This Soviet Microprocessor lab looks like a nuclear briefcase!

Today, we will take a look at this legendary device: an educational microprocessor lab created at the VEF factory in Latvia in 1988. It served as a tool for studying the architecture and operations of the Soviet clone of the Intel 8080 processor, the KR580VM80A. In a certain sense, it shared similarities with the famous MITS Altair computer. When equipped with expansion cards, it has extensive capabilities for building microprocessor-driven devices - somewhat like the modern Arduino.
What you will find in this episode:
00:00 - Introduction
01:20 - An episode about SKALA is coming!
01:44 - KR580VM80A processor
02:11 - Controls, buttons, and LEDs
04:30 - What is inside?
08:36 - Restoration
10:00 - Entering the test program
11:07 - Test run of the Hello World program
12:06 - Outro and future plans
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[@ReverendJasper]

I can imagine that the notes were left inside to assist with the repairs. The repair service was probably shared amongst some of the same workers who did the assembly. The quota for units shipped gets made, and the metrics for repairs looks good as the "damaged in shipping" units get diagnosed incredibly quickly...

[@ChernobylFamily]

Close to truth. And not to disrupt the Good Statistics.

[@MrSzybciutki]

Leaving repair logs in electronics was a standard practice everywhere back in the day, not just in the USSR. I often find them in old equipment. You were supposed to write them all on one piece of paper that you could easily find inside. You had to write the date of repair/maintenance, who did the job, contact info, what was the fault, diagnosis and what repairs you made. Quite often, but not always, you had schematics inside too. Back then a device was supposed to serve you for decades, and it was assumed it would be normal it would go through cyclic repairs, so it made sense. Nowadays most electronics are one time use devices to which you don't even have service access to, which you are supposed to replace in a few years. But it's not like it was limited just to electronics. The practice survived on for instance with cars till this day after all. You surely do keep a log of every repair/maintenance of you car, do you?

[@ChernobylFamily]

There is one difference: it is not a repair log, it is an obscure notice on a glitch. The same we found, e.g. in DVK-3 computer we have a review of here, and by papers that machine was 100% functional, despite it had a dead graphic card.

[@MrSzybciutki]

@@ChernobylFamily I see your point, that definitely makes it more interesting

[@dkraft]

fascinating cultural difference to just shipping a crap broken device, like CCP.. Sort of a true desire to pass on success, or caring for the next guy in the "broken machine" of communism. @@ChernobylFamily

[@KeritechElectronics]

2:30 there it is, the Garden of Eden Creation Kit... LOL Thing of beauty, joy for ever.

[@ChernobylFamily]

...)))

[@yorgle]

I love the look of the older vintage red LEDs... That ruby red color, and the hot spot in the frosting... so nice.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Those LEDs are notably darker, and the color is somehow very vibrant, I love them too.

[@evantaur]

@@ChernobylFamily I wish modern equipment used them too instead of those super-bright blue LEDs that doubles as bat signal

[@emlo40]

Great video. As a Latvian it is my obligation to randomly comment after my nation gets mentioned, VEF was a very prolific electronics and vehicle manufacturer, that was made before the occupation of Latvia they also built the smallest spy camera at the time

[@ChernobylFamily]

Very true. Greetings from Ukraine!

[@emlo40]

@@anatolysherbakov3965 Čali nomierinies, tu takā ka maz bērns, izlasīji vārdu okupanti un sāc raudāt par politiku, ja Tu nebūtu vairāk par botu es te sēdētu un kasītos ar tevi, bet nav jēgas. un klau es ari māku rakstit sveša valoda kuru tu nesaproti

[@CladeNox]

@@anatolysherbakov3965 Pajoliņš tu, pilnīgs zirggalvis, tiešām domā, ka PSRS vispār kaut ko mācēja pati ražot? Viss taču nozagts no patiesībā spējīgajām valstīm. Piemēram, Minox kamerām izlīpējāt mūsu "ražots Latvijā" un aizstājāt ar pretīgo "ražots PSRS". You brainless moron of a chinese bought spam bot, do you really think the soviet union was capable of manufacturing something of their own? All they did was steal ideas from actually capable countries. Like with the Minox cameras, you guys erased the "Made in Latvia" and replaced it with your fugly "Made in USSR".

[@emlo40]

​@@anatolysherbakov3965 The Germans and russians bombed our cities, both forced my people to die for them and plundered them, but unlike the russians, the Germans do not walk around the nations they invaded and destroyed acting like the savior unlike the russians the Germans faced real consequences, and let's be honest here buddy, we still remember 14.june, we still remember how you bombed 90% of Jelgava into ruble

[@ChernobylFamily]

Just to avoid misunderstanding for other commenters, we cleaned this thread from prorussian r*****s.

[@ThomasBurns]

Awesome!

[@ChernobylFamily]

You seriously should consider getting this thing, it is something :)

[@ThomasBurns]

@@ChernobylFamily Would love to play with it, but it seems like it might be as rare as a Stradivarius!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Check the instagram inbox

[@minombredepila1580]

Astounding machine. Thanks for sharing. It reminds me of the hp 5036A Microprocessor Lab, with its differences. Your material deserves a museum. Hope that you could found one at the end 🙂

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you very much! Sure - we have many options for this, but first would be cool to find those cards.

[@youreale]

I love history, software and hardware and your content is just amazing! can't wait for the next episode. Thank you guys and keep going!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you! Check our previous episodes as well for now :)

[@jsmythib]

Arduino from the future. 17 years after this= arduino. Neat machine tho. Seems like pre-microprocessor Advanced SAP design. Very cool :)

[@thiagozanolomainente76]

I love this channel and I love this accent. Keep going! Greetings form Brazil.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Doing my best having my breathing problems)))))))) thank you! Greetings from Ukraine!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you!

[@edgeeffect]

I used to do 8080 assembly language on CP/M... I would have LOVED one of these.

[@ChernobylFamily]

They are rare, but it is still possible to find from a time to time.

[@AppliedCryogenics]

What a beautiful machine. Thanks to you (and your generous viewer!) for showing it to us!

[@ChernobylFamily]

:)

[@retrozmachine1189]

The genuine Intel 8080 needed that 12V. 12V ran the bulk of the processor with IO being supplied with 5V. The chip would run at less than 12V but at the cost of clock speed, ie lower voltage = lower maximum clock speed before the chip became unstable. The voltage on the 12V pin must always be greater than what ever voltage is on the 5V pin on the chip otherwise the chip could well be killed.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for this explanation!

[@disketa25]

That briefcase edition looks like something straight from James Bond. Or, perhaps, his Soviet rival, the never-sober Agent 0,7:)

[@ChernobylFamily]

Or a nuclear launch suitcase...)

[@postoronny]

0.5'3.62

[@douro20]

There were speakers VEF made in the 1980s which reminded of cheap speakers on the outside but were anything but on the inside, actually rivaling the performance of many of the better Western hi-fi speakers.

[@ChernobylFamily]

VEF speakers were a legend :)

[@SomeOne-OneSome]

VEF was a good company. I have still a VEF 206 Radio somewhere at home…

[@schnizzyfizz7832]

All these stories from behind the iron curtain

[@leopiipponen7693]

Wire wrap are one of best reliably connector types and look very nice :)

[@ChernobylFamily]

We just purchased an original electric tool for this. In our lab we are restoring a ES1060 mainframe panel, same as the one at Duga OTH radar (I mentioned it in the previous video), so there we will need to repair around 2000 connections which were originally made like this.

[@leopiipponen7693]

@@ChernobylFamily Very big job repair that amount connectors :)

[@ChernobylFamily]

When you do unique things, be ready for unique challenges:)

[@b43xoit]

Digital Equipment Corp. used wire-wrap, too.

[@pedalcarguy]

My Dad had DXing as a hobby and built most of his equipment himself. He always used soldered wire wrap connections. He was an electrician by trade, working in the Nordic shipbuilding industry. In 1974, at the ripe old age of 35, he died of lung cancer, most likely caused by asbestos and heavy smoking. I was 10 at the time. Thank you for sharing this content and making me reminisce him. Take care, God bless you.

[@henrypile2385]

The wire wrap technology was widely used in the 70‘s up to the 90‘s for computer prototyping, giving you a fast way of connecting pins together w/o the need to etch and manufacture a pcb. Pre-drilled PCBs, IC and other sockets were available with the necessary long pins to wrap the wire around. The wire wrap „pistol“ was driven manually by pressing the handle to rotate the shaft, and some models could even strip and cut the excess wire during the wrapping process, resulting in an enhanced working speed.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Manual...? Interesting, we had electric mostly. We recently got one for our ES1060 restoration project, it is for AC 36V so still i need to get a proper PSU but we gonna use it:)

[@TheRailroad99]

In the measurement & test industry it is still used pretty often to connect test needles / pogo pins to the tester electronics

[@tychosis]

@@TheRailroad99 I work on submarine sonar, and some of the legacy equipment still has the original wire-wrapped backplanes. Thankfully they're pretty rugged and well-shielded, because if any of them were damaged I know that *I* am not qualified to fix it, no way... it would be a nightmare.

[@AttilaSVK]

This reminds me of the Tesla PMI80 and the TEMS 80-03, which also came in a suitcase. Both were built around the MHB8080A CPU, Tesla's clone of the Intel 8080. Engineers liked the CPU (or just had to use it because it was available), so many systems were available based on the 8080: the Tesla PMD85 series (and its clones Didaktik Alfa, Didaktik Beta, and Maťo - the compatibility of the clones wasn't 100% though), SMEP PP01 by ZVT Banska Bystrica, IQ151 by ZPA Novy Bor, etc.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing! Need to check on those :)

[@MrocznyTechnik]

Let's hope there's a LOT such hand-written cards in Russian nuclear warheads :p

[@ChernobylFamily]

I believe, there are a lot ;)

[@user-lp7gp6ze9w]

We used them in the laboratory on the subject "Digital Devices and Microprocessors". College in the early 2000s.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@terrydavis8451]

I would imagine the notes are because they had quotas at the end of the month so all the machines they could get working "enough" would be shipped.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Pretty close to truth. At that epoch there was a problem about a high percentage of faulty products; it was before as well, but before Perestroika it was not possible to talk about that. So this could be an attempt to hide a problem in order not to make the production statistics worse and hence avoid, let's callvit this way, "organizational measures".

[@volodymyrzakolodyazhny7740]

I worked with it (or very similar) at university. We learned how to programm it with Assembler. It was funny and interesting.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@bobwatson957]

Evening Alex. That is quite an attractive unit, pretty decent to learn a bit of assembly. If not far off what one of my mates to learnt on. He was several years older than me and got something simliar to this. I learned on a bbc and later on dec vax. It looks as though its been repaired. Its great its been saved from the shelf.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@wtmayhew]

Very clever post hoc quality control using the little note rolled up paper! Very efficient. When the purchaser sends the broken machine to service shop, the shop saves diagnostic time. Original factory looks good to Polit Bureau because they don’t have to admit to shipping failed products.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Kind of;)

[@HyroDaily]

Man, you guys get some really cool stuff.

[@ChernobylFamily]

More to come ;)

[@elisa_5445]

My take on why they leave these notes explaining what problems the machine have and sold it as having passed all tests is that they had a production goal or received some bonus if there was a low number of faulty units

[@ChernobylFamily]

Very close to truth. There was a massive trouble of a percentage of faulty products, and factories tried to hide that as much as possible by keeping it "in house".

[@serricus]

@@ChernobylFamily follow-up work. soviet workers were smart. don't just look busy, stay busy. report low number of faulty products but leave notes about failures, thus creating a very quick repair time for service and all the tinkerers, who *just gutted devices and then they worked* :D

[@Attic-Toy-Design]

Absolutely gorgeous equipment!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Glad that you liked. Would you like to have a continuation? I am thinking to search for some expansion cards!

[@Attic-Toy-Design]

@@ChernobylFamily carry on my noble!

[@ChernobylFamily]

@@Attic-Toy-Design thank you)))

[@postoronny]

​@@ChernobylFamily, если правильно помню, там были простые макетки, даже без буферов. Я, работая на ВЭФе, пользовался этим комплектом (версией в чемодане)

[@john-doe-r]

There was another version of this kit "УМПК-80" (UMPK-80), which had a beeper and stored program with music from cartoon in ROM.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Yes, heard about it though never had a chance to have in the hands. Thank you for sharing!

[@MrWaalkman]

Very cool! I have a couple Fox MT-80Z trainers, a MicroProfessor MPF-1 Plus, and a Lab-Volt 6502 trainer. As well as some of the modern ones. But yours is one of the coolest ones out there. :)

[@ChernobylFamily]

I heard about MicroProfesosr but never had a chance to see one. Thank you!

[@edgeeffect]

It's funny. I live in "the west" and remember the days when the microprofessor was available... but I never got to see one in real life either.

[@ChernobylFamily]

@@edgeeffect well, we always use "west" with a bit of irony, as we are not super eastern... at least for last years xD

[@srenhaandbk7904]

Amazing video and effort! And such a cool device! Would be really cool to play around with for someone like me, as I am learning assembly code :)

[@ChernobylFamily]

Glad you like it! Check our previous episodes, there is muuuuuch interesting :)

[@srenhaandbk7904]

@@ChernobylFamily I can assure you I have watched all of your videos, some of them many times. I love your channel!! I am so excited for Skalar video!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you!

[@GeorgeTavernKeeper]

We worked these devices in our Microprocessors course ca. 2005 It was fun, except for the times when power was lost and we had to re-enter program again.

[@agranero6]

I bet they did that to reach a quota but at the same time make it faster for the end user to get it repaired.I love those notes...like breadcrumbs for you to find your way.

[@ChernobylFamily]

There is a thing, the device has been sealed, and warranty would be void if removed. But, partly you are surely true

[@andresvosa]

My journey to microprocessors started in early 90's with this kit. In university we had those in automation laboratory. I'll remember we build analog input card for that kit. After that I can say that real programmers write in machine code :)

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thanks for sharing!

[@postoronny]

Working with this machine, I wrote in machine codes :)

[@8BitNaptime]

Interesting note, the pitch of the pins is 2.5mm, not 2.54mm, so they are slightly different from Western DIPs.

[@alexhajnal107]

The Eastern Block did make a very small quantity of 2.54 mm pitch DIP parts for the non-COMECON export market.

[@ChernobylFamily]

We used the metric pitch.

[@randacnam7321]

@@alexhajnal107 And ex Soviet fabs kept doing so after the USSR fell. We had some 100mil/2.54mm pin pitch 74xx TTL chips in the electronics lab when I was in college (late 2000s) that were made in Belarus in 1994.

[@antikarch]

Bggg! I studied at USURT from 2000 to 2006. There i was writing for 3 years lot of course works for students (for money) using exactly this device.

[@TheFanOrTheMask]

I’d like to see modern tech to last as long as this tech, great vid

[@ChernobylFamily]

I still have my first "modern" computer from 2001 with Cel733 up and running, to be honest :)

[@thedungeondelver]

So would this be a...USSRduino? :D

[@ChernobylFamily]

Bhahahhaaaa I spilled my drink because I am laughing. Really.

[@Mr1X]

more like the KIM1

[@postoronny]

I've worked with such a megadevice. Right there - on the VEF :)

[@ChernobylFamily]

Cheers!

[@PCRetroTech]

It's really funny that despite obviously having quite a lot of motivation to report very low failure rates in manufacturing they still did very good quality control, making notes of all the problems found. The easy way to get very low failure rates would be to not bother testing them in the first place. I guess they had to look busy.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Knowing Soviet society, where everyone will receive an equal payment regardless of efforts (due to planned economy) that looks more as attempt to push a headache to other's head and not to disrupt a good production statistics.

[@serricus]

@PCRetroTech they didn't just have to look busy, they had to stay busy and created follow-up work ... ... ...

[@michalp.1484]

There was a similar machine at one of Poland's techinical universities in '90s. Only much bigger, built in rack cabinet, with displays for each register, etc. I learned the 8080 assembler on it and understood the operation of that processor. Thanks to it, I also understood the assembler of the x86 family and the operation of microprocessor hardware in general.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@MartenElectric]

Would that have a full Intel 8080 instruction set? I'm just wondering if you could use assembler and put something together?

[@ChernobylFamily]

The chip inside is a full clone of i8080a, different only in the way how the crystal is wired to pins of the case. There was an enhanced version of 8080 made by Ukrainian engineers based on it, called 580VM1, which is slighly better.

[@zAlaska]

The notes in the device are the historical technical notes to assist technicians in the history of the device when it comes back in for repair. Rather than a card in a drawer, the notes are kept with the device. It makes a follow-up on repairs easier for the next technician, understanding what has happened before.

[@KrotowX]

I remember this. During school practice poked this briefcase a bit :)

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@razpootis5802]

2:30 And now I want one. That's badass.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Our friend has one for sale, if you are interested - contact us.

[@Lichnaya_pravda]

Approximately 6 years ago identical machine linked modern desktop with magnetometer in university`s lab. I helped to replace it with new, PIC-based controller system.

[@Plarndude]

I love blinking lights and drive seek noises. I wish Modern computers at least allowed the Option to see banks of lights and plenty of drive noises. I could easily sleep soundly in a Server room. Mmmmmmmmmm.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Normally things that had blinkenlights had a soldering iron nearby:) I believe it is not a problem to make a custom card for a modern computer with a lot of LEDs that display certain states/operations of the bus (of course, some circuitry will be needed to make it meaningful assuming crazy speed of operation now)

[@ancipital]

Interesting stuff - thank you for posting - looks like it was a lot of work dealing with the technology that was available at the time

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you! Yes, you are right - but it is somewhat exciting to literally see what is going on inside the chips.

[@ancipital]

@@ChernobylFamily it is - it's really interesting - someone built a huge version of a computer where you could actually see everything going on, I think it is in a museum now. One of the early mainframes is in the National Museum of Computing in the UK shows what it is doing as well. Well worth a visit if you're ever in the UK

[@ChernobylFamily]

Will be on the list, absolutely :)

[@ancipital]

@@ChernobylFamily There's also the Bletchley Park code breaking museum where Alan Turing built the code breaking computing that has a lot of interesting stories about the people that worked there during the war breaking enigma. It might take 2 days to do both! I need to go back again as I've already done 2 days there and not seen everything about both!

[@stephanbrenner3317]

Very interesting. I was very suprised that USSR did the same compared to the former GDR. Here were the "Poly-880" and "LC-80" computers which are very comparable. But the russian version are built like a tank, most likely it was not important what production costs were.

[@ChernobylFamily]

There was at least one more lab like this, called Microlab K580IK80 with the same processor (with older name) but it was made in Russia and has way less elegant design.

[@stephanbrenner3317]

@@ChernobylFamily thanks for this information. Personally I started my hobby with a self designed Z80 system. A really huge effort to get something working. But learned a lot from this. I'm looking forward to your "Skala" video announced. It is somehow sad that so little can be found on the internet about Skala, DUGA and so on. Especially for DUGA I'm not sure whether it was capable to do what it was designed for because of the needed compute power which I cannot see being available at this time.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Anout Duga we have nearly full information on its computers. We are planning to make a big documentary, but given we are limited by the current situation in Ukraine, it goes slowly. But this year it will go out.

[@stephanbrenner3317]

@@ChernobylFamily oh this is really great to hear. I feel very sorry for the situation you are in. And suprised that you even are interested in these technical topics. Please stay healthy and all the best to.all of you

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you! Any support means much now. What is so surprising?) I was a programmer for many years, and plus, as both me and my wife work in the Chornobyl Zone, well, it is all about tech in strange circumstances. This very device has nothing to do with the place, but it was way too cool not to talk about it :)

[@karthickjayaraman2090]

Waiting for more interesting videos like this. So subbed. 👍

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thanks for the sub!

[@AjinkyaMahajan]

Wow, it was amazing kit !!! you can make expansion cards using proto PCB and shift registers or perhaps a Peripharial Interface Adapter IC or you can connect UART with actual arduino.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Exactly!

[@UpLateGeek]

What an amazing coincidence, I just bought a clone of this chip's successor, the μPD70108, aka the NEC V20, which is a clone of the Intel 8088. I was looking for a completely different chip on eBay and happened to check what other items they had for sale, and it turned out they had a lot of interesting chips for sale, so I went on a bit of a shopping spree! Anyway, that was a very interesting video on a very interesting computer. In western countries you could definitely buy computer kits that were a lot like this during the mid-late 70s. And it wasn't just for businesses, there were advertisements in magazines and anyone could just mail order them. The very first edition of Byte magazine had an ad for one on basically the second page.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Wow! Thank you for sharing!

[@rjy8960]

Reminds me of when I was in college and was using an 8085 development board with hex input. At the time, working out negative relative jump addresses was a little tricky. Happy days! I hope the engineers that built Soyuz didn't hide those bits of paper between the PCB's... Brilliant video! Thanks :)

[@rjy8960]

Looks like I spoke too soon…Luna25 RIP….

[@ChernobylFamily]

LMAO... welll... gravity, you know... or how do they say now - "negative accent"

[@TheOpticalFreak]

@7:27 you just summed up the whole Soviet union in one sentence: everything is really simple, but pretty effective! 😉 And eventually in the end it was obsolete! 😅👍

[@ChernobylFamily]

Effectiveness is a pretty relative value, you know.

[@TheOpticalFreak]

@@ChernobylFamily yes 😅😬

[@frostwise87]

Greetings from the UK. I’m new to your channel. Such great work your doing! I love it. Thanks so much 🎉

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you! Get ready for more, and don't forget to check other episodes..)

[@derekchristenson5711]

A nice 8080 trainer, with an impressively overbuilt case! It looks like it took design cues from the space program.

[@ChernobylFamily]

You know, that is well-noted!

[@alexandermcalpine]

Neat! Great post.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@5cyndi]

Thorough restoration 😊

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you!

[@extylerm]

Cool machine, worth the restoration effort.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you!

[@Plarndude]

I wonder if Soviet Plarn would be different. :p

[@ChernobylFamily]

;)

[@882952]

This reminds me of a microprocessor trainer I learned on in school. I shouldn't say "learned" on, because I never understood what I was entering or seeing as output. You just typed in everything in hexadecimal, and then saw whatever output on a small little LED display, just like this unit. I hated it. Everyone in my class that used this basically just entered in the programs as presented in the book, verified the output was what the book said it should be, and checked off the lessons until we could move on to the real prize - our Heatkit H8, where we would all learn BASIC and write little games for ourselves. Well, at least in between constant bouts of component-level troubleshooting and desoldering/soldering RAM chips in the thing. Fun times.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

In addition to the other comments around this allowing the factory to meet its defect quota, it also reduces the demand on the factory - some number of customers aren't going to notice the defects (think like dead pixels on LCDs), and with things being so scarce, it would usually be better to ship the slightly broken device than not to ship one at all. The Soviets were, perhaps by necessity or perhaps by conviction, very good about not letting things go to waste. Just don't do this on military-spec units. Also, it would usually be someone else's fault it's broken ("damaged in shipping" but leaders would consider that to be more tolerable than marginal silicon), happily repaired, and everybody looks great on paper.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Yeah, it all was about the fulfilling the plan. The most important, things have to be good on paper.

[@nojbik]

You know Alex, nothing has really changed since then. The production quota has to be fullfiled and when the suppliers , employees and technology is unreliable then the material is shipped out anyway. Nevertheless, nice video again. Keep them running. 👍

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you!

[@0xbenedikt]

Today, especially with thin margins on products and many choices for the same product, you don't want to have to unnecessarily deal with the RMA, scrapping the product (as repair is mostly dead unfortunately), the probable loss of a customer and the tainted company image by shipping non-functional garbage. Not saying that it doesn't still happen, but I think the conditions and economy that caused the behavior in the video have changed.

[@davidsmith9063]

absolutely beautiful machine! 😍 Those little rolled up surprises are incredible also 😅, but it sure is an amazingly low failure rate isnt it?

[@ChernobylFamily]

I'd say I was lucky with this very particlar case, it could go worse.

[@msylvain59]

Cool how it does just look like a freaking nuclear doomsday fire consent control suitcase 💀

[@ChernobylFamily]

Finally someone got what I wanted to say :)))

[@OctavMandru]

Coming form and ex-communist country my guess is as follows: The reason they did it this way was that they would mark the manufacturing quotas, regardless. Repair of a module or a board would cost time, require many skilled technicians (because of the high failure rate) and in many cases they just didn't have a good replacement part in stock. The notes would be the "honest" approach so the technician could troubleshoot faster and hope he could source a good part from somewhere. In this way they would simply outsource the repair work to the service and keep them in business as well

[@ChernobylFamily]

Pretty much bingo.

[@a-z-n-b-a-i]

епічний огляд, дякую за Вашу працю!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Дякуємо...) подивіться нове відео теж:)

[@a-z-n-b-a-i]

скала - взагалі успєх перейшов з того відео на це) @@ChernobylFamily

[@danielschiavo5371]

It would be nice if you write down the program with commentaries on a single screen shot, just to have the hole idea clear. Thanks for sharing! Greetings from Buenos Aires 🙂

[@ChernobylFamily]

Will write here in the (our) evening :)

[@DrSid42]

Oh shit, when you started entering the program I realized I mostly understood it .. :-D

[@ChernobylFamily]

Cheers!

[@si-o1274]

I can pretty gues what was the thing with those paper notes sealed inside: Quality Control partial passes, that is it. Why? Because complex machines have many reasons not to perform in all functions and because not all functions are needed by all customers. So for customer A it will be a perfect machine as long as he is not going to need that particular function. The guys reporting good production results asked QC to plant those disclaimers inside so that service will know exactly what to do, just in case. And so the factory reports good, healthy production.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Imho, for a training set a correct step processing is more than a basic function, otherwise how to study it?

[@si-o1274]

@ChernobylFamily Yea. But, reporting good production it was more important.

[@eugenesorokin6602]

Yea... we have had this and very similar to this but for x86 ::) it's much older than arduino and to be more presice it was for i80xx. You can find freshly manufactured trainig kits of this kind. Yes and we compiled programs manually during labworks

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing..! Well, about Arduino it was an irony ;)

[@zefror_7078]

We got 2 of these in school. We are currently restoring them into working condition.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Good luck with that!

[@AndreiToutoukine]

My teenagerhood. Assembling on a piece of paper, typing then hex codes, debugging by comparing the built on the paper code with the actual state.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@djtomoy]

Those little notes are so funny

[@ChernobylFamily]

Yes :)

[@vadnegru]

We had pretty different device in university, obliviously later model but with half the memory. Named "Микролаб КР580ИК80" that briefcase will teach you how to suffer. Some of them are malfunctioning and you can tell it easily because they fail to execute test program with flashing lights and funky music. Some of them had faulty math so results were incontinent with the rest of the group. One good thing they had are cheat sheet inside the case, easily visible while operating. Its keyboard are also the best one i ever used.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing! "Will teach how to suffer" is a good definition...)

[@5cyndi]

Oh yes, this looks like fun, and I mean it! Having had a much less expensive microcomputer trainer from Tandy Corporation, I can say those are highly useful and fun for learning machine language as well as digital electronics.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@MarkMcCluney]

Another fascinating and enjoyable vid, thank you Alex. I wonder if there might be a financial reason for the little notes? Could it be that engineers were paid extra for maintenance/repair jobs if machines were returned? Follow the money, that's what they say! Cheers mate and thanks again. (And I hope Mrs. Alex is very well.)

[@ChernobylFamily]

Knowing Soviet society, where everyone will receive an equal payment regardless of efforts (due to planned economy) that looks more as attempt to push a jeadache to other's head and not to disrupt a good production statistics. She is ok and sends greetings...) she normally helps me to record all that :)

[@godfreypoon5148]

Oh jeez, I still have most of the 8080 instruction set burned into my brain. Give it some 0x76 from me.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Done! :)

[@godfreypoon5148]

@@ChernobylFamilyThank you! HLTA lamp works? 😄

[@ChernobylFamily]

Yes:)

[@julienle2368]

Nice part ! These little papers are so cool, did you put back at their initial position after cleaning ?

[@ChernobylFamily]

One yes, the second - no idea where it was initially, it just fell out.

[@MrSiquell]

I worked on that while studying)

[@redneck_prm5429]

Studied that in college. In 2002.

[@ChernobylFamily]

AFAIK, somewhere they are still used even in 2023.

[@TheRadeonVideo]

In 2010 university, where I studied, had a lab with ~10 of them. Still in use.

[@agranero6]

It is incredibly well mounted, no shortcuts or cost cutting measures (like cheap plastic everything for instance like in the west) much more than I expected from an 80's Soviet era computer. All wire wrapped like a telephone central, all main chips in sockets, etc. And it is sturdy too, this I expected from a Soviet era computer: made to endure and for easy maintenance. Are those transistors in sockets? Or it is a way to protect them?

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you! That is a way to protect them.

[@beardymcbeardface69]

It's been some decades since I saw wirewrap connections.

[@ChernobylFamily]

On our channel you can find many such things.

[@user-dr1dm9hk1f]

Крута залізяка !!! А ще круче бамажки в середині 😂

[@ChernobylFamily]

))))

[@shakaliha8386]

such a cool IDE, even with debugger

[@ChernobylFamily]

Look good for basic leaning!

[@jkobain]

Such notes could come with «QC passed» products only if they were less punished for shipping devices which will inevitably require maintenance soon, than for not fulfilling their quota.

[@AlexAlex-xx6kp]

Some one we had in university.

[@Samuel-ho7xn]

Странно что в блоке питания не было бумажек 😁 Спасибо за видео

[@mrdrbernd]

thanks for preserving eastern tech for spoilt western guys like me. you are awesome!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for coming! Check our previous episodes...)

[@TerroMin]

Хорошо что у меня 1995-м появился Спектрум, а не этот монстр)) Кажется что решение очень спорное, ассемблер достаточно прост в понимании и изучении)

[@ChernobylFamily]

"Іграшки, прибиті до підлоги" (с) :)

[@walweimann5652]

Many years ago I wrote some code for this device.

[@danbrit9848]

I want blinking process leds on my modern PC like the old sci Fi movies a panel of blinking lights

[@ChernobylFamily]

I believe, it is pretty easy to make if you create a board that will make a communication with the bus. You'd need to slow the things much, as mosern buses are very fast, but to output some states - why not? I'm thinking to do such a panel for my wife's computer as she is very much sharing your point ;)

[@danbrit9848]

@@ChernobylFamily yall are amazing ...and ya it has an awsomness to it ,,,seeing a pc do its work

[@ingussilins6330]

VEF - Valsts Elektrotehniskā Fabrika ( made in Latvia ) :D

[@ChernobylFamily]

Exactly:)

[@accuphase3000]

There was this 5 year plan how much units have to go out and if they would waist time on repairing, then the plan wasn't get filled and they didn't care too much, because nobody couldn't buy that kind of stuf then, so it didn't matter if it worked or not. It was important, that the thing went out on a date and thats it.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Exactly.

[@qatarvirtual]

Imagine how many of these it would take to make a petabyte!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Jeez...

[@monad_tcp]

8:31 typical of self tapping screws, I guess

[@ChernobylFamily]

Probably. Also it might be because the heavy PSU is actually hangs upside down on them with all its weight.

[@user-ll2zl7de5e]

Предназначено это устройство для обучения студентов основам программирования и принципов работы компьютеров. Оно и сейчас актуально для обучения.

[@AmauryJacquot]

and it still works after 35 years

[@ChernobylFamily]

It is a good question though how much it was actually used.

[@AmauryJacquot]

@@ChernobylFamily the arduino's processor flash program memory is good for about 10 or so years. after that... there is no warranty it will still work

[@romanm.4763]

I dreamt about this device when I was a pupil

[@ChernobylFamily]

I was 11 when I saw an ad for this set in old Soviet '89 "Young Technician" journal for teenagers. It explained how awesome this device is and then in the very bottom was bold text "THE DEVICE CAN BE SOLD ONLY TO ORGANIZATIONS". At that time, I for the first time felt that something in that country was very wrong.

[@SobieRobie]

Why to ship not fully working device? Man! Piece is a piece, result needs to folow THE PLAN!

[@ChernobylFamily]

A collective regime of peace and love (c) soviet history by tetris song. Do not google it.

[@KanalFrump]

That's a cool machine! Interesting that some of the text on the front, aside from the hexadecimal codes, uses latin letters.

[@ChernobylFamily]

They cloned processor with all the designations :)