Academset


Academset, or All-Union Academic network — was a computer network for providing digital connection of scientific and civil institutions across the USSR, that was established in 1978. After dissolution of the Soviet Union it was re-created under the name ROKSON, and nowadays its extant components may be considered as a local area network within the Runet and the Internet.

Creation and development

In 1974 in Leningrad, at the Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, a computing subdivision was established that was entitled Leningrad Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. The main goal of LVC was the creation of the Computing Center for Collective Use for staff of all of the institutions of the Leningrad Scientific Center. It was proven effective, that was specially remarked by AN SSSR and the authorities of the city and the country, and by the end of 1977 the VCKP was used by over 15 city's scientific institutions, that exploited computer performance of the Center. Following that, the Presidium of the AN SSSR asked the Government of the Soviet Union to convert LVC into the Leningrad Research Computer Center that was founded on January 19, 1978. Non-academic institutions, including factories, began to join its computing network. The network became known as ИВСКП/IVSKP — "Information and computing system for collective use".
LNIVC was in fact functioning as a central node of the forming city-wide computer network which began to be called LIVSAN/ЛИВСАН — "Leningrad information-computer network of the AN". In 1979 scientists at the AN considered it to be a success and began planning such network country-wide under the name Academset.
In 1982 in Moscow, a dedicated research institution, VNIIPAS, was established to serve as the central node of the Academset with the abroad x.25 connection to Austria to International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.