CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

SM-1420

Open-knowledge reference entry

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 19, 2025
Entity authorityQ7391024 ↗
Source-derived summary

The SM-1420 (CM-1420) is a 16 bit DEC PDP-11/45 minicomputer clone, and the successor to SM-4 in Soviet Bloc countries. Under the direction of Minpribor it was produced in the Soviet Union and Bulgaria from 1983 onwards, and is more than twice as fast as its predecessor. Its closest western counterpart is the DEC PDP-11/45, which means that the Soviet technology trailed 11 years behind compared to the Digital Equipment Corporation equivalent machine.

The standard package includes 256 KiB MOS memory, two RK-06 disks, two TU-10 decks, CM-6315 barrel or DZM-180 dot-matrix printer from Mera Blonie (Poland), VT52 compatible or VTA-2000-15 (BTA 2000-15) VT100 compatible terminals from Mera Elzab.

Editorial summary

“SM-1420” enters the record as open-knowledge reference entry. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what SM-1420, Open-knowledge and entry can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1420, 1983, 2000—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around SM-1420, Open-knowledge and entry.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“SM-1420” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, SM-1420, Open-knowledge and entry provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7391024. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1420, 1983 and 2000.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “SM-1420”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow SM-1420 primary sources, SM-1420 archive and SM-1420 research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “SM-1420”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “SM-1420” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.