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Serial Computer
A serial computer is a computer typified by bit-serial architecture i.e., internally operating on one bit or numerical digit, digit for each clock signal, clock cycle. Machines with serial main storage devices such as acoustic or magnetostrictive Delay-line memory, delay lines and drum memory, rotating magnetic devices were usually serial computers. Serial computers require much less hardware than their bit-parallel counterparts which exploit bit-level parallelism to do more computation per clock cycle. There are modern variants of the serial computer available as a soft microprocessor which can serve niche purposes where the size of the CPU is the main constraint. The first computer that was not serial and used a parallel bus was the Whirlwind I, Whirlwind in 1951. A serial computer is not necessarily the same as a computer with a 1-bit architecture, which is a subset of the serial computer class. 1-bit computer instructions operate on data consisting of single bits, whereas a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Bit-serial Architecture
In computer architecture, bit-serial architectures send data one bit at a time, along a single wire, in contrast to Parallel transmission, bit-parallel word (computer architecture), word architectures, in which data values are sent all bits or a word at once along a group of wires. All digital computers built before 1951, and most of the early massively parallel (computing), massive parallel processing machines used a bit-serial architecture—they were serial computers. Bit-serial architectures were developed for digital signal processing in the 1960s through 1980s, including efficient structures for bit-serial multiplication and accumulation. The HP Nut processor used in many Hewlett-Packard calculators operated bit-serially. Assuming N is an arbitrary integer number, N serial processors will often take less FPGA area and have a higher total performance than a single N-bit parallel processor. See also * Serial computer * 1-bit computing * Bit banging * Bit slicing * BKM a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Elliott 152
The Elliot 152 was a vacuum tube fixed-program computer developed for naval gunnery control at the Elliott Brothers laboratory in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. It was an early example of a digital real-time computer system, and the first computer produced by Elliott Brothers. The first and only unit was made operational in 1950. The machine used 16-bit words and two's complement binary arithmetic. Instruction words were 20 bits long. Read/write memory was provided by a bank of 16 Williams tubes, a cathode-ray tube that could store 256 bits of data – the total memory was 256 16-bit words. The access time of the memory limited the processor clock speed to 333 kHz. The computer could multiply two numbers in 60 microseconds.Simon Lavington, ''Moving Targets: Elliott-Automation and the Dawn of the Computer Age in Britain, 1947 – 67'', Springer Science & Business Media, 2011, pp. 58-62 The system hardware was built on glass printed circuit board A printed circuit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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HP Saturn
The Saturn family of 4-bit computing, 4-bit (datapath) microprocessors was developed by Hewlett-Packard in the 1980s first for the HP-71B handheld computer, released in 1984, and later for various HP calculators (starting with the HP-18C). It succeeded the ''HP Nut, Nut'' family of processors used in earlier calculators. The HP48SX and HP48S were the last models to use HP manufactured Saturn processors, later models used processors manufactured by NEC. The HP 49 series initially used the Saturn CPU until the NEC fab could no longer manufacture the processor for technical reasons in 2003. Starting with the HP 49g+ model in 2003, the calculators switched to a Samsung Samsung S3C2410, S3C2410 processor with an ARM920T core (part of the ARMv4T architecture) which ran an emulator of the Saturn hardware in software. In 2000, the HP 39G and HP 40G were the last calculators introduced based on the actual NEC fabricated Saturn hardware. The last calculators introduced to use the Saturn e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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HP-35
The HP-35 was Hewlett-Packard's first pocket calculator and the world's first ''scientific'' pocket calculator: a calculator with trigonometric and exponential functions. It was introduced in 1972. History In about 1970 HP co-founder Bill Hewlett challenged France Rode to create a "shirt-pocket sized HP-9100". At the time, slide rules were the only practical portable devices for performing trigonometric and exponential functions, as existing pocket calculators could only perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Introduced at , like HP's first scientific calculator, the desktop 9100A, it used reverse Polish notation (RPN) rather than what came to be called "algebraic" entry. The "35" in the calculator's name came from the number of keys. The original HP-35 was available from 1972 to 1975. In 2007 HP announced the release of the "retro"-look HP 35s to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the launch of the original HP-35. It was priced at . The HP-35 was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Datapoint 2200
The Datapoint 2200 was a mass-produced programmable terminal usable as a computer, designed by Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC) founders Phil Ray and Gus Roche and announced by CTC in June 1970 (with units shipping in 1971). It was initially presented by CTC as a versatile and cost-efficient terminal for connecting to a wide variety of mainframes by loading various terminal emulations from tape rather than being hardwired as most contemporary terminals, including their earlier Datapoint 3300. Dave Gust, a CTC salesman, realized that the 2200 could meet Pillsbury Foods's need for a small computer in the field, after which the 2200 was marketed as a stand-alone computer. Its industrial designer John "Jack" Frassanito has later claimed that Ray and Roche always intended the Datapoint 2200 to be a full-blown personal computer, but that they chose to keep quiet about this so as not to concern investors and others. The terminal's multi-chip CPU (processor)'s instruction set be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Kenbak-1
The Kenbak-1 is considered by the Computer History Museum, the Mimms Museum of Technology and Art and the American Computer Museum to be the world's first "personal computer", invented by John Blankenbaker (born 1929) of Kenbak Corporation in 1970 and first sold in early 1971. Less than 50 machines were ever built, using Bud Industries enclosures as a housing. The system first sold for US$750. Today, only 14 machines are known to exist worldwide, in the hands of various collectors and museums. Production of the Kenbak-1 stopped in 1973, as Kenbak failed and was taken over by CTI Education Products, Inc. CTI rebranded the inventory and renamed it the 5050, though sales remained elusive. Since the Kenbak-1 was invented before the first microprocessor, the machine did not have a one-chip CPU but was instead based purely on 7400-series TTL chips. The 8-bit machine offered 256 bytes of memory, implemented on Intel's type 1404A silicon gate MOS shift registers. The clo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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F14 CADC
The F-14's Central Air Data Computer, also abbreviated as CADC, computes altitude, vertical speed, air speed, and mach number from sensor inputs such as pitot and static pressure and temperature. From 1968 to 1970, the first CADC to use custom digital integrated circuits was developed for the F-14. History The CADC was a multi-chip integrated flight control system developed by Garrett AiResearch and used in early versions of the US Navy's F-14 Tomcat fighter. It is notable for early use of MOS custom integrated circuits and has been claimed as the first microprocessor chipset. The first commercial microprocessor chip was the contemporary Intel 4004. The 4004 did not have nearly the computing power or interfacing capability required to perform the functions of the CADC. At the time, the best integrated circuit (chip) technology available lacked the scale (number of transistors per chip) necessary to build a single-chip microprocessor for a flight control system. The CADC was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Process Control Computer
A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management *Business process, activities that produce a specific service or product for customers *Business process modeling, activity of representing processes of an enterprise in order to deliver improvements *Manufacturing process management, a collection of technologies and methods used to define how products are to be manufactured. *Process architecture, structural design of processes, applies to fields such as computers, business processes, logistics, project management * Process area, related processes within an area which together satisfies an important goal for improvements within that area * Process costing, a cost allocation procedure of managerial accounting *Process management (project management), a systematic series of activities directed towards planning, monitoring the performance and ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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PDP-8/S
The PDP-8 is a family of 12-bit minicomputers that was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the first commercially successful minicomputer, with over 50,000 units sold during the model's lifetime. Its basic design follows the pioneering LINC but has a smaller instruction set, which is an expanded version of the PDP-5 instruction set. Similar machines from DEC are the PDP-12 which is a modernized version of the PDP-8 and LINC concepts, and the PDP-14 industrial controller system. Overview The earliest PDP-8 model, informally known as a "Straight-8", was introduced on 22 March 1965 priced at $18,500 (). It uses diode–transistor logic packaged on flip chip cards in a machine about the size of a small household refrigerator. It was the first computer to be sold for under $20,000, making it the best-selling computer in history at that time. The Straight-8 was supplanted in 1966 by the PDP-8/S, which was available in desktop and rack-mount models. Using a one-bit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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D-17B
The D-17B (D17B) computer was used in the Minuteman I NS-1OQ missile guidance system. The complete guidance system contained a D-17B computer, the associated stable platform, and power supplies. The D-17B weighed approximately , contained 1,521 transistors, 6,282 diodes, 1,116 capacitors, and 5094 resistors. These components were mounted on double copper-clad, engraved, gold-plated, glass fiber laminate circuit boards. There were 75 of these circuit boards and each one was coated with a flexible polyurethane compound for moisture and vibration protection. The high degree of reliability and ruggedness of the computer were driven by the strict requirements of the weapons system. Design constraints High reliability was required of the D-17B. It controlled a key weapon that would have just one chance to execute its mission. Reliability of the D-17B was achieved through the use of solid-state electronics and a relatively simple design. Simpler diode logic, DRL (diode–resistor) logic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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ZEBRA (computer)
The ZEBRA (Zeer Eenvoudige Binaire Reken Automaat translated Very Simple Binary Automatic Calculator) was one of the first computers to be designed in the Netherlands, (the first one was the " ARRA") and one of the first Dutch computers to be commercially available. It was designed by Willem van der Poel of the Netherlands Post, Telegraph and Telephone, and first delivered in 1958. The production run consisted of fifty-five machines, manufactured and marketed by the British company Standard Telephones and Cables, Ltd. The ZEBRA was a binary, two-address machine with a 33-bit word length. Storage was provided by a magnetic drum memory holding 8K words organised as 256 tracks of 32 instructions; accumulators were also implemented as recirculating drum tracks in a manner similar to that used in the Bendix G-15. Peripherals included paper tape reader and punch, and a teleprinter. In 1967, six Zebra computers were in use in UK universities and technical colleges. Programming La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |