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ILLIAC
ILLIAC (Illinois Automatic Computer) was a series of supercomputers built at a variety of locations, some at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. In all, five computers were built in this series between 1951 and 1974. Some more modern projects also use the name.
The architecture for the first two UIUC computers was taken from a technical report from a committee at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at Princeton, First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (1945), edited by John von Neumann (but with ideas from Eckert, Mauchley, and many others.) The designs in this report were not tested at Princeton until a later machine, JOHNNIAC, was completed in 1953. However, the technical report was a major influence on computing in the 1950s, and was used as a blueprint for many other computers, including two at the University of Illinois, which were both completed before Princeton finished Johnniac. The University of Illinois was the only institution to build two instances of the IAS machine. In fairness, several of the other universities, including Princeton, invented new technology (new types of memory or I/O devices) during the construction of their computers, which delayed those projects. For ILLIAC I, II, and IV, students associated with IAS at Princeton (Abraham H. Taub, Donald B. Gillies, Daniel Slotnick) played a key role in the computer designs.
ORDVAC was the first of two computers built under contract at the University of Illinois. ORDVAC was completed the spring of 1951 and checked out in the summer. In the fall it was delivered to the US Army's Aberdeen Proving Grounds and was checked out in roughly one week. As part of the contract, funds were provided to the University of Illinois to build a second identical computer known as ILLIAC I.
ILLIAC I was built at the University of Illinois based on the same design as the ORDVAC. It was the first von Neumann architecture computer built and owned by an American university. It was put into service on September 22, 1952.
ILLIAC I was built with 2,800 vacuum tubes and weighed about 5 tons. By 1956 it had gained more computing power than all computers in Bell Labs combined. Data was represented in 40-bit words, of which 1,024 could be stored in the main memory, and 12,800 on drum memory.
Immediately after the 1957 launch of Sputnik, the ILLIAC I was used to calculate an ephemeris of the satellite's orbit, later published in Nature.
ILLIAC I was decommissioned in 1963 when ILLIAC II (see below) became operational.
The ILLIAC II was the first transistorized and pipelined supercomputer built by the University of Illinois. ILLIAC II and the IBM 7030 Stretch were two competing projects to build first-generation transistorized supercomputers . ILLIAC II was an asynchronous logic design. At its inception in 1958 it was 100 times faster than competing machines of that day. It became operational in 1962, two years later than expected.
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ILLIAC AI simulator
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ILLIAC
ILLIAC (Illinois Automatic Computer) was a series of supercomputers built at a variety of locations, some at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. In all, five computers were built in this series between 1951 and 1974. Some more modern projects also use the name.
The architecture for the first two UIUC computers was taken from a technical report from a committee at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at Princeton, First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (1945), edited by John von Neumann (but with ideas from Eckert, Mauchley, and many others.) The designs in this report were not tested at Princeton until a later machine, JOHNNIAC, was completed in 1953. However, the technical report was a major influence on computing in the 1950s, and was used as a blueprint for many other computers, including two at the University of Illinois, which were both completed before Princeton finished Johnniac. The University of Illinois was the only institution to build two instances of the IAS machine. In fairness, several of the other universities, including Princeton, invented new technology (new types of memory or I/O devices) during the construction of their computers, which delayed those projects. For ILLIAC I, II, and IV, students associated with IAS at Princeton (Abraham H. Taub, Donald B. Gillies, Daniel Slotnick) played a key role in the computer designs.
ORDVAC was the first of two computers built under contract at the University of Illinois. ORDVAC was completed the spring of 1951 and checked out in the summer. In the fall it was delivered to the US Army's Aberdeen Proving Grounds and was checked out in roughly one week. As part of the contract, funds were provided to the University of Illinois to build a second identical computer known as ILLIAC I.
ILLIAC I was built at the University of Illinois based on the same design as the ORDVAC. It was the first von Neumann architecture computer built and owned by an American university. It was put into service on September 22, 1952.
ILLIAC I was built with 2,800 vacuum tubes and weighed about 5 tons. By 1956 it had gained more computing power than all computers in Bell Labs combined. Data was represented in 40-bit words, of which 1,024 could be stored in the main memory, and 12,800 on drum memory.
Immediately after the 1957 launch of Sputnik, the ILLIAC I was used to calculate an ephemeris of the satellite's orbit, later published in Nature.
ILLIAC I was decommissioned in 1963 when ILLIAC II (see below) became operational.
The ILLIAC II was the first transistorized and pipelined supercomputer built by the University of Illinois. ILLIAC II and the IBM 7030 Stretch were two competing projects to build first-generation transistorized supercomputers . ILLIAC II was an asynchronous logic design. At its inception in 1958 it was 100 times faster than competing machines of that day. It became operational in 1962, two years later than expected.