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Alexander Iofa: “Leading a large team is walking along the edge of a knife”



Alexander Leonidovich Iofa was born in Petrograd on March 5, 1921 in an engineer’s family, before the war he graduated from high school and entered the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. In 1941, he was drafted into the army from the third year, and a year later Iofa found himself in occupied territory and miraculously survived.

After the war, he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute and was assigned to the Design Bureau of the Vodtranspribor plant, later transformed into Morphizpribor. Here, Alexander Leonidovich worked for 65 years with a six-year break and left the institute when he was 95.

For more than 30 years, Iofa led the laboratory, which was the first to introduce computer technology to sonar systems. Under his leadership, a number of computing systems of their own original architecture, focused on digital signal processing, were developed.

In the eyes of Iofa and with his participation, computer technology has come a long way from tube triodes to the current state.

On the eve of his 99th birthday, Alexander Leonidovich shared his memories with the DataArt museum project.

War


What I was attracted to technology, I realized back in school. I was lucky with the teachers - I graduated from the First Model School of the Kuibyshev District, very good. The quality of training allowed me to enter the Electromechanical Faculty of the Polytechnic Institute rather smoothly.

In June, the forty-first graduated from the third year, and in early August he was drafted into the army. The military enlistment office unexpectedly found out that third-year students are to be enrolled in military academies - literally the day before the corresponding order was issued by Budenny, the deputy commissar of defense. I was sent to the Budyonny Academy of Communications, my comrades from the Faculty of Engineering and Physics - to the Lenin Artillery Academy.


During the war, officer courses were held at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute itself.

Next is the blockade. It was decided to evacuate the academy. In early December, we exported equipment - dragged it to the airfield, from where we were thrown on planes across Lake Ladoga. Frost of 40 degrees, we are in summer uniforms ... When we were in Novaya Ladoga, we were fattened as we could, but they immediately warned us not to overeat after hunger. The guys who violated this rule ended up in hospitals, the rest were taken to Tomsk, where the academy was transferred. There I ended up in the hospital - exudative pneumonia began. After treatment, doctors recommended going somewhere to recover. They gave me a vacation, and I went to my parents who were evacuated from Leningrad to the Caucasus to Armavir.

My father came to Armavir in March and was the leader of local industry. In the summer, the Germans began to rapidly approach the city, and their father was instructed to evacuate the equipment of several enterprises. However, it was too late. Shelling and bombing of the city began.
We went on foot in the direction of Ordzhonikidze with a little sister in her arms and with things. When a certain number of kilometers passed, we saw a wave of people walking towards: “Where are you going? There are Germans! ”


Italian soldiers visiting a Soviet training aircraft at a captured airfield in Armavir.

Next, a whole saga: how to stay alive? All Jews had to wear yellow stars, but I did not wear it, put it in my pocket. My father was beaten by policemen in the street, for some time he went down. There is no work, no food, you cannot appear on the street.

We decided to get fake passports. The mistress of our house tore the sheets from which the nationality was indicated from the house book. My mother was very similar to an Armenian, and many Armenians lived in Armavir. Mom received a passport, with the nationality indicated in it - Armenian.

I went to get a passport. But the police chief knew my father and said that "for the Jews there can be no talk about any passports, let them go to the Gestapo." The Gestapo wrote me a paper in German: "Set nationality, issue a passport." When I brought her to the police, the girls who worked there said: “We don’t understand.” “Let me translate for you,” I say. And translated: "Nationality is established, issue a passport." It saved me. All Jews, except our family and another couple, were destroyed. As it turned out later, everyone was shot at a brick factory in Armavir.


Outskirts of Armavir, 1942. Only in Armavir and its immediate vicinity from August 1942 to January 1943 at least 526 Jews were killed by German occupation units

When the Germans left, I stayed in Armavir to work at the power station. The next draft in the army began, on the Small Earth. He came for a physical examination, but they told me: "There can be no talk about any Lesser Earth - you don’t see anything." My vision was really useless - when I was called up for the first time, I learned the table by heart. As a result, they issued a white ticket.

I worked at the power plant for a year and a half. Having no practical experience (three courses behind him), he restored the generator, built a substation, became the head of the network, and the deputy chief of the electric shop. After that, having decided that he needed to study, he left for Moscow, where he entered the 4th year at the Energy Institute.


Armavir after liberation. Analysis of blockages in the city center

After the war


After graduating from the 4th year of the Energy Institute, he returned to Leningrad to the Polytechnic Institute. I had to graduate in 1947 according to an individual plan in the specialty "Automation and Drive". During the war, people grew up quickly enough. By that time, I had already worked at the Orgtyazhmash Institute and organized a group of specialists in commissioning the machines that we received from Germany from reparations.

These machines came with chopped cables, without documentation. It was necessary to launch them for the specific task that the plant was guided by. Naturally, these were truncated technical requirements, because too much equipment was broken. Everything that we managed to restore, we installed at three Leningrad factories: named after Lenin, Stalin and Kulakov. On one of these machines - Sellers machine - I wrote a diploma.

After the defense, I was assigned to the OKB of the Vodtranspribor plant, although I resisted the distribution because I already worked at Orgtyazhmash. But discipline in those years was quite strict, the plant director Nagavkin said: “Young man, if you do not come to me in three weeks, I will take the matter to court.” I understood that it is hardly worth starting a judicial history, and I came to the design bureau of the plant. OKB was later transformed into NII-3, which over time became known as "Morphizpribor."

I worked in it for only 65 years.


"Vodtranspribor" - the company PO Box 206, the first factory in the USSR sonar equipment, was commissioned on June 1, 1933. The OKB 206 created on it became the basis for the Central Research Institute "Morphizpribor"

True, there was a break. For understandable reasons, in 1951 I was offered to leave the institute: "We did not manage to defend you." I didn’t ask any more questions - times were tough. Shortly before the dismissal, we successfully completed the development, passed the tests, I was offered to become the deputy chief designer of the next development. But everything changed in one moment.

Five years later, when I worked at Teploelektroproekt, I accidentally met the chief engineer of Morphizpribor Evgeny Ilyich Aladyshkin. “Stalin has long been gone, but you go somewhere. We need specialists, come back, ”he said. After a couple of months, I did so. Having retired in 51, in 56 I returned to college, to which, in fact, I gave my whole life.

When I returned, I thought that I would end up in the same automation laboratory where I had worked before. But Yevgeny Ilyich told me: “Let's think about your wishes afterwards. The speaker station you designed does not work for us. There is some damn hindrance, which cannot be got rid of. We must defeat her. ”

Acoustic station "Tamir-11" stood on a small torpedo boat. I was engaged in the drive, and it was from that part that the big tip went. He removed it two months later, after which the doors of the automation laboratory opened for me. There we were mainly engaged in relay automation.


Hydroacoustic stations “Tamir-11” were adopted in 1958. They were installed, in particular, on class 201 marine hunters

Sixties. The beginning of the digital era


Once, quite unexpectedly, they called to the director of me and my friend, who was the head of our laboratory. The director said simply: “A decision was made to organize a digital laboratory at the institute. The one in which you are now, we will share. Which of you will remain the boss of the old, and who will be the boss of the new? ” So I became the head of the laboratory of digital computing, which immediately came 12-15 employees. Then their number grew to 120 people - the whole enterprise.


"Work on the computer." New Year’s caricature of Vyacheslav Prokofiev, engineer of OKB Vodtranspribor, 1969. The presence of pointer devices and an oscilloscope say that the analogue, not digital, computer is shown on the caricature

The first two to three years were very difficult. When I studied at the Polytechnic Institute, digital computing did not exist. It was only clear that digital technology was a perspective that should be guided by.

Learning is difficult, but it is the most useful of all that can be. Technical literature existed in the public domain, but it was very difficult to read - preparation was required. There were incredible problems with the element base. Transistors are in crazy short supply; nobody gave them to us for prototyping. I remember very well: in order to understand what a digital counter is, we collected it simply on lamps.


Analog computers are still widely used. In the 1970s, they directly competed with the digital. In the photo, the basic elements of the construction of analog (left) and digital (right) on-board computers. The use of gold indicates the military purpose of the microcircuit.

The complexity of the situation was that there were not enough specialists. Fortunately, several people came who were oriented in digital technology much wider and more reliable than those who worked at the beginning, including me. As a leader, this gave me a fulcrum. I was lucky: life pushed me with highly qualified specialists.

Despite the difficulties, the scope of work on digital computing was gradually expanding. There was fierce competition from analog technology. The figure often lost in some ways, but for the most part we never “failed”. The management supported us, there was endless talk about expanding the digital theme.

There was a lot of work, even before the end of one project, we got involved in the next. So far, these were not large projects, but separate devices, functional blocks.

Seventies. Computer on board


By the beginning of the 70s, we were ripe before installing a computer in a sonar complex. This was the imperative of the time. It was a question of hydroacoustic complexes for second-generation submarines; on computers they were entrusted with the tasks of controlling and transmitting data to other ship systems.

Neither the experience of us, nor the institute as a whole had any experience in performing a completely new task. Hot discussions flared up. The venue was usually technical advice, which took place very rapidly. But disputes never turned to individuals, and prepared for technical advice day and night. It was necessary to build a report so as to interest people. To speak “without stepping on the foot” to those who express a different point of view. All this was far from simple. But the institute believed us.

The key question is the choice of computers. In search of what could work for us, the choice fell on the Kiev Research Institute of Radio Electronics. They made several variants of Karat machines, one of which, small, suited us. She was brought to the ministry for demonstration in a storage box made from sweets. They put a small "Carat" on the table to the deputy minister - everyone was terribly surprised.

But Karat is a bare computer. And from the standpoint of today, a very primitive architecture (it seems that its developers did not know the concept of "stack"). We had to surround it with various devices. The result was a unified, structurally complete device - the “TsU” section (Central Administration). In addition, we have developed a system of unified modules for interfacing the central control unit with the external environment.

The TsU sections have stood on most second-generation boats for decades.


The Karat family of specialized computers developed at the Kiev Research Institute of Radio Electronics was adopted in the 1970s.

Eighties. Digital signal processing


In the late 70s, the development of a sonar complex for third-generation boats began. For the implementation of the given performance characteristics, there was only one way - digital signal processing. Over the past decade, the elemental base has taken a huge step forward, and this path has become possible.

We decided to develop a unified, functionally complete set of software and hardware of our own architecture, sufficient to build any subsystem of the complex. The kit included hardware modules, system software, cross-development and debugging tools. The most important goal was to increase the reliability of the software. ILLIAC-IV and PDP-11 served as inspirational examples.

There was a lot of noise about our ideas at the institute, both pro and contra. A large number of programmers came, they were used to working differently than we did, and the debate was quite tough.

We started to design, hoping for multilayer printed circuit boards. But suddenly it turned out that their use, for reasons of reliability, is prohibited in military equipment.

I had to come to original designs in general, which had never been anywhere else. A two-layer printed circuit board with platforms for installing microcircuits was made, and the connections were made with thin enameled wires. Installation was carried out by special machines.

Designers had to read a whole course in computer technology and the development of these boards. It was necessary to interest designers so that they understand why all this is being done. After this course, the design department, which was quite large at the institute, took our side.

They worked with tremendous enthusiasm, and they would have challenged the whole world. They arrived early in the morning, left God knows when. One of my comrades kept an air mattress in the laboratory so that you could sleep without leaving home. And this is in a closed enterprise, where they could tear my head off because someone was staying the night!

I remember the first revived system. Starting up, the system issued a powerful signal “I Sanya!”. So she reported that she turned on.


The name "Sanya" was given to the system in honor of the little daughter of the developer Boris Arshansky. In the photo from the demonstration, they are on the left, on the right - Kostya Potapov with his daughter Olya.


On our means, we built three subsystems of third-generation boats, which are still in operation, and a very large stationary lighting system for the underwater environment.

Lab life


To make a large system, a sufficiently large team of developers is needed, and we were given the opportunity to develop a laboratory. In addition to technical problems, a host of organizational problems arose, but I tried not to tell employees about my administrative troubles, which were quite a lot.

Once, on the eve of May 1, the director called me and said that he should go to the Far East, but he couldn’t, and asked me to go instead of him. There was a delivery of equipment on the boat, and for some reason the connection of our equipment with the adjacent one did not go. We saw that everything was being brought to an end on our part, but the director of an adjacent company told me: “I won’t let you go anywhere from here. I know that it does not go with us, but all the time I will say that it does not go with you. ” This was perhaps the most difficult situation - a vitally difficult one. And when their equipment worked, we left together. After that, we had a very good relationship with him. He became a big man, the head of the headquarters in the ministry.

There were several groups in the laboratory. The leader of each of them was responsible for a certain amount of work. I am grateful for the help and support of these talented people: Boris Arshansky, Konstantin Potapov, Yuri Polyakov, Leonid Molchadsky, Gennady Golubev. Surely, he didn’t name all, but without each of them we would not be able to create an excellent team aimed at leadership.

In our laboratory, there were very warm relations between people. The guys tried to trust each other, everyone knew about the difficulties of colleagues and were ready to help. When creating a team that has some kind of goal, it is very important to create such an environment. Yes, disputes and all sorts of nasty things happened - they are inevitable in life. But it is important not to aggravate them, and, it seems, I succeeded. If there were disputes between two specific people or someone came to complain, I always suggested solving this problem in a joint conversation. No talk separately, no individual benefits. Only group leaders and sector leaders had the right to freely leave the institute on the street during the working day. Another important point: managers received for the work done along with leading experts.


Caricatures are a traditional part of a democratic engineering culture characteristic of Soviet research institutes. This one was painted by the New Year in the late 1960s at Vodtranspribor.

It was very important to maintain a good atmosphere in the team. To do this, we also arranged joint campaigns — we went somewhere in the bosom of nature to simply defuse ourselves and play football. Holidays usually spent together. They locked the laboratory with a key and cooked mulled wine with buckets. They lived in the same family. And until now, we are happy to get together, despite the fact that so many years have passed.

Leadership of a large team - walking on a knife blade. So far, everything is going well, and you are doing well. But you stumble inevitably, and you need to hold back so as not to fall into the abyss. The team is behind you.


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