The Department of Specialized Digital Machines was established in 1956 at the Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, with Boris Mykolayovych Malynovsky, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War and then a candidate of technical sciences, appointed as its head. From 1956 to 1962, Boris Mykolayovych Malynovsky also served as deputy director of the Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR for scientific work. Since 1962, after the establishment of the Institute of Cybernetics of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the department was renamed the Department of Control Machines, as part of the cybernetic engineering division. The department was headed by B.M. Malynovsky.
In 1964, B.M. Malynovsky defended his dissertation to obtain the degree of Doctor of Sciences. In 1969, he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. From 1966 to 1971, he was deputy head of the cybernetic engineering division (which included the main technical departments of the institute), and from 1971 to 1988, he was the head of this division.
B.M. Malynovsky led the department until 1990, and from 1990 he was appointed by the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine as an advisor to the directorate of the V.M. Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
From 1990 to 2025, the department was headed by academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Vitaliy Petrovych Boyun.
In 2012, the department was renamed the Department of Real-Time Video Systems.
Since December 2025, the department has been headed by Oleksandr Mykolayovych Holovin.
Currently, the department employs 14 staff members, including an academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 1 Doctor of Sciences, and 4 candidates of sciences.