.S
software exports also due to the fact that they were able to obtain
the necessary techno logy and know-how from the West, but they are
still about 8 to 10 years behind the leading edge of U.S.
technology.
However: interesting Soviet work on t he theory of automatic
programing may be, it has not contributed' to software that would
economize program ming time and make computers more accessible to
more users Almost precisely 'thirteen years ago, one of the highest
officials in the USSR Academy of Sciences in ?Oscow leaked to a
Western scientist the Soviet decision to proceed with development
of a family of third-genera tion computers closely patterned after
the'Iw360 The working name for the project was RYAD which is the
Russian word for series. I t should be noted that KGB agents, in
the middle 19601s, succeed- covert means in procuring several
IBhV360. series computers, their manuals, blueprints In certain
areas of software, however, they Soviet integrated circuits appear
to be improving 12 and sp ecifications from IBM facilities in West
Germany served as the models for production of RXO series.
The Soviets and their COMECON partners decided that the RYAD
hardware and software should be compatible with IBI and most other
Wesm co nputers This provided them with the benefit of
IBM-compatible hardware and soft ware around the world to aid their
own computer effort.
Several years went by before any mentions of the ambitious
undertaking were seen in the Soviet technical literature the
Unified System US) development history places the date of decision
to proceed in December 1969 the fact The 1969 reference point
actually refers to the signing of a multilateral agreement between
the U.S.S.R, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany GDR Poland, a n d
Czechoslovakia to cooperate on the ES (RYAD project. lbre recently
Cuba has been included, but it is believed-t Cuba's role is highly
limited. hbst probably, Cubawill be accorded "most favored nation"
status in purchasing ES equipment These systems The ' qofficial"
version of Clearly, this is at least five years after During the
first two years of the 1971-75 five-year plan (1971-1972 there were
many indications that announcement of the ES computers was
imminent. At the same time, there were persistent re 2 orts of
problems and delays; at least one firm deadline had to be pushed
back. By the end of 1972, considerable dissension had cropped up
among the East Euro pean participants, and it. is possible that
some members were on the verge of bolting, preferring to turn to
Western imports in order to satisfy critical needs for modern
computers.
By this time, the ES-1010 and Es-1020 computers had al-ready
been announced.
However, they were back door" announcements, brief statements of
fact rather than a' formal u nveiling of a complete family of
machines. These two machines reportedly went into production in
1972 Also in 1972, the Czechs successfully tested a prototype of
the 1021 machine (referred to at that time as the ES-1020A), and
the Soviet ver sion of the 1 030 was approved for production. The
Polish ES-1030 may not even yet be in production.
There were reports several years ago that the formal
announcement of the series would be made with considerable fanfare.
A massive display of the entire range of units i n operation would
be accompanied.by lavish, fully descriptive color brochures, and
computer experts from all over the world would be invited i. r The
actual event took place in May 1973 with little advance publicity,
no special fanfare, no color brochures , and very little of the
displayed equipment in operation,(A notable exception was the East
German display which dazzled visitors with wilirling tapes,
blinking lights, and on-the spot horoscopes the ES-1050 and the
ES-1060, were missing. The Soviets openl y admitted that they were
(and still are bbst significantly, the top machines in the series
far from completion. Computer and Year BESM-6 (1967 300,000 MIPS
Years Since Appearance of American Computer at Least as Powerful
Number of Times the Most Powerful A merican Contem orary Computer
is %re owerful f 2 (IBN 360/75) 1.5 MIPS 16 (IBM 360/90 1967 3 (a
6600) 3 MIPS 40 (cIx= Cyber 76 1968 13 According to the
intelligence sources, the Soviet nuclear weapon design and
development facilities are still waiting for arrival of their first
ES-1050 and ES-1060 computer systems. All the evidence at this
point sug gests that the Soviets have failed in their effort to
develop and mass produce reliable high-speed third-generation
computer systems.
The best Soviet computer produced in series so far is BE%-6,
which was introduced in 19
67. The BESM-6 boasts 32K (50 bits) of 0.8 sec core storage and
has 16 registers operating at 300 nano-seconds. It uses two
instructions per word and reportedly has five levels of instruction
"look ahead It is capable of simultaneously processing several
programs and makes extensive use of overlapping various operations,
such as storage accessing, arithmetic, and 1/0 (input/outprt)
control. These features give the BESM-6 a capacity of 300,000 t o
500,000 operations per second Some of these machines have been.sold
to India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Eastern European countries,
which lack hard currency to buy more ad vanced equipment from the
West or Japan. One must stress, however, that the Sovie t capacity
to produce BESM-6 is limited to about 35 machines per year, that
demand for them within the U.S.S.R. and its bloc considerably
exceeds swly, and that at least 14 different machines in the United
States,, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and9 Japan in 1967
were vastly superior.
Table 3 A COMPARISON OF THE ARITHMETIC CAPABILITY OF SOVIET
BESM-6 aOI*PUER WI'ZH "AT OF EMLIER AND MIRE POVERFUL AfilERICAI4
COMWTERS The Soviet Union has only a few domestic minicomputer
models in production a situatio n similar to that in the Wited
States in 1965-1966 No capa bility to produce microcomputers
outside the laboratories is evident from the open Soviet computer
literature The officially rated capacity for BES4-6 is 1 kllion
MIPS; however, be cause of its re l atively small and not
expandable 32K word storage the BESM-6 is able to achieve only
about 300,000 to 500,000 MIPS. I L 14 BESM-6 computers (introduced
in 1967) will continue to be the highest speed Soviet computers
until the WAD ES-1060 model becomes ava ilable possibly in 1978) or
the more~l-8 (or BESM-X) is produced. Al though the establishment
of statewide ne&orks of computers is a major Soviet objective,
none is known to exist computer systems have been made, and some
are in use.
To summarize, the Sovi et Union's new general-purpose computing
systems WAD) lag by at least a generation behind the new systems in
the United States, but they nevertheless provide a step-function
improvement of Soviet computer capabilities. In microcomputers and
very high-spee d computers, the Soviets have nothing that can be
compared with U.S. capa bilities Experiments with local multi See
Figure 1, page 15).
The testing and deployment of Soviet MIRVs suggests an
improvement of the U.S.S.R's computer capability boosters carried
on-board computers for the first time, but what general-purpose
computers were used to back up the MIRV program is not hOWIl
starting with 1973 tests, Soviet The important point is that, so
far as we know, all presently deployed Soviet ICBYs were built o n
a computer technology corresponding to the U.S. technology of the
early 1960s. They are tied to ground-controlled guidance systems
based on relatively low capacity computers will certainly be
upgraded, but there are limits to such improvements especially if
the new computers still are not up.to date and may not be available
in sufficient numbers The system VI. Technology Transfer Mechanisms
In view of the fact that it is unable--by relying on its own
resources to bridge the computer gap between itself and the West,
the Soviet Union is intensifying its efforts to obtain large
computer systems, miniaturized computers and computer manufacturing
technology from the West. The KYAD system itself is, of course, an
example of adopting a Western computer design. At present, Western
manufacturers are more than willing to sell their wares in the
Soviet Union and other Soviet bloc countries, make licensing
agreements, install complete manufacturing plas, and launch
development efforts jointly with tlese governments. Th e only real
ob stacles to these efforts, no matter how many loo?holes were in
the system were the export controls (under the old Trading with the
Enemy Act and Export Control Act) placed on computer systems of'
certain size and' associ ated equipment by Co Com (Coordinating
Committee, composed of the United States, NATO nations, and Japan)
and the U.S. Export Administration Of fice at the Department of
Commerce with its interdepartmental comittees.
As might be expected, the current export control policies ar e
considered too restrictive by the U.S. computer and electronic
industry; on the other hand, the export control procedures were
brought into jeopardy'under I i- f 1000 100 10 n m 2 c w al a a W
I-I a U 7 a 6 0 U W 1 0.1 0.01 1 15 f IBM 360/195 Cyber 76 I IBM
360/85 f CDC 6600 x Ryad 3 0 r XRyad UNIVAC LARC M-MOO *Ryad Y
Minsk-32 Ryad ES-106 ES-105 ES-103L ES-102 0 1 d Ural-1 I I ,Ryad
ES-1010 9 hg Year i Figure 1 Comparison of U.S. and Soviet computer
speeds L 16 Kissinger's policy of transferring sophist icated
te&nology and its pro ducts to the COMECON nations.
Three'aspects of technology transfer are involved in the export
control question 1) transfer of products 2) transfer of
manufacturing capa bility (e.g manufacturing and testing equipment
or entire factories The third forms a base on which the receiving
country.can build its own research, development, and manufacturing
capabilities are involved in exporting computer technology to the'
Soviet Union and other connnunist-dominated countries IO and (3) t
ransfer of design and manufacturing. technology and know-how. i All
three aspects In the first type of technology transfer--exporting
complete products such as computers, peripherals, and
components--the CoCom export restrictions and the relevant U.S. leg
i slation (Export Administration Act) resulting in the export
control procedures until a year ago applied to computers above a
particular processing capability, semiconductors and computer
testing and producing equipment. Officially, no computers. in the
IB M 360/50 class and larger could be exported to the
communist-dominated countries. However exceptions were made as a
part of Henry Kissingei's detente policy. For example, about 50 CDC
scientific computers have been exported to the Soviet Union and
other aB E CON countries. Among them were CDC 6200 and Qx: 6400
computer systems, CDC Cyber 73, CDC Cyber 172 and other computer
systems. From IBM, systems 360/50 and 360/65 have been exported, as
well as the fourth-.generation machines such as IBM 370/145,
370/155, and 370/158 computer sys tems The export of large computer
systems will not only provide the Soviet Union with additiunal
computing capacity in the military and nonmilitary spheres but also
will enhance Soviet strategic capabilities across the board.
Wher e they will serve the. civilian sector, they will free
domestic computers for the military sector. The more serious
computer technology transfer starts with licensing the Soviets to
manufacture components, peripherals memories, and computers, since
this i n volves all the infomation for .the manufacture of these
devices (such as drawings, manufacturing techniques tooling
specifications as well as assistance in setting up production lines
production machinery as well. In other cases, a great deal of
technical information is provided to the Soviet ministries by the
Western fimq in bidding for a contract and negotiating trade
avangements ment has little information about what goes on under
such agreements In some cases, such a licensing agreement involves
the sa l e of The U.S. govern Another mechanism for transfer of
technology is the technical exchange agree ment, involving both the
government and private sectors in the West with appropriate
ministries in the U.S.S.R. For example, the Soviet Ministry of
Science a nd Technology concluded a ten-year agreement with Control
Data Corporation of Minneapolis, Minnesota, in October 19
73. The agreement covered cooperation in a wide range of
projects, including joint development of a new super comp uter, a
joint peripheral manufacturing venture, and a nationwide
time-sharing service and software development in the U.S.S.R.c r 17
i Examples of the current rush to make arrangements with the Soviet
Union and other COEECON governments include the follow i ng
Competition by several sets of U.S. and Western European companies
for the contract to install computerized air traffic control
systems in the Soviet Union are Sperry-Rand Univac and Raytheon,
IBM and Thomson CSF of France, Lockheed Electronics and I'I T, and
Selenia of Italy and Saab of Sweden. Univac has been reported to be
one of the finalists, with a proposal to install Arts-3 automated
radar terminal systems now used in the United States. The other
finalist is the Selenia and Saab team.
IBM proposed to use triplex 360/65 computers as a part of its
system Competition to install electronic telephone exchange system
in the Soviet Union by IT CIT of France, Ericson of Sweden, Siemans
of West Gemany, and the Nippon Electric and Hitachi team of Japan.
The ITT pro2osal would first sell the ITI' 3200 processor, then
license the Soviets for eventual production ITT has also signed a
contract to install an electronic telephone exchange in bbscow; the
ex port license is still pending Broadlyworded agreements on s
cientific and technical co operation with the Soviet State
Committee for Science and Technology have been signed with some 30
to 40 U.S. firms Among these are Lockheed Corporation (navigation
systems, oceano Participants graphic apparatus, air traffic con t
rol systems In (teleconummications systems, electronic and
electro-mechanical components General Dynamics (telecommunications,
computer operated microfilm equipment CDC (a possible joint venture
for the development of an advanced computer and operation of a com
puter communications network. The computer would be based on
advanced Soviet design and the pro totype would be built in the
Soviet Union with CDC assistance Singer Business Machines (exchange
of information and joint development in computers and el e ctronic
instruments Sperry-Rand (to market Univac products in the Soviet
Union e..i 1s Joint development agreements can be signed by a U.S.
fimi without approval but the actual exports must be approved A
number of U.S. firms have made arrangements to prov i de the Soviet
Union with licenses to manufacture Western equipment or with actual
turn-key manufacturing plants or are waiting for export licenses
CDC has signed an agreement with Romania to produce 1200-card min
readers ZSO-card/min punches, and ZOO-line / min line printers and
production equipment, and CIX will provide expertise and technical
assistance Romania will provide .the capital, plant facilities CDC
has an agreement pending to manufacture.100-megabit disk memory
units in the Soviet Union Fairchild Camera and Instrument
Corporation's agreement to set up a MX, p- type semiconductor
micrb-circuit &ufacturing plant in Poland is waiting for an
export license. These circuits are regarded as inadequate for
high-speed computers, but the con tract also woul d include
transfer of any new technology developed in the next five years
Westinghouse Electric is constructing a factory in Poland for the
production of semiconductor rectifiers Dataproducts, Inc has made
an arrangement with Videotron of Hungary to supply line printers;
parts of printers would be assembled in Hungary, and Videotron
would later be licensed to mimufacture some of the parts.
The adoption by the Soviets of the IBM System 360 design for
their Ryad family of computers represents another form of design
information trans United States of expertise in transferring
Western designs into their own systems--it is rumored that IBM
System 370 designs will be implemented in the Soviet wad-2
computers that are now being planned. fer. Such information is re a
dily available from manufacturers in the Indeed, the Soviets may be
developing a considerable level The United States component and
computer industry is very interested in the Soviet and Eastern
European iwket, which generates pressure on the U.S. Office of
Export Administration to relax restrictions or make ex ceptions. At
the same time, there is concern over transfer of technolog cal
Soviet military capabilities. That this concern was shared by the
U.S.
Congress was evident in the 1974 extension of the E xport
Administration Act and in the Defense Authorization Act for FYJ975,
both of which con tain provisions authorizing the Secretary of
Defense to recomend against progosed exports to a carnrmnist nation
if it would increase that nation's military capabi l ities, If the
President failed to follow the Secretary's expertise and know-how
that, in the long run, may contribute to I recomnendation,
Congress, by majority vote within 30 days, could overrule the
President tension further strengthened the export cont r ol role of
the Defense Department However, the 1976 extension of the Export
Administration Act, which was vetoed by former President Ford in
September of 1976, already demonstrated a change in the mood of
Congress regarding the eqorts to the cornnunist do m inated
countries Thus, at the time, the Export Administration Act ex VII.
Ineffectiveness of U.S. Controls The U.S. control system is also
ineffective because it lacks overall policy guidance. The current
U.S. laws and regulations covering technology tran s fer to comist
nations amplify the conflict between the need for control and the
traditional American free trade posture trolling our exports is the
Export Administration Act of 1969 as amended by the Equal Export
Opportunity Act of 1972 partment of Comme r ce to control
commercial exports to any nation -for reasons of short supply,
foreign policy, or national security. The man date affecting
exports to comist nations calls for promotion of trade and
technology transfer to the maximum degree consistent with n ational
security considerations The basic U.S. law con This law authorizes
the De U.S. trade policy is generally oriented to trade promtion
and minimum replatian, as evidenced by the Trade.Zkpansion Act of
1969 and, prior to that, the so-called Kennedy bu n d negotiations.
The United States Senate seems to be encouraging this trend with
respect to comist nations recently passed Senate version of the
Expoxt Administration Act, S. 69 would eliminate the distinction
between comunist countries and non-com munist countries in our
export control policy, seeking instead to focus on the national
security implications of exports regardless of the country to which
they are exported This conflict between ow traditional free trade
approach and our need for controls for n a tional security purposes
is resolved by the Office of Ex port Administration, Commerce
Department, on a case-by-case basis in today's environment. The
decision as to whether to grant a license for export of an item on
the Comdity Control List is generally subject to interagency
deliberations.
The negative impact of today's export controls on commercial
trade is not so much due to overly restrictive controls on the
transfer of technology and critical products. Instead it is caused
by lack of clearly defined objectives and by a control list
administration that is excessively concerned with sglitting hairs
over prdduct performance specifications and end-use statements
overloading the administrative staff, excessive delays in
processing The This current practi ce results inlicenses,
ambiguities between the U.S. and its CoCom allies, and an almost
inpossible burden on enforcement agencies.
Over the past five years, the Department of Defense has not
assimed ade demands a cmbersome assessment by selected individual s
on an ad hoc basis from Defense Research and Engineering, the
service comands, and the intelligence community tirely historical
in its perspective, with little definitive policy and few
guidelines. As a consequence, there is no coherent policy for contr
o l ling current technology. su*resources to define U.S. control
objectives. Instead, each review The experience base developed is
almost en Clearly, a well-understood national technology transfer
policy is necessary to prevent tliese decisions from being m ade on
an ad hoc basis without re gard for the overall: impact on the U.S.
Such a policy must clarify the primary inportance of technology
transfer rather than product transfers.
This change in focus from the present approach would do much to
resolve the i nherent conflict between the desire for trade and the
need or con trol in a manner consistent with both objectives VIII.
Conclusion The Cyber 76 affairs raises the question: are the
present administration and the National Security Council comnitted
to cur b ing the growing Soviet strategic advancement place a cap
on further Soviet strategic expansion, it becomes obviously
counterproductive to provide them with a strategic item which will
help the Soviet Union to bridge the qualitative gap which exists
betwee n them and the United States If the present administration
is determined to In 1921, Lenin made the statement, The capitalist
countries...will supply us with the materials and technology we
lack and will restore our military industry, which we need for our
future victorious attacks upon our suppliers.
In other words, they will work hard in order to prepare their
suicide."
In 1973, Soviet Consnunist Party boss Leonid Brezhnev defined
detente in the following statement made to the members of his
Politburo an d commu nist leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries We
comrmnists have got to string along with the capitalists for a
while. We need their credits, their technology, and their
agriculture. But we are going to continue a massive military
buildup, and by the m iddle 1980s we will be in a position to
return to a much more aggressive foreign policy designed to gain
the upper hand in our relationship with the West L.0- r 3 In its
study Detente in Soviet Strategy, The United States Defense Intel
ligence Agency info rmed the American President in one of the
paragraphs 21 Y
1. The Soviets needed Western trade, capital and technology
notably advanced US technology not only for economic reasons.
They value economic strength largely for its contribution to
Soviet politic al and military power. Thus, the detente policy
seeks to facilitate building a powerful operating base from which
Soviet foreign policy goals can be pursued The proclaimed objective
of eventual victory for "socialism" on a world scale makes it clear
that a ny accomodation with the Western powers is a purely
temporary ?base while the Soviet Union and its satellites around
the world build up their..strength in the advancement of that
standing ob jective. It is paradoxical for the West to assist the
military m ight of a regime dedicated to the destruction of its
creditors.
By Miles M. Costick Consultant r Ii 22 Architecture Cniprocassor
l4in iconpu ter ic roconpu tr r Pipeline Processor Array Processor
Associative Array I'rocessor z Eiiiltiproccssor Fr J i. r a L L. d
Cum pu t e r tiys tclns CoeipuCcr Networks r Table 1 COI4FU'TER ARC
t I ITECTLrRES Number of Concurrent Instruction Streams Single
Single Single Single Single Single Several Seve ra 1 Several Data S
t reams Single Single Single Several Many p Elany Several Sevc r a1
Several 3 Characterfstics The conventional computer organization:
iastructiun and data look-ahead features; multiple spscializcd
cxocu tion units. Examples: CDC 7600, IKI Hodels 360 and 370 A
subclass of uniprocessors characterized by lo u cost small size,
simple instruction set. short word lengcli. and small random-access
memory. Recently minicomputers have becorrie more sophisticated and
ttie distinction between a small "conventional" uniprocessor and a
minicomputer I ies more in price t han in perforniance. Example:
Dixital Equipment Corporation's PI)I' 11 A "bare-burlt!s"
Iirocessor on il single circuiL card or even on o single chip.
Sinplc iiistructinn set, shorr -Lord length, very low price. r\\
yplisations In tiniid-lielcl calcu lators. Elfcroconputer capah11 i
ty is also inprovfng riid npproaches rliat of early minicomputers.
Example: Intel aoao A subclass of uniprocessors fu which
specialized execution units can he arranged in taiidrm (pipeline)
for the appli cation of a sequence of o: \\
ralions to a data streirn. T*.o or three pipelines may be in
operation concurrentl Ex amples: CDC STAR,.Tcxas Instrument'' AX A
large array of rehtive1.y ifmple processors exeiuting the same
instruction on many data streams; various data flu patterns bet
ween r.lumeiits Examples: 1I.I.IAC IV (66 ele ments Bell
Laboratorie'' PEFE (16 elencrits A subclass of array''processors in
which ~liu N processors arc simple serial-by-bit wits associated
wltti ttie (super words of an associative memory. Example: ST,\\
Kr\\RI\\:I IV Identical multiple processors operate concurrcntly on
in structions and data from a comrnun main memory. Examylcs
Burroughs B 6700, UNIVAC 11