The Harvard Mark III, also known as ADEC (for Aiken Dahlgren Electronic Calculator) was an early computer that was parially electomechanical and partially electronic. It was built at Harvard under the supervision of Howard Aiken and delivered to the U.S. Naval Proving Ground at the US Navy base at Dahlgren, Virginia in January 1951. Harvard, see Harvard (disambiguation) Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... Howard Hathaway Aiken is considered one of the pioneers of the computer field, being the primary engineer behind IBMs Harvard Mark I computer. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... Dahlgren is a census-designated place located in King George County, Virginia. ...
The Mark III's word consisted of thirty-six bits, storing sixteen decimal digits, plus a sign. It used 5,000 vacuum tubes and 1,500 crystal diodes. It used magnetic drum memory. Instructionsd and data were stored on different drums. Its addition time was 4,400 microseconds and the multiplication time was 13,200 microseconds (times include memory access time). In computing, word is a term for the natural unit of data used by a particular computer design. ... A bit (abbreviated b) is the most basic information unit used in computing and information theory. ... In electronics, a vacuum tube (American English) or (thermionic) valve (British English) is a device generally used to amplify a signal. ... Types of diodes A diode functions as the electronic version of a one-way valve. ... The Magnetic Drum was invented by G. Taushek in 1932 in Austria. ... A microsecond is an SI unit of time equal to one millionth (10-6) of a second. ...
See also: Harvard Mark I, Howard Aiken Portion of the Harvard-IBM Mark 1, left side. ... Howard Hathaway Aiken is considered one of the pioneers of the computer field, being the primary engineer behind IBMs Harvard Mark I computer. ...
The HarvardMark II was an electromechanical computer built at Harvard University under the direction of Howard Aiken and was finished in 1947.
This is one reason that it was much faster than the Mark I. (The other reason was that it was funded by the US Navy, which could obtain state-of-the-art parts.) Its addition time was 125,000 microseconds and the multiplication time was 750,000 microseconds.
The Mark II was not a stored-program computer – it read an instruction of the program one at a time from a tape and executed it (like the Mark I).
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