G.Oyunbayar: Mongolia has already proven that it can produce computers domestically

Although not many are aware, computers were first introduced to Mongolia as far back as 1973. The modern world cannot be imagined without computers, which are used from moment to moment and now come in various sizes, shapes and forms. Unlike the slim laptops and smart-phones we use today, computers – or more accurately, mainframes – used to take up whole rooms and were limited to very few tasks.

In the early 1980s, a group of young Mongolian computer enthusiasts decided that they wanted to build a computer with “modern screens,” like the ones used by western corporations and governments. The idea was brought into action in 1984, and thus, the first Mongolian-assembled computer was born with the name, “Och” (spark). The unveiling of Och caused a sensation, and it won an award at the Mongolian State Innovation Exhibition.

Although the group who built Och made proposals to mass produce their product, they found no help from the state. If only just a little support had been given to those young engineers, perhaps Mongolia might have become a major player in the development of computer science.

The following is an interview with G.Oyunbayar, one of the engineers who contributed to the development of Och.

-You were one of the inventors who designed the first Mongolian computer in 1984. What inspired you to assemble the computer?

-Mongolia first started using computers in 1973. The very first computer brought to Mongolia was the Minsk-32, after that, the IBM-360 and 370 were imported. After 1979, large companies in Mongolia realized the benefits of computers and started to utilize them widely.

Although computer development at the time was a relatively new thing, its growth was extremely fast. News and reports that a micro-computer, or personal computer, had been developed in the USA and France caused much sensation. I graduated from the Ukraine’s University of Technology in Financial Electronic Device Engineering, and I worked as an engineer at the Statistic Center’s Data and Calculation Department.
Our organization was visited by foreign engineers and advisors a lot. The visitors were often seen reading Byte Magazine, which featured stories on information and communications technology. It was there that I got the idea to make my own computer, when I saw a computer with a separate monitor. This led us to assemble the first Och in 1984.

-Where did you get the parts for Och?

-We had a micro-processor from a computer called Yes-1010, brought in from Hungary in 1979. We also had another model from Poland acquired in 1982, for provincial settlements. The model was called MEPA-100, which had Intel’s 8080 micro-processor.

When we scrambled parts from the two micro-computer models, we had nearly 50 percent of Och’s parts on hand.

-Wasn’t there any possibility of purchasing parts from abroad?

-You have to realize, computers weren’t very popular, and finding parts wasn’t easy. Although we told our superiors and other state organizations, they weren’t supportive.

So, in the end, for the parts that could not be found or purchased by individuals, we told them that some of their equipment was broken and needed replacement, which wasn’t true. That’s how we got the parts within half a year. For the rest of the parts, we had some Polish engineers brought in, and we assembled it all at the Young Innovator’s Palace’s electronics laboratory.

-You must have faced many technical and supply challenges when you were assembling the Och model. Tell us how you managed those challenges.

-It was very challenging for us to make the computer work, as we only had very limited, basic knowledge of the kind of thing we had to do.

There were times when we just wanted to give up and leave the project. Luckily, we managed to find a readymade scheme, and we installed an operating system called the Interpreter. In other words, the commands and coding were copied and typed into the computer.

The first couple of trials were discouraging, and just when we were about to give up on the project, it began to work. Finally, we saw a message on the screen saying, “System is operational. Please insert programming.”

We were very excited, and entered the programming that we designed in BASIC programming language. The program was recorded on a tape, and when we commanded it to run the program, Och would run the tape.

-Was the computer used for any special purpose?

-Although it wasn’t used by any organization after its assembly, we managed to prove that we could build computers domestically. At the time, only simple calculators were available, and we programmed very complex mathematical formulas into the model.

Although the processing power wasn’t very fast, it managed to solve complex problems within a few minutes. It could not only do math problems, but we played games on it as well. I don’t know if folks still play it, but we installed “Snake” on it. Everyone was interested in playing it.

Sometime later, we submitted the Och model to an exhibition that took place in Bulgaria, but during shipment, it was broken. We assembled the Och-2 using some parts from the first model.

-Not everyone can actualize their original ideas in real life. Did you try producing more computers, and did you talk to officials about it?

-After Och was built, we entered it into an innovation contest organized by the Mongolian State New Solution Exhibition, and won a bronze medal. During the exhibition, many officials and organizations expressed interest in incorporating computers in their operations. Even higher officials from the National Committee of Science and Technology and the Ministries came to see our product. From this point on, domestic mass production and the commercialization of computers was talked about. But most computer chips and parts were manufactured in the USA. To import the kind of parts we needed all the way from the USA and assemble them in Mongolia, was impossible at the time. Mainly because they wouldn’t sell such products in the quantities we wanted so liberally. When we looked at other options, like importing parts though Bulgaria and Poland, it alerted Western authorities to inspections and surveillance, and the official approvals for shipment would drag on. Foreign customs agencies back then had a firm policy against shipping highly advanced technology to communist nations. So the initiative to mass produce computers was abandoned for a while.

Mongolia was the first country to accept Singapore as an independent nation. Perhaps because of this, there were many proposals to cooperate on information and communications technology with Singapore. From then on, the head of Monel Group, formerly Yalalt, started shipping computer main-boards, and commercialized Monel computers in 1988. I sometimes think that the idea to undertake this venture was based on our project.

The name for our model, “Och” was chosen because fires have to start from a spark. We wanted to burn the fire of innovation. Before and after Monel started their production, there were many who made similar models to the Och. For instance, Davaanyam, the engineer who founded NIK and Petrovis, and PhDs Ganbaatar and Batmunkh made computers for different purposes.

Other computer makers include electronic engineers from the BayanMongol Technological Committee, and PhD Dorjderem of Khentii Province.

-We live in the age of information and communications technology. How would you evaluate Mongolia’s development in this field compared to the rest of the world?

-It is regrettable that there weren’t organizations devoted to developing information and communications technology back in my time. This made everything much harder.

If there were such organizations back then, or if they had shown us a little support, who is to say that Mongolia might not have had its own computer producers.

At the moment, in terms of communication, Mongolia is on par with world development. There are very few soums and communities without access to communication signals. There many ways of evaluating this, through factors such as the percentage of the population with cell phones. In terms of this, Mongolia is quite high on the global scale.

-What about in terms of education and skilled labor in the technology field?

-Judging from the number of workers being trained in the field, I would say Mongolia has enough. But it is no secret that we lack the education and skills to implement advanced technological projects like the ones done in developed countries such as the USA or Japan.

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