Soviet production of electronic components

[brucehoult]

For westerners, replacing value driven specialists with ideology driven activists might be something new.  Many westerners still don't realize the danger of what is to come.

Some of us realise very well, and have done since the 80s, if not before -- even things such as Atlas Shrugged in the 1950s, now (as with 1984) apparently being taken as an instruction manual, not a warning what not to do.

I've lived and worked in Russia (April 2015 - March 2018, and some other visits, most recently New Year 2020). There is a lot to like there, but the current government isn't part of it. I've thought for a very long time that they have been actively working to destabilise the West by sponsoring and influencing -- even instigating -- organisations such as Greenpeace, Occupy, BLM, Antifa, Extinction Rebellion. We've been learning very recently of the extent of their operation to pervert conservative commentators in the USA, especially to get them to speak out against defending Ukraine as free people everywhere very obviously should be. As someone who is libertarian/objectivist I'm naturally more sympathetic to economic conservatives (despite their often unpalatable conservative social policies) and it's been very upsetting recently to see their leaders appear to be siding with Russia against Ukraine. I hope this will change, and before they win the coming US elections (or very soon after!).

[EPAIII]

As an ex Army officer with a background in missiles, I would dispute the comments stating that Russia is on a par with the west in that area. I have been watching the coverage of the war in Ukraine with interest. Either they are completely holding back their better missile systems or they are at least a decade behind, probably two.

There is evidence that their most advanced air defense systems can not even protect themselves, much less other targets in their assigned area.

What I see is a reliance on western technology that they somehow obtain in order to build showcase systems but they can't actually produce those systems in the desired quantity due to lack of sufficient supplies of those components. Their scientists may be good, but it ends at the R&D(of one) stage.

Other areas of weaponry show the same problems. At one time I feared their numeric advantage in tanks. Can you say "Pop goes the turret?" They actually store the tank ammunition under the feet of the crew, in the same compartment. At least it's merciful, there is no time to suffer or even know what happened. The Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK-47) may be a great rifle, but what has followed? And the flag ship of the Black Sea fleet was sunk by a country that has virtually no navy. Their ONE aircraft carrier could not leave port without an accompanying tug boat and now can't leave port at all. The list goes on and on. It is hard not to laugh out loud. But I am not making fun of them. Just my view as an ex-ordinance officer.

And what about their nuclear weapons. If I were a Russian general I would not dare to launch one for fear it is as likely to land on Moscow as Kiev.

They are good at bluster but can't back it up with real weapons that get the job done. And I suspect that China is much the same.

[Njk]

The Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK-47) may be a great rifle, but what has followed?

To be precise, it's not AK-47, it's AKM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKM) since long time ago. Never liked it though. AK-47 is from the journo's vocabulary.

[vad]

self-censored

[Bud]

Any more takers before I report this derailed topic to Mods?

[EEVblog]

If people can't keep politics out of this thread then it will be locked.

[vad]

If people can't keep politics out of this thread then it will be locked.

Dave, I’ve respectfully obliged, self-censoring my post if my humor is not appreciated.

[Njk]

Back on topic then.
One popular story is that the Soviet chip industry was created by the two EE guys from New York. They became a Soviet spies, eventually fled to USSR and started to work in the defense industry there. Soon they were noticed by Sergei Khrushchev a son of the Soviet leader at the time, who was working as a EE on a defense projects. He was inspired by the guys and advised his father to pay attention to them. That resulted in the government decree to set up a dedicated industrial hub near Moscow, one of the guys, Alfred Sarant was assigned to be sort of CTO there and this is how the microchip industry was started in USSR. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sarant, https://history.computer.org/pioneers/barr.html

Sounds like a Superman story. But a more serious information on the subject is actually difficult to find, few documents are available. So it can be interesting to read interviews with the insiders. One of the following accounts is from a son of the minister of the electronics industry of USSR, who was also active EE at the time. The other is from Zhores Alferov, a Nobel prize scientist, who provided an overview of related scientific research in USSR back at that time.

https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102746435
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102746430

[Haenk]

As an ex Army officer with a background in missiles, I would dispute the comments stating that Russia is on a par with the west in that area. I have been watching the coverage of the war in Ukraine with interest. Either they are completely holding back their better missile systems or they are at least a decade behind, probably two.

There are teardowns of weapon tech on Youtube, and it boils down to 80s/90s construction with recent manufacturing dates. To my knowledge there is no russian manufacturing plant for wafers/ICs of halfway recent transistor size, so manufacturing has been done in Taiwan, maybe now China, for many years. The newly invented russian CPUs were (AFAIK) all manufactured in Taiwan. I assume there may be 100nm small volume production though.
As for hiding some super-uber-weapons - I don't believe so. The S400 are quite "good" (in a technical way), and probably only a few years behind Rheinmetall - but they are extremely complex and slow to build. So I don't think they are holding them back. However a lot of equipment might have been reserved for the protection of important targets (Putins home complex is rumored to have several air defense systems installed e.g.)

[wraper]

^The best Russia Russia has is 65nm at Mikron factory.