Buran vs. Orbiter

Actually, they weren't really important. The 4004 was the absolute first, and the 8086 was the useful first. The rest are like suborbital missions.

[n810]

That this thread started with buran vs. orbiter and has evolved into a debate on processors, i thought i'd throw a bit of info in.

Around the time the first pentium (80586) chips were released, the US Navy aquired what was in theory the Soviet analogue to the Navy's Ageis cruiser. The US version is a boat designed around a wicked powerful radar that can make you have 2 headed kids fi you stand in front of it.
Anyway the Soviet version of this ship had a strange device in it that was apparently coupled with the radar to track and hopefully target and destroy incoming anti-ship missiles. After a bit of research is was determined that it was a MECHANICAL COMPUTER! (that means not digital... not silicone based) This computer had to be removed for study by cutting the ship in half. (not something you could put in your carry on luggage)
The Navy had another surprise when they started taking apart the weapons systems on the boat. The missiles that were slaved to the radar system also had mechanical computers in them, although quite a bit smaller than the shipboard one.
(This was detailed in a copy of popular science a few years back.)

It kind of makes you wonder, when any tourist could could purchase a 486 laptop and take it back to russia, why were they building monster mechanical computers? Is it possible that they might have tried to impletment such a machine to help control guidance on Buran? I know the computers on MIR were kinda kludgy, perhaps they used something similar there too?

Go Broncos

Using the 486 chips in the guidance array would mean relying on the smugglers to supply the chips. In case of war the supply would be cut off and they would be screwed. Relying on your enemy to supply you with weaponry doesn't work very well.