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Setun (russian: Сетунь) was a computer developed in 1958 at
Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
. It was built under the leadership of
Sergei Sobolev Prof Sergei Lvovich Sobolev (russian: Серге́й Льво́вич Со́болев) HFRSE (6 October 1908 – 3 January 1989) was a Soviet mathematician working in mathematical analysis and partial differential equations. Sobolev introduce ...
and
Nikolay Brusentsov Nikolay Petrovich Brusentsov (russian: Никола́й Петро́вич Брусенцо́в; 7 February 1925 in Kamenskoe, Ukrainian SSR – 4 December 2014) was a computer scientist, most famous for having built a ( balanced) ternary comput ...
. It was the most modern
ternary computer A ternary computer, also called trinary computer, is one that uses ternary logic (i.e., base 3) instead of the more common binary system (i.e., base 2) in its calculations. This means it uses trits (instead of bits, as most computers do). Types ...
, using the
balanced ternary Balanced ternary is a ternary numeral system (i.e. base 3 with three digits) that uses a balanced signed-digit representation of the integers in which the digits have the values −1, 0, and 1. This stands in contrast to the standard (unbala ...
numeral system and three-valued
ternary logic In logic, a three-valued logic (also trinary logic, trivalent, ternary, or trilean, sometimes abbreviated 3VL) is any of several many-valued logic systems in which there are three truth values indicating ''true'', ''false'' and some indeterminat ...
instead of the two-valued
binary Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1) * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical operation that ta ...
logic prevalent in other computers.


Overview

The computer was built to fulfill the needs of Moscow State University. It was manufactured at the
Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...
Mathematical plant. Fifty computers were built from 1959 until 1965, when production was halted. The characteristic operating memory consisted of 81 words of memory, each word composed of 18 trits (ternary digits) with additional 1944 words on magnetic drum (total of about 7 KB). Between 1965 and 1970, a regular binary computer was used at Moscow State University to replace it. Although this replacement binary computer performed equally well, it was 2.5 times the cost of the Setun. In 1970, a new ternary computer architecture, the Setun-70, was developed.
Edsger W. Dijkstra Edsger Wybe Dijkstra ( ; ; 11 May 1930 – 6 August 2002) was a Dutch computer scientist, programmer, software engineer, systems scientist, and science essayist. He received the 1972 Turing Award for fundamental contributions to developing progra ...
's ideas of
structured programming Structured programming is a programming paradigm aimed at improving the clarity, quality, and development time of a computer program by making extensive use of the structured control flow constructs of selection ( if/then/else) and repetition ( ...
were implemented in the hardware of this computer. The short instructions set was developed and implemented by
Nikolay Brusentsov Nikolay Petrovich Brusentsov (russian: Никола́й Петро́вич Брусенцо́в; 7 February 1925 in Kamenskoe, Ukrainian SSR – 4 December 2014) was a computer scientist, most famous for having built a ( balanced) ternary comput ...
independently from RISC architecture principles. The Setun-70 hardware architecture was transformed into the Dialogue System of Structured Programming (DSSP). DSSP emulates the "Setun 70" architecture on binary computers, thus it fulfills the advantages of structured programming invented by
Edsger W. Dijkstra Edsger Wybe Dijkstra ( ; ; 11 May 1930 – 6 August 2002) was a Dutch computer scientist, programmer, software engineer, systems scientist, and science essayist. He received the 1972 Turing Award for fundamental contributions to developing progra ...
. DSSP programming language has similar syntax to the Forth programming language but has a different sequence of base instructions, especially conditional jump instructions. DSSP was developed by
Nikolay Brusentsov Nikolay Petrovich Brusentsov (russian: Никола́й Петро́вич Брусенцо́в; 7 February 1925 in Kamenskoe, Ukrainian SSR – 4 December 2014) was a computer scientist, most famous for having built a ( balanced) ternary comput ...
and doctoral students in the 1980s at
Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
. A 32-bit version was implemented in 1989.


References

{{List of Soviet computer systems Early computers Soviet computer systems Soviet inventions