Russia’s commitment to “import substitution” has helped domestic computer manufacturers achieve a new feat: the first-ever personal computer built with a Russian processor. The machine, named the ARM Elbrus-401, first went on sale on May 5 for the low price of 200,000 rubles (about $4,000). ARM (Russian: АРМ) stands for “automated workplace”.
The computer’s maker, the Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies (MCST), a microprocessor company established in 1992, told the website TJournal that the device’s price would drop significantly by the end of the year, when mass production begins.
The ARM Elbrus-401 uses a quad Elbrus-4C microprocessor with a clock rate of 800 MHz, capable of a peak vector performance of 50 gigaflops. The computer comes installed with a 1-terabyte SATA 2.0 hard disk and an AMD Radeon 6000 graphics card.
For now, orders are only available to businesses.
The first ‘Elbrus-401’ PCs built with Russian ‘Elbrus-4C’ processors are now on sale.
WZorNET
For comparison, an Intel Core i5-2500k (Sandy Bridge) processor costs about 12,000 rubles ($235), and performs 118 gigaflops. The Intel Core i7-5960x (Haswell), meanwhile, can manage 350 gigaflops for 60,000 rubles (about $1,200).