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KF5JRV > TECH 11.09.16 15:33l 51 Lines 2115 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 1773_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Standards Electronic Automatic Computer SEAC
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N0KFQ<KF5JRV
Sent: 160911/1315Z 1773@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQK1.4.65
SEAC (Standards Eastern Automatic Computer or Standards Electronic
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 operation while the NBS waited for more powerful
computers to be completed (the DYSEAC). The team that developed
SEAC was organized by Samuel N. Alexander.[3] SEAC was demonstrated
in April 1950 and in May 1950 it went into full production, making
it the first fully functional stored-program electronic computer
in the US.
Based on EDVAC, SEAC used only 747 vacuum tubes (a small number
for the time) eventually expanded to 1500 tubes. It had 10,500 germanium
diodes which performed all of the logic functions.
They were expanded to 16,000. It was the first computer to do most
of its logic with solid-state devices. The tubes were used for
amplification, inversion and storing information in dynamic
flip-flops. The machine used 64 acoustic delay lines to store 512
words of memory, with each word being 45 bits in size. The clock
rate was kept low (1 MHz).
The computer's instruction set consisted of only eleven types of
instructions: fixed-point addition, subtraction, multiplication,
and division; comparison, and input & output. It eventually
expanded to 16.
The addition time was 864 microseconds and the multiplication
time was 2980 microseconds (i.e. close to 3 milliseconds).
On some occasions SEAC was used by a remote teletype. This makes
it one of the first computers to be used remotely. With many
modifications, it was used until 1964. Some of the problems
run on it dealt with:
digital imaging, led by Russell A. Kirsch
meteorology
linear programming
optical lenses
a program for Los Alamos National Laboratory
tables for LORAN navigation
statistical sampling plans
wave function of the helium atom
designing a proton synchrotron
73, Scott kf5jrv
KF5JRV @ KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
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