Datatron
The Datatron was a commercial digital computer that was built in series earlier and was developed by the Consolidated Engineering Corporation (CEC) in Pasadena (California) from 1951 onwards . Development was soon outsourced to a specially founded company called ElectroData Corporation, which was bought by Burroughs Corporation in mid-1956 . During all these changes and with new versions, the official name of the Datatron changed accordingly, from CEC 30-201 via ElectroData 203 to Burroughs 205 , or B205 for short .
history
Consolidated Engineering Corporation (CEC) was a manufacturer of measurement and analysis equipment used primarily in the oil industry, including successful mass spectrometers . The data output of a mass spectrometer requires complex calculations for the preparation of analyzes. For this purpose, CEC had developed an analog calculating machine in the 1940s under the direction of Clifford Berry and Sibyl M. Rock . In the early 1950s, Berry urged the CEC leadership to develop a digital computer that could be used for other purposes.
In 1951 Harry Huskey was hired, who at the time was working at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology ) and lecturing at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). A little later, the Norwegian mathematician Ernst Selmer , who had worked on the IAS computer, joined us.
In May 1952, CEC presented the Datatron (officially CEC 30-201) at the Pentagon as a "commercially available universal electronic digital computer at a moderate price", although development was still in full swing. The first systems (CEC 36-102 and 36-103, each equipped with a CEC 30-203 computer - the Datatron - and the associated peripheral devices ) were sent to the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) and the National Bureau of Standards in early 1954 (NBS) delivered. CEC 36-101 was the prototype that remained with CEC to test further developments.
A basic system cost 125,000 $ , although in 1951 a prize was announced of $ 50,000. However, various required extensions such as could tape , automatic typewriter and floating point unit to drive up the cost at $ 182,000. When the components were multiplied, there were hardly any upper limits.
During the development phase, CEC decided to outsource the computer division and founded ElectroData Corporation, in which CEC retained 36% of the shares. In early 1954, advertising for the new ElectroData 203 calculating machine (previously CEC 30-203) began. A total of seven systems were sold in 1954, compared to 13 in 1955. The later models 204 and 205 were essentially 203 computers with extensions.
ElectroData grew to become the third largest computer manufacturer in the world. Meanwhile, the company's management realized that the costly production was becoming a financial problem. On July 1, 1956, CEC sold ElectroData to the Burroughs Corporation, and the ElectroData 205 became the Burroughs 205, or B205 for short.
Technical details
The Datatron contained 1,525 electron tubes and was housed in a cabinet measuring 143.5 × 78 × 28 inches , the equivalent of about 365 × 198 × 71 cm. It is considered to be the first commercial computer with an index register and used a new technique with an increased drum memory access rate. Further innovations for commercial digital computers included an optional floating point unit , a sophisticated use of magnetic tape , a special data file subsystem with 50 relatively short magnetic tapes and the Cardatron subsystem for formatted data output.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Tom’s Datatron 205 Burroughs 205 Homepage (English)
- ↑ a b c d e Burroughs 205 Development Chronology (English)
- ↑ Burroughs 205 Prices, Weights and Power Consumption (English)