Computing at the University of British Columbia
Hardware
The following items are taken from the Hardware History section of the Timeline for the UBC Computer Science Department: http://www.cs.ubc.ca/timeline/taxonomy/term/13 ALWAC III-E, 1957 to 1961UBC installed the ALWAC III-E, invented by Axel Wenner-Gren, for the then-price of $80,000. It was in operation until 1961, and was replaced by an IBM 1620. Excerpt from BRL Report - 1961; Construction (Arithmetic unit only): Two commands at once are picked off the drum and unless the first command of the pair is an executed jump instruction, a second access to the drum is not required. as the next command is held ready for immediate use in a static register. PROGRAMMING AND NUMERICAL SYSTEM Negative numbers are indicated by sign. Decimal input and output are built-in with a single command capable of taking in up to 8 digits. Several systems are available both for floating point or fined point operations. Neumonic interpretive routines as well as symbolic compilers are in use. There are four registers, viz, a main accumulator 32 bits + sign + recoverable overflow bit, a secondaryaccumulator 32 bits + sign, an auxiliary register 32 bits + sign, and a 16 bit B-Box Index register. The first two registers are combined for double precision operations. Also, complete shiftabilityapplies to main accumulator as Knell as double length accumulator. Auxiliary register is used in multiplication, division, for special floating point assistance commands and risking operations. ARITHMETIC UNIT
Tuesday, January 1, 1957 to Sunday, January 1, 1961 IBM 1620, 1961 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1620IBM 7040 machine at the Computing Centre, 1964
The IBM 7040 machine at the Computing Centre. Its predecessor at UBC was the IBM 1620 (obtained in 1961).
Tuesday, July 14, 1964
IBM 370/168, machine room, keypunch room and card reader at the Computing Centre in 1973Keypunch room and card reader at the Computing Centre in 1973, used for computing at UBC, including CS.
Photo Credit
http://digitalcollections.library.ubc.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/arphotos/id/15875/rec/24 |