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Seven years after the creation of MESM, there was a growing need for mass computing machines. Users required a relatively affordable electronic computer with simple, user-friendly programming and control tools.
In 1959, Viktor Glushkov formulated a program for engineering calculations at the All-Union Conference on Computer Science in Kyiv. Over the next three years, he worked tirelessly to develop various aspects of computer theory and apply them to specific developments. Glushkov documented his results in his monograph "Synthesis of Digital Automata" (1961). He'd later receive the Lenin Prize for this series of works — the most prestigious in the USSR.
In 1963, Glushkov's Institute of Cybernetics and the Special Design Bureau developed and implemented the idea of a personal machine for engineers called Promin. This machine today would be known as a "personal computer." It was mass-produced in the Sievierodonetsk computer factory in eastern Ukraine.
Despite being isolated behind the Iron Curtain, Glushkov's team designed Promin several engineering innovations unseen by the world before. The machine had a convenient keypad that supported hardware-based procedures like elementary functions. Promin could perform about 1000 addition operations or 100 multiplication operations per minute.
The most significant innovation was that it was the first widely used computer with step-by-step microprogramming control (for which Viktor Glushkov received a copyright certificate), built entirely with semiconductor elements. The input language of the machine was similar to standard mathematical language.
The researchers at the Institute used many of the innovations from Promin in the other series of Ukrainian-made Soviet engineering and personal computers that were developed soon after.
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