The SWAC (from Standards Western Automatic Computer) was a first-generation electronic computer, built in 1950 by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (NBS). Like the SEAC, built about the same time, the SWAC was a small-scale interim computer designed to be built quickly and put into operation while the NBS waited for more powerful computers to be completed. The tower of a personal computer (specifically a Power Mac G5). ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about: United States Wikinews has news related to this article: United States United States government Official website of the United States government - Gateway to governmental sites White House - Official site of the US President Senate. ... As a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce’s Technology Administration, the National Institute of Standards (NIST) develops and promotes measurement, standards, and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate trade, and improve the quality of life. ... SEAC (Standards Electronic/Eastern Automatic Computer) was a first-generation electronic computer, built in 1950 by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (NBS) and was initially called the National Bureau of Standards Interim Computer, because it was a small-scale computer designed to be built quickly and put into...

The machine used 2300 vacuum tubes. It had 256 words of memory (using Williams tubes), with each word being 37 bits. It had only seven basic operations: add, subtract, and multiply (single precision and double precision versions); comparison, data extraction, input, and output. In electronics, a vacuum tube (American English) or (thermionic) valve (British English) is a device generally used to amplify a signal. ... The terms storage and memory refer to the parts of a digital computer that retain physical state (data) for some interval of time, possibly even after electrical power to the computer is turned off. ... A bit (abbreviated b) is the most basic information unit used in computing and information theory. ... In computing, single precision is a computer numbering format that occupies one storage locations in computer memory at address. ... In computing, double precision is a computer numbering format that occupies two storage locations in computer memory at address and address+1. ... Information processing In information processing, input is the process of receiving information from an object. ... Information processing In information processing, output is the process of transmitting information (verb usage). ...

When the SWAC was completed in July 1950, it was the fastest computer in the world. It continued to hold that status until the IAS computer was completed a year later. It could add two numbers and store the result in 64 microseconds. A similar multiplication took 384 microseconds. It was used by the NBS until 1954, and then by UCLA until 1967 (with modifications). The IAS machine was the first electronic digital computer built by the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton, NJ, USA. The IAS machine was designed by John von Neumann. ... A microsecond is an SI unit of time equal to one millionth (10-6) of a second. ... The University of California, Los Angeles, popularly known as UCLA, is a public, coeducational university situated in the neighborhood of Westwood within the city of Los Angeles. ...

In 1952, Raphael M. Robinson used the SWAC to to discover five Mersenne primes - the largest prime numbers known at the time, with 157, 183, 386, 664, and 687 digits. Raphael Mitchel Robinson (November 2, 1911 - January 27, 1995) was an American mathematician. ... In mathematics, a Mersenne prime is a prime number that is one less than a power of two. ...

See also: SEAC (Standards Eastern/Electronic Automatic Computer) SEAC (Standards Electronic/Eastern Automatic Computer) was a first-generation electronic computer, built in 1950 by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (NBS) and was initially called the National Bureau of Standards Interim Computer, because it was a small-scale computer designed to be built quickly and put into...

References

• Williams, Michael R. (1997). A History of Computing Technology. IEEE Computer Society.