Jacek Karpiński
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Jacek Karpiński (9 April 1927 21 February 2010) was a Polish pioneer in
computer engineering Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engi ...
and
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, he was a soldier in the
Batalion Zośka A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several companies, each typically commanded by a major or a captain. The typical battal ...
of the
Polish Home Army The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the a ...
, and was awarded multiple times with a Cross of Valour. He took part in Operation Kutschera (intelligence) and the
Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...
, where he was heavily wounded. Later, he became a developer of one of the first
machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...
algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...
s, techniques for character and
image An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be di ...
recognition. After receiving a
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
award in 1960, he travelled for several years around the academic centres in the United States, including
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
,
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
,
Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...
, and many others. In 1971, he designed one of the first minicomputers, the
K-202 K-202 was a 16-bit minicomputer, created by a team led by Polish scientist Jacek Karpiński between 1970–1973 in cooperation with British companies Data-Loop and M.B. Metals. The machine could perform about 1 million instructions per sec ...
. Because of the policy on computer development in the People's Republic of Poland, belonging to the
Comecon The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, often abbreviated as Comecon ( ) or CMEA, was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc#List of states, Easter ...
that time, the K-202 was never mass-produced. Karpiński later became a pig farmer, and in 1981, after receiving a passport, emigrated to
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. He also founded the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence of the
Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...
in the early 1960s.


Family and childhood

Jacek Karpiński was born on 9 April 1927 in
Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
,
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
into a family of Polish intellectuals and alpinists. His father, Adam 'Akar' Karpiński, was a prominent aeronautic engineer (who co-constructed the SL-1 Akar, the first glider constructed entirely by the Poles) and inventor, credited with projects of innovative climbing equipment (
crampon A crampon is a traction device attached to footwear to improve mobility on snow and ice during ice climbing. Besides ice climbing, crampons are also used for secure travel on snow and ice, such as crossing glaciers, snowfields and icefields, as ...
s, 'Akar-Ramada' tent). His mother, Wanda Czarnocka-Karpińska, was a respected physician who went on to become Dean of the University of Physical Education in Warsaw. Both were pioneers of winter mountaineering in the Tatra Mountains (first successful winter attacks on Banówka, Nowy Wierch, Lodowy Szczyt and others). Adam Karpiński was also a member of a Polish expedition into the
Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...
, which was the first to climb the peak
Mercedario Cerro Mercedario is the highest peak of the Cordillera de la Ramada range and the eighth-highest mountain of the Andes. It is located 100 km to the north of Aconcagua, in the Argentine province of San Juan. Ascent history It was fir ...
(6720 m.). Karpiński himself was due to be born in the Vallot winter hut near
Mont Blanc Mont Blanc (, ) is a mountain in the Alps, rising above sea level, located right at the Franco-Italian border. It is the highest mountain in Europe outside the Caucasus Mountains, the second-most prominent mountain in Europe (after Mount E ...
, but due to the extreme weather conditions, his parents had to retreat to Turin, where their first child was born. Karpiński had one younger brother, Marek, who also became an electrical engineer. The family moved from
Biała Podlaska Biała Podlaska (; ) is a city in the Lublin Voivodeship in eastern Poland with 56,498 inhabitants It is the capital of Biała Podlaska County, although the city is not part of the county (it constitutes a separate city county). The city lies on ...
to
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
in 1934, where Wanda took a job at Physical University of Warsaw and Adam worked in
PZL PZL, may refer to: Places * PZL, an IATA airport code for Phinda Airfield in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa * PZL, a location code for the Złotów County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, in the system of the vehicle registration plates of Polan ...
(Polish Aviation Works). Karpiński's father died in September 1939 during an expedition to
Nanda Devi Nanda Devi is the second-highest mountain in India, after Kangchenjunga, and the highest located entirely within the country. (Kangchenjunga is on the border of India and Nepal.) Nanda Devi is the 23rd-highest peak in the world and ranked 74t ...
in the
Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...
. After an unsuccessful attack on the summit, along with Stefan Bernadzikiewicz, he decided to climb the nearby
Tirsuli Tirsuli is a Himalayan mountain peak in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, India. It is part of the complex of mountains, including Tirsuli West, Hardeol, Dunagiri, Changabang, and Kalanka, which make up the northeast wall of the Nanda Devi ...
(7039m), where both were killed by an avalanche.


Wartime

Karpiński's life was changed not only by his father's death but by the outbreak of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Despite his young age (fourteen at the time), by pretending to be seventeen, he managed to join the
Gray Ranks Grey Ranks () was a codename for the underground paramilitary Polish Scouting Association () during World War II. The wartime organisation was created on 27 September 1939, actively resisted and fought German occupation in Warsaw until 18 ...
, a Polish underground
paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...
boy scouts organization, where he served in Grupy Szturmowe (Assault Groups). In early 1943, he was severely injured while working on homemade bombs for an underground sabotage operation when one of them accidentally exploded in the basement of his house. He lost sight in both eyes and faced the serious threat of hand-amputation. After his mother's intervention and the help of her fellow physicians, his eyes recovered fully and the hand was saved, but he never regained total control over it. After the recovery, Karpiński resumed his activities in the
Home Army The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...
. With the help of his mother, Wanda, and brother, Marek, who both also actively participated in the resistance effort, the family established a secret resistance outpost in their family home on Obserwatorów Street. The place was an outpost for Juliusz "Laudański" Deczkowski's unit and contained a clandestine shooting range. It was also a hideout for Stanisław Miedza-Tomaszewski, a Home Army officer working for its Informational Department. Karpiński participated in numerous field operations, including Sieczychy Operation (Akcja pod Sieczychami), as a soldier, and Operation Kutschera, as a part of recon under
Wiesław Krajewski :"Wiesław" is sometimes transliterated as "Wieslaw", in the absence of ''L with stroke.'' Wiesław () is a Polish masculine given name, of Slavonic origin, meaning "great glory" or "all glory". It is the shortened, more common, form of the perso ...
. After the formation of the Home Army's ''Zośka'' battalion, Karpiński enrolled, where he befriended poet
Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, (; nom de guerre: Jan Bugaj; 22 January 1921 – 4 August 1944) was a Polish poet and Home Army soldier, one of the most well known of the Generation of Columbuses, the young generation of Polish poets, of whom several ...
, both being commanders of smaller sub-units. Karpiński also participated in the
Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...
. On the first day of fighting, he was trapped weaponless with around 30 other soldiers in a hospital building on Koszykowa street after the weaponry supply had been mistakenly directed somewhere else. While evacuating the unit, Karpiński's group was caught under heavy fire, which resulted in most of the evacuees dead. Karpiński himself was shot with a 9mm caliber gun a bullet was stuck in his backbone but he survived. Found next day by the hospital's nurses, he received treatment but remained
paralyzed Paralysis (: paralyses; also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, r ...
. Released from hospital after the Uprising's collapse, he rejoined his family in
Pruszków Pruszków is a city in east-central Poland, capital of Pruszków County in the Masovian Voivodeship. Pruszków is located along the western edge of the Warsaw metropolitan area. Pruszków is the largest city in the Warsaw metropolitan area outs ...
but remained unable to stand or walk. The family moved through
Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
and
Zakopane Zakopane (Gorals#Language, Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has ...
to a small village of
Murzasichle Murzasichle is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Poronin, within Tatra County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately south-east of Poronin, east of Zakopane, and south of the regional capital Krak ...
in the Tatras, where they remained through the rest of the war. During the course of the war, Karpiński was awarded the Cross of Valour three times.


Post-war

After World War II, Karpiński's family moved to
Radomsko Radomsko () is a city in southern Poland with 44,700 inhabitants (2021). It is situated on the Radomka river in the Łódź Voivodeship. It is the county seat of Radomsko County. Founded in the 11th century, Radomsko is a former royal city located ...
, and he started to attend local high school. He was forced to learn how to walk again, which he did during hiking trips in the mountains with his brother and Józef Lityński. He completed the entire high school curriculum in one year and passed the baccalaureate with flying colours. Afterwards, Karpiński moved to
Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...
to begin university education at the Faculty of Electro-Mechanical Sciences within the local
polytechnic A polytechnic is an educational institution that primarily focuses on vocational education, applied sciences, and career pathways. They are sometimes referred to as ''institutes of technology'', ''vocational institutes'', or ''universities of app ...
. After two years, he moved to
Warsaw University of Technology The Warsaw University of Technology () is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professors (including 145 titular professors). The student body ...
from which he graduated in 1951. Karpiński, just as many other former Zośka battalion veterans, influenced by former Home Army high officer Jan "Radosław" Mazurkiewicz's call, revealed himself to the Communists, but unlike many, he was spared imprisonment. Nevertheless, he was forced to change workplace several times, eventually receiving a work warrant for T-12 factory of electrical components in
Żerań Żerań is a northern suburb of Warsaw, Poland, situated in the Białołęka district. It is noted for the Żerań Power Station. The area borders with the Vistula River, the Praga-Północ district and the Tarchomin, Różopol, Konstantynów, War ...
. During the time Karpiński was planning to flee Poland, he even worked on designing a mini-submarine in which he would be able to cross the Baltic Sea and reach the Danish island of
Bornholm Bornholm () is a List of islands of Denmark, Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland. Strategically located, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries. I ...
. However, after the first sights of the Polish thaw, he decided to stay. In 1955 he was offered a job at the Polish Academy of Sciences' Institute of Basic Problems, which he accepted. There he worked under Leszek Filipkowski on the design of the prototype
ultrasonography Medical ultrasound includes diagnostic techniques (mainly imaging) using ultrasound, as well as therapeutic applications of ultrasound. In diagnosis, it is used to create an image of internal body structures such as tendons, muscles, joints, ...
device.


AAH

His first independent project was the AAH — Analytical Analyzer of Harmonics. Karpiński was asked by a long-time friend, Józef Lityński, an employee of the State Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology, whom he had known from his time in Radomsko, to build a device to help calculate Fourier integrals. The Institute hoped the device could help improve the effectiveness of long-term weather
forecasts Forecasting is the process of making predictions based on past and present data. Later these can be compared with what actually happens. For example, a company might estimate their revenue in the next year, then compare it against the actual resu ...
. Karpiński gathered a team of five people and constructed a computer based on
vacuum tubes A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...
in 1957. The machine had been used for two years when it was accidentally destroyed. Karpiński himself claimed AAH raised the precision of forecasts by 10%, an estimate which has not been contested. A part of the engineering team was Karpiński's brother Marek, who worked with him successfully until his tragic death in 1957 during a climbing expedition in the Tatras.


AKAT-1

The breakthrough achievement of Karpiński's career was the construction of AKAT-1 in 1959 in co-operation with engineer Janusz Tomaszewski. AKAT-1 was a pioneering work the world's first differential equations analyzer based on
transistors A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
. Karpiński built the device during his spell at the Polish Academy of Science's Institute of Automatics, where he found employment after the success of AAH. The aim of AKAT-1 was to simulate various complex dynamic processes like
heat transfer Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy (heat) between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction, ...
or a
shock absorber A shock absorber or damper is a mechanical or hydraulics, hydraulic device designed to absorb and Damping ratio, damp shock (mechanics), shock impulses. It does this by converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy (typic ...
's mechanics. The innovativeness of the device was acknowledged by historians of computer science e.g. Maciej Sysło claims it has to be conceded that Karpiński's effort preceded any other similar device.Lipiński 2014, p. 136 The construction was also lauded for its aesthetical merits the panel designed by leading Polish artists Emil Cieślar, Olgierd Rutkowski, Stanisław Siemek and Andrzej Wróblewski had been considered to 'innovatively merge all functions in a congruent and attractive form that anticipated the future trends'. The machine has been domestically welcomed warmly, having been covered by a host of country-wide media, including national television
TVP1 TVP1 (TVP Jeden, ''Telewizja Polska 1'', ''Program Pierwszy Telewizji Polskiej'', ''"Jedynka"'') is the main public television channel of Telewizja Polska, TVP (Telewizja Polska S.A.), Poland's national television broadcaster. It was the first Po ...
and Polish Film Chronicle. Currently, the machine can be seen in the Museum of Technology in Warsaw.


UNESCO scholarship in the United States

The success of AKAT-1 enabled Karpiński to be put forward by Poland as its candidate for the UNESCO worldwide award for young engineers in 1960. Karpiński's work was evaluated with around 200 other contestants by an UNESCO international committee, and he turned out to be among the six laureates. As a reward, he was allowed to go on a half-year scholarship in the United States to visit major technological centres in the country. During the scholarship, which has been eventually extended to a full year, Karpiński managed to visit around twenty universities and laboratories, among them Computation Laboratory at
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
,
Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...
,
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
and
Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...
. During his stay he met with a number of leading computer scientists of the time including John Eckert,
Claude Shannon Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, computer scientist, cryptographer and inventor known as the "father of information theory" and the man who laid the foundations of th ...
and Edward F. Moore. Despite the numerous offers to stay in the United States and move his work there, Karpiński decided to come back to Poland. Later, it emerged that before and during his stay in the United States, Karpiński cooperatated with Polish intelligence to collect data, which sparked controversies around his person. Karpiński himself, interviewed on the matter after the fall of communism, was reluctant to comment the matter, but insisted the agreement with intelligence officer cpt. Zygmunt Goć was limited to reporting on the state of technical progress of American facilities.


Perceptron

Shortly after his return from the US, Karpiński, inspired by his American experience, decided to implement some of his newest ideas at home. He convinced the director of the Institute of Automatics Stefan Węgrzyn to build a
perceptron In machine learning, the perceptron is an algorithm for supervised classification, supervised learning of binary classification, binary classifiers. A binary classifier is a function that can decide whether or not an input, represented by a vect ...
a device built according to
Frank Rosenblatt Frank Rosenblatt (July 11, 1928July 11, 1971) was an American psychologist notable in the field of artificial intelligence. He is sometimes called the father of deep learning for his pioneering work on artificial neural networks. Life and career ...
's ideas, able to learn how to discern and recognize objects and shapes. The idea was successfully realized, and the Polish perceptron was completed in 1964, being one of the first of such in the world and the first known in the Communist bloc.


KAR-65

Soon after the completion of the perceptron, Karpiński fell out with Węgrzyn, which forced him to leave the Institute of Automatics. He moved to the Polish Academy of Sciences' Institute of Physics led by
Jerzy Pniewski Jerzy Pniewski (Polish: ; June 1, 1913 – June 16, 1989) was a Polish physicist, professor at the University of Warsaw and a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is best known for discovering the hypernucleus together with Marian Danys ...
. Pniewski's team worked on the analysis of data from
CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...
pictures from Glaser bubble chambers, traces of colliding electrons and neutrons. The Institute struggled with the amount of data and was looking for a mechanism to speed up the processing of data. In 1965, on Pniewski's request Karpiński designed a scanner, and after its success, began work on the mathematical machine that could compute the scanned data. With the help of newly formed team of seven people including later long-time cooperators Tadeusz Kupniewski and Teresa Pajkowska, Karpiński finished the machine in 1968, dubbed KAR-65, after three years of work. Due to financial constraints, KAR-65 was built using Polish
germanium Germanium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid or a nonmetal in the carbon group that is chemically ...
transistors TG-40 and DOG-61
diode A diode is a two-Terminal (electronics), terminal electronic component that conducts electric current primarily in One-way traffic, one direction (asymmetric electrical conductance, conductance). It has low (ideally zero) Electrical resistance ...
s, considerably slower than their western counterparts. KAR-65 was asynchronic and used a dedicated operation system, designed by Karpiński. The computer could perform 100 thousand operations per second, which made it the fastest Polish computer at the time. The computer consisted of two parts, both measuring 1,7m x 1,4m x 0,4m, but was still considerably smaller than the leading Polish computers of the time, Odra mainframes. The computer's interface was designed by the artist Stanisław Tomaszewski, who had also worked on the AKAT-1. The total cost of construction was estimated to be 6 million zlotys. Only one machine was built and it continued to work in the Institute of Physics for 20 years. It currently resides in the Museum of Technology in Warsaw. Even though the computer was a technological success, most likely due to the pressure of competing computer manufacturers (chiefly
Elwro Elwro was a Polish company that manufactured mainframe and microcomputers from 1959 until 1989. Its plant was in Wrocław. Computer models included Odra (computer), Odra mainframe systems, and the List of ZX Spectrum clones#Elwro 800 Junior, Elwro ...
, producer of Odra mainframes), many reports on KAR-65s were halted by the censorship. Karpiński had his 1969 paper from Polish Informatical Conference in Zakopane blocked from printing. His article on KAR-65 in ''Maszyny Matematyczne'' from the same year was blocked, as well. A similar fate befell the articles on the subject by popular journalists Stefan Bratkowski and Aleksander Bocheński. Before his interview with the TV programme ''Tele-Echo'' Karpiński received an official ban on talking about the computer. He complained about the matter to the President of the Committee of Science and Technology Jacek Kaczmarek (28.04.1970), but received no backing.


K-202

In 1970, Karpiński decided to establish his own institution to work on his new idea, a minicomputer of original architecture, for which he sought backing from state officials. Karpiński was given permission to found Microcomputers' Construction Plant (Zakład Budowy Mikrokomputerów) in Warszawa-Włochy in 1970. The basis for the computer's construction was the fruit of the joint-venture agreement between the Polish state (represented by Metronex, a foreign trade office) and British private partners companies Data-Loop and MB Metals. Karpiński, who orchestrated the agreement, was appointed technical director, fully responsible for the engineering aspect of the venture. The parts and finances were to be supplied by the British, but the entire construction and production process was to be done in Poland, something that Karpiński strongly insisted on. MB Metals and Data-Loop were given rights to sell the computer in all countries, except Poland. The companies were also solely responsible for the products promotion and distribution. Karpiński collected a team of 113 employees, including programmers and hardware engineers such as Zbigniew Szwaj, Teresa Pajkowska, Andrzej Ziemkiewicz and Elżbieta Jezierska. The main objective of the project was to build a computer, which would be small, affordable (around 6.5 thousand dollars apiece), easy to produce and failproof. Great emphasis was also put on its modularity Karpiński was determined to build an entire system, with flexible complexity and arrangement in line with user's needs. Production of 1300 units was planned in two initial series. The primary objective was commercial, but Karpiński intended for K-202 to be used in a vast variety of applications in industry, administration, science and military (land and navy). The team worked for three years and in 1973 first prototypes were completed. The result was a minicomputer highly innovative in many aspects. K-202 was constructed entirely with microchips, using breakthrough 1971 Intel 4004 chips. It was also asynchronic and used
floating point In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic on subsets of real numbers formed by a ''significand'' (a signed sequence of a fixed number of digits in some base) multiplied by an integer power of that base. Numbers of this form ...
representation, as KAR-65. Moreover, K-202 used
memory segmentation Memory segmentation is an operating system memory management technique of dividing a computer's primary memory into segments or sections. In a computer system using segmentation, a reference to a memory location includes a value that identifies ...
with
paging In computer operating systems, memory paging is a memory management scheme that allows the physical Computer memory, memory used by a program to be non-contiguous. This also helps avoid the problem of memory fragmentation and requiring compact ...
, the first minicomputer to do so. Additionally, it performed close to a million operations per second. These two things made K-202 faster than its potentially most dangerous competitors DEC's
PDP-11 The PDP–11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers originally sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the late 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of a ...
and CTL's Modular One. The computer was small, could fit on the desk and weighed 35 kilograms. It was also highly shock-, water- and temperature-resistant. K-202 used authorial operation system SOK and dedicated ASSK programming language, but also supported
ALGOL 60 ALGOL 60 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1960'') is a member of the ALGOL family of computer programming languages. It followed on from ALGOL 58 which had introduced code blocks and the begin and end pairs for delimiting them, representing a ...
, FORTRAN IV,
BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...
and others. The important feature was also a possibility of accessing up to 64 devices in the same time, hence the high level of freedom of architectural composition of a system. Despite the technical excellence of the computer, it never reached mass production. Only 30 machines were ever produced and the conditions of work in Karpiński's team remained laboratorious rather than industrial. The reasons of this outcome remain unclear and are still a matter of historical debate. Karpiński himself pointed at the intentional efforts of some high-level officials, mostly
Jerzy Huk Jerzy is the Polish language, Polish version of the masculine given name George (given name), George. The most common nickname for Jerzy is Jurek (given name), Jurek (), which may also be used as an official first name. Occasionally the nickname J ...
, director at , a local computer engineering giant and monopolist, manufacturer of Odra mainframes. Another possible enemy of Karpiński was col. Ryszard Kulesza, director of the Institute of Mathematical Machines within the Polish Academy of Sciences. Others, among them Stefan Bratkowski and Maciej Sysło, point out the general distrust toward foreign companies and unwillingness to take risks within the ruling class, especially if the project involved consumption of high amount of foreign currency, crucial to the failing communist economy.Lipiński 2014, p. 162 Another possible explanation for the lack of political will for Karpiński's case is the rise of the new, all-Comecon project of building a new family of computers within the communist bloc dubbed Riad. The project gained absolute priority, especially after its director Lavryonov's visit in Warsaw in autumn of 1972. Stefan Bratkowski point out that K-202 had the chance to succeed only as a part subjugated to the entire system, which Karpiński declined outright, considering the Riad project to be much inferior to K-202. A lack of proper industrial and institutional background, as well as Karpiński's personal traits stubbornness, individualism and lack of social skills are also mentioned as possible reasons. Karpiński found himself unable to find sufficient political backing, despite moderate support from the influential Franciszek Szlachcic and Józef Tejchma. He also rejected signing up for the communist party, which could have raised his chances significantly, according to the then Minister of Culture Józef Tejchma. Critics started to expose the high costs of the project (K-202 cost was $6500 per unit for foreign clients), and the lack of commercial success, accusing Karpiński of mismanagement,
fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...
and
embezzlement Embezzlement (from Anglo-Norman, from Old French ''besillier'' ("to torment, etc."), of unknown origin) is a type of financial crime, usually involving theft of money from a business or employer. It often involves a trusted individual taking ...
. As a result, he lost his position within a project, which was swiftly rebranded as after very minor alterations (around 1% of functional content) and was not developed further, effectively ending the K-202's chances of commercial success. Most of the 30 prototypes worked extensively for several years in 43 different institutions throughout Poland. For example, in 1972, a K-202 machine was used to computerize the calculations of results of the European wrestling championships. Currently, only a few remain; one can be seen in the Museum of Technology in Warsaw. The only working copy is in private hands.


Later life

Disappointed with the outcome of K-202 production, Karpiński in 1978 decided to move to the countryside near
Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with powiat rights, city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents Olsz ...
(village Dąbrówka Wielka) and started a small animal husbandry ranch. In 1981, on the invitation of
Stefan Kudelski Stefan Kudelski (27 August 1931 – 26 January 2013)
Nagra
was a Polish audio engineer known for creating ...
, Karpiński moved to Switzerland to work on
Nagra Nagra is a brand of portable audio recorders produced from 1951 in Switzerland. Beginning in 1997 a range of high-end equipment aimed at the audiophile community was introduced, and Nagra expanded the company's product lines into new markets. O ...
tape recorders. In 1990, after a series of unsuccessful business ventures, Karpiński decided to return to Poland. In the 1990s he served as an advisor on computer science to
Andrzej Olechowski Andrzej Marian Olechowski (; born 9 September 1947) is a Polish politician. He was one of the co-founders of liberal conservative party Civic Platform in 2001 with Maciej Płażyński and Donald Tusk. He served as Minister of Finance (1992) in t ...
and
Leszek Balcerowicz Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz (pronounced ; born 19 January 1947) is a Polish economist, statesman, and Professor at Warsaw School of Economics. He served as Chairman of the National Bank of Poland (2001–2007) and twice as Deputy Prime Minister of ...
. He also tried to kickstart his own business ventures a hand-held text-scanner 'Pen-Reader' invented during his stay in
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
and cash registers 'Libella', which both failed. In 2009, he was awarded the Officer's Cross of Polonia Restituta for remarkable achievements in computer engineering. Jacek Karpiński died on 21 February 2010 in
Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...
, where he had lived since 1996. In 2010, he was posthumously awarded an even more prestigious Commander's Cross of Polonia Restituta, third-highest level of this order.


Controversies

It has been revealed that Jacek Karpiński worked as a secret informant for the
Służba Bezpieczeństwa The Security Service (; ), in full Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and commonly known as SB, was a secret police force established in the Polish People's Republic in 1956 as a successor to the Ministry of Public Security (P ...
since 1961. He received considerable financial rewards for his work, including foreign holidays with his wife sponsored by the state. Karpiński's work was mostly dedicated to collecting technological data. This was also stated by him to be the condition under which he is inclined to provide information. Karpiński was a valuable asset, having travelled extensively since the 1950s and possessing a wide range of international contacts. He provided the intelligence with a lot of useful information beginning with the international Expo in
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
in 1961. But the peak of his activity was reached during his trip to the United States, during which he amassed and passed an extensive amount of information on both the technological centres, but also personalities of American science and industry. Historian Adam Kochajkiewicz claims his cooperation was heavily influenced by naivete on the situation in the scientific world and on the goals and methods of the intelligence. The intensity of Karpiński's cooperation decreased significantly in the 1970s, when Karpiński became not a cooperator, but a target for the intelligence. Karpiński had his passport withdrawn, informants were planted in his closest environment to gather information on him, his phone calls and private correspondence was also monitored. Also, the scale of Karpiński's engineering achievement is hotly debated. It is claimed that his construction, most notably K-202, were innovative enough (or even superior) to successfully compete with the worldwide competition (most notably
PDP-11 The PDP–11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers originally sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the late 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of a ...
and Modular One) and as such K-202's failure marks one of the biggest opportunity of
People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...
's for fast modernization Adrian Markowski compared Karpiński to Bill Gates. It is also stated that Karpiński's defeat was primarily caused by administrative incompetence and acts of sabotage by his enemies. Critics point out the exaggerations in Karpiński's evaluation of his work and claim that the project's fate within state structures was, at least partly, justified. They, among them Maciej Sysło, underline the massive scale of funds and organization needed for the success of a new device and point out the uncertainty about the machine's real capabilities.


References in culture

Jacek Karpiński is portrayed in Roman Bratny's novel ''Lot ku ziemi'' as Marek Zych.


Books

* P. Lipiński Geniusz i Świnie. Rzecz o Jacku Karpińskim, wyd. JanKa, 2014 * B. Kluska Automaty liczą. Komputery PRL., ResNovae, 2013 * A. Targowski, Informatyka bez złudzeń. 40 lat między informatyką a polityką i 20 lat między Polską Ameryką, 2001 * R. Bratny Lot ku ziemi, PIW, 1976 * A. Kochajkiewicz Działania służb specjalnych Polski Ludowej wobec inżyniera Jacka Karpińskiego w latach 1950–1990, Przegląd Archiwalny IPN, 5/2012


See also

*
Analog computer An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computation machine (computer) that uses physical phenomena such as Electrical network, electrical, Mechanics, mechanical, or Hydraulics, hydraulic quantities behaving according to the math ...
*
K-202 K-202 was a 16-bit minicomputer, created by a team led by Polish scientist Jacek Karpiński between 1970–1973 in cooperation with British companies Data-Loop and M.B. Metals. The machine could perform about 1 million instructions per sec ...
*
Minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe computers . By 21st century-standards however, a mini is ...
*
List of pioneers in computer science This is a list of people who made transformative breakthroughs in the creation, development and imagining of what computers could do. Pioneers ~ Items marked with a tilde are circa dates. See also * Computer Pioneer Award * IEEE John von ...


References


External links

*
"Polski Bill Gates i świnie"
Gazeta Wyborcza (Polish)

(Polish)

onet.pl (Polish)

kopalniawiedzy.pl (Polish)
"Jak powstawało K-202"
(Polish)
"50 lat polskich komputerów"
(Polish)
"Recenzja książki ''Geniusz i świnie''"
(Polish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Karpinski, Jacek Polish computer scientists 1927 births 2010 deaths Computer designers