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KF5JRV > TECH 08.05.16 12:00l 57 Lines 3446 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 2634_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: First Computer Manual
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<N9PMO<GB7LDI<N0KFQ<KF5JRV
Sent: 160508/1052Z 2634@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
BINAC, the Binary Automatic Computer, was an early electronic computer
designed for Northrop Aircraft Company by the Eckert-Mauchly Computer
Corporation in 1949. Eckert and Mauchly, though they had started the design of
EDVAC at the University of Pennsylvania, chose to leave and start
Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC), the first computer company. BINAC
was their first product, the first stored-program computer in the US, and the
world's first commercial digital computer.
Architecture
The BINAC was an advanced bit-serial binary computer with two independent
CPUs, each with its own 512-word acoustic mercury delay line memory. The CPUs
continuously compared results to check for errors caused by hardware failures.
It used approximately 700 vacuum tubes. The 512-word acoustic mercury delay
line memories were divided into 16 channels each holding 32 words of 31 bits,
with an additional 11-bit space between words to allow for circuit delays in
switching. The clock rate was 4.25 MHz (1 MHz according to one source) which
yielded a word time of about 10 microseconds. The addition time was 800
microseconds and the multiplication time was 1200 microseconds. New programs
or data had to be entered manually in octal using an eight-key keypad. BINAC
was significant for being able to perform high-speed arithmetic on binary
numbers, with no provisions to store characters or decimal digits.
The BINAC ran a test program (consisting of 23 instructions) in March 1949,
although it was not fully functional at the time. Here are early test programs
that BINAC ran:
February 7, 1949 - Ran a five-line program to fill the memory from register A
February 10, 1949 - Ran a five-line program to check memory.
February 16, 1949 - Ran a six-line program to fill memory.
March 7, 1949 - Ran 217 iterations of a 23-line program to compute squares.
It was still running correctly when it stopped.
April 4, 1949 - Ran a fifty-line program to fill memory and check all
instructions. It ran for 2.5 hours before encountering an
error. Shortly after that it ran for 31.5 hours without error.
Northrop accepted delivery of BINAC in September 1949. Northrop employees said
that BINAC never worked properly after it was delivered, although it had
worked at the Eckert-Mauchly workshop. It was able to run some small problems
but did not work well enough to be used as a production machine. Northrop
attributed the failures to it not being properly packed for shipping when
Northrop picked it up; EMCC said that the problems were due to errors in
re-assembly of the machine after shipping. (Northrop, citing security
considerations, refused to allow EMCC technicians near the machine after
shipping, instead hiring a newly graduated engineering student to re-assemble
it. EMCC said that the fact that it worked at all after this was testimony to
the engineering quality of the machine.)
First computer user manual
Previous computers were the darlings of university departments of engineering.
The users knew the machines well. The BINAC was going to go to an end user,
and so a user manual was needed. Automobile "users" were quite accustomed in
those days to doing significant servicing of their vehicles, and "user
manuals" existed to help them. The BINAC manual writers took inspiration from
those manuals when writing the user manual for the BINAC.
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