Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper designed the MARK series of computers at Harvard
University. The MARK series of computers began with the Mark I in 1944. Imagine a
giant roomful of noisy, clicking metal parts, 55 feet long and 8 feet high. The 5-ton
device contained almost 760,000 separate pieces. Used by the US Navy for gunnery and
ballistic calculations, the Mark I was in operation until 1959.
The computer, controlled by pre-punched paper tape, could carry out addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division and reference to previous results. It had special
subroutines for logarithms and trigonometric functions and used 23 decimal place
numbers. Data was stored and counted mechanically using 3000 decimal storage wheels,
1400 rotary dial switches, and 500 miles of wire. Its electromagnetic relays classified the
machine as a relay computer. All output was displayed on an electric typewriter. By
today's standards, the Mark I was slow, requiring 3-5 seconds for a multiplication
operation
University. The MARK series of computers began with the Mark I in 1944. Imagine a
giant roomful of noisy, clicking metal parts, 55 feet long and 8 feet high. The 5-ton
device contained almost 760,000 separate pieces. Used by the US Navy for gunnery and
ballistic calculations, the Mark I was in operation until 1959.
The computer, controlled by pre-punched paper tape, could carry out addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division and reference to previous results. It had special
subroutines for logarithms and trigonometric functions and used 23 decimal place
numbers. Data was stored and counted mechanically using 3000 decimal storage wheels,
1400 rotary dial switches, and 500 miles of wire. Its electromagnetic relays classified the
machine as a relay computer. All output was displayed on an electric typewriter. By
today's standards, the Mark I was slow, requiring 3-5 seconds for a multiplication
operation
No comments:
Post a Comment