May 5th, 2020 : AKAT-1

[xoxoxoBruce]

The AKAT-1, a Polish made analog computer from 1959.
The world's first differential equations analyzer based on transistors.

Jacek Karpiński (9 April 1927 – 21 February 2010) was a Polish pioneer in computer engineering and computer science.
During World War II, he was a soldier in the Batalion Zośka of the Polish Home Army, and was awarded multiple times with a Cross of Valour. Later, he became a developer of one of the first machine learning algorithms, techniques for character and image recognition.

In 1971, he designed one of the first minicomputers, the K-202. Because of the policy on computer development in the People's Republic of Poland, belonging to the Comecon (Soviet directed Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) that time, the K-202 was never mass-produced.

Being a popular war hero who fought the Nazis he might become a threat to the commies
so his creations were not produced and he wouldn’t get personal credit.

He said OK, I’ll be a pig farmer, and in 1981 they let him move to Switzerland.

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