https://hackaday.com/2021/07/17/soviet-scientific-calculator-gives-up-its-cold-war-era-secrets/ Skip to content Logo Hackaday Primary Menu * Home * Blog * Hackaday.io * Tindie * Hackaday Prize * Submit * About * Search for: [ ] [Search] July 18, 2021 Soviet Scientific Calculator Gives Up Its Cold War-Era Secrets 15 Comments * by: Dan Maloney July 17, 2021 * * * * * Title: [Soviet Scientific Ca] Copy Short Link: [https://hackaday.com] Copy [elektronik] Say what you want about Soviet technology, but you've got to admit there was a certain style to Cold War-era electronics. Things were perhaps not as streamlined and sleek as their Western equivalents, but then again, just look at the Nixie tube craze to see where collectors and enthusiasts stand on that comparison. One particularly interesting artifact from the later part of that era was the lovely Elektronika MK-52 "microcalculator". [Paul Hoets] has done a careful but thorough teardown of a fine example of this late-80s machine. The programmable calculator was obviously geared toward scientific and engineering users, but [Paul] relates how later versions of it were also used by the financial community to root out banking fraud and even had built-in cryptographic functions, which made encrypting text easy. [Paul] has put together a video of the teardown, detailing the mostly through-hole construction and the interesting use of a daughter-board, which appears to hold the high-voltage section needed to drive the 11-character VFD tube. The calculator appears to be very well cared for, and once reassembled looks like it would be up for another ride on a Soyuz, where once it served as a backup for landing calculations. We love the look of this machine and appreciate [Paul]'s teardown and analysis. But you say that the Cyrillic keyboard has you stumped and you need a bilingual version of the MK-52? That's not a problem. * [share_face] * [share_twit] * [share_in] * [share_mail] Posted in RetrocomputingTagged calculator, MK-52, programmable, RPN, russia, soviet Post navigation - Finding Fractals In The 1930's Open Source Is Choice - 15 thoughts on "Soviet Scientific Calculator Gives Up Its Cold War-Era Secrets" 1. William J Steele says: July 17, 2021 at 5:05 am You can still buy these NOS today. Check eBay for them... Cost about $15 + shipping. Report comment Reply 1. paulhoets says: July 17, 2021 at 10:57 pm Yup. They're fresh too. Report comment Reply 2. Fox937 says: July 17, 2021 at 5:38 am Amazing design, making me wish someone would reverse engineer all of it: Transistor layout, mask ROM, etc. It may not be useful anymore today, but the features described here and the encryption make it truly ahead of its time. Report comment Reply 1. paulhoets says: July 17, 2021 at 10:28 am There is a vast amount of stuff available on the Russian internet for this. The basic schematics went out the moment this device was made, and a lot of hacking and DIY culture appeared. I only partially explored what exists on the Russian internet, but one person did actually make his own cartridge. He even added a nice little OLED to display the output. Report comment Reply 3. Gravis says: July 17, 2021 at 7:46 am "Comrade, no! Why would you betray the motherland and give your secrets to American capitalist pigs?" -- other Soviet calculators. Report comment Reply 1. Hirudinea says: July 17, 2021 at 2:01 pm "Comrade Kalkulator Kalkulatorivich please come with us." - KGB claculators. Report comment Reply 4. Paul says: July 17, 2021 at 9:08 am 1. Funny "home made" style single in line resistor packs instead of the enclosed thick film resistor packages in the eighties in the West. 2. Most terminal keyboards had double and even triple injection moulded keycaps that never lost their markings. Report comment Reply 5. Ogogon says: July 17, 2021 at 5:48 pm I believe that this calculator may be of interest only to collectors, and very specific perverts. This calculator could not boast of reliability, speed of calculations, or libraries of functions. All serious engineers or scientists in the USSR tried in any way to get themselves TI or HP. If you flip one of the four top covers, you will see that the pins of the connectors underneath are made of aluminum! (One of the fundamental problems of electronics in the USSR was reduced to the impossibility of organizing the production of contacts acceptable in terms of quality. There was even a saying: electronics is the science of contacts!) Report comment Reply 1. Gregg Eshelman says: July 17, 2021 at 10:37 pm 3-2-1, Contact! Let's make contact... https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=kypt0mAL2TA Report comment Reply 1. Bloop says: July 18, 2021 at 1:42 pm We are almost certainly the same age. Report comment Reply 2. paulhoets says: July 17, 2021 at 11:01 pm Pervert? I feel attacked. You got a point - Eastern European calculator errorology is something only a very geeky pervert would get into. But it's certainly fascinating to dig up this history. What you about the aluminium contacts is hair-raising. Report comment Reply 1. P says: July 18, 2021 at 10:14 am Actually, found the article quite interesting! Re: the RPN (reverse polar notation) comment.. HP calculators started off with this but lost out to algebraic - much like beta verses vhs for video recorders. Also, regarding the manufatcuring i guess you go with what you got! Report comment Reply 6. Don Latham says: July 17, 2021 at 6:42 pm Keyboard total copy of an Hp, also Reverse Polish. The author needs to do some homework... Report comment Reply 1. paulhoets says: July 17, 2021 at 11:02 pm K Report comment Reply 7. perchat says: July 18, 2021 at 11:07 am This one shoud really be tagged "ukraine" instead of "russia". It was designed and manufactured in Kyiv, Ukraine. Report comment Reply Leave a Reply Cancel reply Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy) This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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