Editing Setun (section)

== History ==

==== Initiation of the project ====
The Setun project was initiated by [[Sergei Sobolev]], in order to develop a small computer for use at the [[Moscow State University]], after the planned transfer of the M-2 computer to the university got canceled in 1953. In 1956, He organized a series of seminars analyzing the disadvantages of existing computers and various plans for technical implementation. These meetings include participants from the Moscow State University, the Institute of Atomic Energe, and other institutes of the Academy of Sciences. Notable attendees include Shura-Bura, Konstantin Adolfovich Semendaev, and Zhogolev. On one of these seminars on April 23, 1956, [[Nikolay Brusentsov|Nikolay Petrovich Brusentsov]] was appointed as the executive designer and supervisor of the project.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Pioneers of Soviet Computing {{!}} SIGCIS |url=https://www.sigcis.org/malinovsky_pioneers |access-date=2025-05-26 |website=www.sigcis.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Prokhorov |first=Sergei |chapter=Sergei Sobolev - the eminent mathematician, founder of Russian computer science |date=June 2020 |title=2020 International Conference Engineering Technologies and Computer Science (EnT) |chapter-url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9140591 |publisher=IEEE |pages=104–108 |doi=10.1109/EnT48576.2020.00026 |isbn=978-1-7281-8090-8}}</ref>

At the time, Brusentsov was a graduate (equivalent to a master degree, See [[Education in Russia]], Traditional model) at Moscow State University, who was graduated from the [[Moscow Power Engineering Institute|Moscow Energy Institute]]. Before appointing Brusentsov as the executive designer of Setun computer, Sobolev transferred Brusentsov to the Mechanics-Mathematics department and sent him to Gutenmakher's laboratory at the Institute for Precision Mechanics to gain relevant experience. To Brusentsov, this is an invaluable experience. In the lab, he had access to the lab's computers and their supporting documentations, which Brusentsov found being "technically weak". Brusentsov then decided to use a ternary number system.

==== Setun computer ====
Sobolev continued to support the project both by finding assistants and participating in the discussion. In 1956, Brusentsov started the design with four engineers and five technicians plus  himself. The whole team worked in a 60-square-meter room with laboratory tables, where they designed and assembled the machine by hand. Zhogolev worked as the main programmer, and together with him, Brusentsov developed the computer architecture of Setun. In 1958, the team growed into a 20-person team, and the first model of the Setun computer was assembled. The name Setun comes from a river near the University.<ref name="Brousentsov" /><ref name=":0" />

After the first model of Setun was built, the [[Kazan Mathematical Machines Factory]] was decreed by the Soviet Cabinet of Ministers to mass-produce the Setun computers. However, the leadership at the Kazan plant was not interested in large-scale computer production. The second model built in the factory was sent back because the plant managers and officials maintained that the computer was not yet reliable. The team was forced to manually adjust the second model. On November 30, 1961, the director of the Kazan factory was forced to sign an act which ended the attempts to cease the production of the Setun computer. The computers were then produced at the rate of 15-20 machines anually until 1965, when the plant refused to continue the production as the sold price of the computer was too low.

While Setun attracted significant interest from abroad, the Ministrey of Foreign Trade never filled the orders received. Only 50 Setun computers are manufractured, 30 of which was used in the higher education institutions inside the Soviet Union.<ref name="Brousentsov" /><ref name=":0" />

==== Setun-70 computer ====
Between 1961 and 1968, Brusentsov and Zhogolev developed Setun-70, the next generation of Setun computer with a new architecture. It was designed for effective software development, in which the ternary system played a key role.  Both addresses and operations are in syllables, where each syllable's length equals to 6 trits (about 9.5 bits). Algebraic expressions of operands by syllables replace the instructions as words in the traditional design, as the instruction set is updated to allow more variance of operand length.<ref name="Brousentsov" /> The algebra is supplemented by testing, control, and input-output operations. The user can add operations on their own without reducing the computer's performance, thus providing the ideal conditions for structured programming. Brusentsov claimed that the programming time on Setun-70 is reduced by five to tenfold with unprecedented reliability, clarity, compactness and speed.

The functioning algorithm of Setun-70 was comprehensively described in expanded [[ALGOL 60|Algol-60]].

==== End of the Setun project ====
The new university rector considered Brusentsov's research and computer design a [[Pseudoscience|pseudo-science]]. After the Setun-70 project, Brusentsov's lab was relocated from the Computer Center at Moscow State University to an attic in a student dormitory, and the original prototype of the Setun computer was destroyed. The Setun-70 model was took to the new attic laboratory and was used as a basis for developing the educational computer system Master Work Station.