Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Varga's penality was, he was kicked out from the computer centre of HAS. The head
of the economist's department was appointed as the new director:
Dr Istvan Aczél
.
5 The First Hardware Export from Hungary
Dr Aczél's - as the director - first official trip was to Romania, in 1960, to a com-
puter application conference. He met there two young scientists,
Dr Josef Kaufmann
mathematician and
Viliam Lőwenfeld
electronic engineer, from the University of
Timisoara. They informed him, they constructed a computer, its name is
MECIPT-1,
they tried to buy a memory in the Soviet Union, but it was impossible. They asked dr
Aczél, to help. Aczél asked me,
„whether we could give a drum to Timisoara?”
I
answered: „
Yes, we can, because I prepared in our Computer Centre several reserved
drums, if one became defective, we could change it very soon”.
Additionally I gave
the drawing of the control unit to them, what I constructed earlier, then we delivered
the drum, connected to the computer, which was running without any problems. Natu-
rally: free of charge.
It was the first Hungarian export of computer hardware to abroad. The MECIPT-1
was working till 1968, then they hand over to the Museum Banat in Timisoara.
Unfortunately the MECIPT-1 was not very well accepted by the Ceaucescu politi-
cal regime. The two designers were Roumanian citizens, but Kaufmann was of
Hungarian origin, Lőwenfeld was of German origin, additionally Jewish persons. I
was - an original Hungarian - as the third designer (drum). A little bit later, the Mu-
seum received a political instruction, they have the MECIPT 1 to kick out from the
Museum. Then nobody knows, where was the computer. I was several times in Timi-
soara, I tried to find the MECIPT 1, but I was not successful.
In 2002, I delivered a lecture in Timisoara then I met a young journalist,
Zoltan
Pataki
. I asked him about the MECIPT-1. He asked several other journalists, and we
were very fortunate, because we found it in a cellar of the Timisoara Fortress. Then
the Alcatel telecommunication company exhibited it, in the same place, in the recon-
structed cellar. Whenever I was in Timisoara, I usually visited the MECIPT-1, during
at the end of the last year, too. This time I was surprised, because the MECIPT 1
museum was reconstructed, the computer was disassembled and stored in a dirty and
unprotected room.
Ceaucescu's Spirit Is Alive
6 The M-3 Was Transported to Szeged, and the End of the M-3
Computer
Returning to the M-3 story, our computer was running 24 hours daily. A lot of users
were coming from the different research institutions, universities, but from different
workshops, too. They solved a lot of mathematical, economical and technical prob-
lems it was a great occasion for the scientific and practical researchers performing
their calculations with an electronic computer.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search