Boris Babayan was born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1933. He finished 10-year secondary school in Baku, then moved to Moscow to attend Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He graduated in 1957. He believes himself to be the first student of computer science in Russia. His current position is as an Intel Fellow, Dir. Of Architecture for the Software and Solutions group, and Microprocessor Technology Chair at Intel. He is the winner of USSR State Prize and the Lenin Prize. These prizes were awarded for his work in the development and implementation of complex equipment for design automation and for multiprocessor computer systems [Elbrus 2]. This oral history covers the early development of computers and computer science within the Soviet Union. Later discussions explain the transition to a market-based economy and its effect on computer science research in Russia.
Funding for his team’s research stopped in 1991, and he was forced to look elsewhere for funds. There had been previous high level contacts with Sun Microsystems and they established a SPARC Technology Center in Moscow. He and his team subsequently became employees of Intel in 2004.
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Intel; semiconductor history; SPARC; Ditzel, David; superscalar; Elbrus; Lenin Prize; Bolshaya Elektronno-Schetnaya Mashina (BESM); Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Equipment (IMPCE); Lebedev, Sergey
