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BINAC, the Binary Automatic Computer, was an early electronic computer designed for Northrop Aircraft Company by the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in 1949. Jump to: navigation, search A computer is a device or machine for processing information from data according to a program — a compiled list of instructions. ...
The Northrop Corporation was a leading aircraft manufacturer of the United States. ...
The Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) was founded by J. Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly, and was incorporated on December 22, 1947. ...
Jump to: navigation, search 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ...
The BINAC was a 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. Jump to: navigation, search The binary numeral system represents numeric values using two symbols, typically 0 and 1. ...
Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
In computing, word is a term for the natural unit of data used by a particular computer design. ...
Delay line memory was a form of computer memory used on some of the earliest digital computers, such as the EDSAC and UNIVAC I. The first such systems consisted of a column of mercury with piezo crystal transducers (a combination of speaker and microphone) at either end. ...
Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
In electronics, a vacuum tube (American English) or (thermionic) valve (British English) is a device generally used to amplify a signal. ...
Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the unit of information. ...
A microsecond is an SI unit of time equal to one millionth (10-6) of a second. ...
The octal numeral system is the base-8 number system, and uses the digits 0 to 7. ...
Decimal, or less commonly, denary, usually refers to the base 10 numeral system. ...
The BINAC ran a test program (consisting of 23 instructions) in March 1949, although it wasn't fully functional at the time. Here are early test programs that BINAC ran: Jump to: navigation, search An instruction is a form of communicated information that is both command and explanation for how an action, behavior, method, or task is to be begun, completed, conducted, or executed. ...
- 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 picked up BINAC in September 1949. Northrop employees said that BINAC never worked properly after it was delivered, although it worked at the Eckert-Mauchly workshop. It was able to run some small problems but didn't work well enough to be used as a production machine. The failures were attributed to it not being properly shipped when Northrop picked it up.
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