BARK () was an early
electromechanical computer
A mechanical computer is a computer built from mechanical components such as levers and gears rather than electronic components. The most common examples are adding machines and mechanical counters, which use the turning of gears to increment ...
built in 1950. BARK was built using standard
telephone relays, implementing a
32-bit
In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform la ...
binary machine. It could perform addition in 150 ms and multiplication in 250 ms. It had a memory with 50
registers and 100 constants. It was later expanded to double the memory.
Howard Aiken
Howard Hathaway Aiken (March 8, 1900 – March 14, 1973) was an American physicist and a list of pioneers in computer science, pioneer in computing. He was the original conceptual designer behind IBM's Harvard Mark I, the United States' first C ...
stated in reference to BARK "This is the first computer I have seen outside Harvard that actually works."
History
BARK was developed by ''
Matematikmaskinnämnden'' (
Swedish Board for Computing Machinery) a few years before
BESK
BESK (''Binär Elektronisk SekvensKalkylator'', Swedish language, Swedish for "Binary Electronic Sequence Calculator") was Sweden's first electronic computer, using vacuum tubes instead of relays. It was developed by ''Matematikmaskinnämnden ...
. The machine was built with 8,000 standard telephone relays, 80 km of cable and with 175,000 soldering points. Programming was done by
plugboard
A plugboard or control panel (the term used depends on the application area) is an array of jack (connector), jacks or sockets (often called hubs) into which patch cords can be inserted to complete an electrical circuit. Control panels are som ...
. It was completed in February 1950 at a cost of 400,000
Swedish kronor
The krona (; plural: ''kronor''; currency sign, sign: kr; ISO 4217, code: SEK) is the currency of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use for the krona; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usual ...
(less than $100,000),
became operational on April 28, 1950, and was taken offline on September 22, 1954. The engineers on the team led by
Conny Palm
Conrad "Conny" Rudolf Agaton Palm (May 31, 1907 – December 27, 1951) was a Swedish electrical engineer and statistician, known for several contributions to teletraffic engineering and queueing theory. Rolf B. HaugenThe life and work of Conny Pa ...
were Harry Freese, Gösta Neovius, Olle Karlqvist, Carl-Erik Fröberg, G. Kellberg, Björn Lind, Arne Lindberger, P. Petersson and Madeline Wallmark.
See also
*
BESK
BESK (''Binär Elektronisk SekvensKalkylator'', Swedish language, Swedish for "Binary Electronic Sequence Calculator") was Sweden's first electronic computer, using vacuum tubes instead of relays. It was developed by ''Matematikmaskinnämnden ...
– Binär Elektronisk Sekvens-Kalkylator – Sweden's second computer.
*
Elsa-Karin Boestad-Nilsson, a programmer on BARK and BESK
*
SMIL – SifferMaskinen I Lund (The Number Machine in Lund)
*
History of computing hardware
The history of computing hardware spans the developments from early devices used for simple calculations to today's complex computers, encompassing advancements in both analog and digital technology.
The first aids to computation were purely mec ...
References
*
External links
Tekn. lic. Olle Karlqvist in memoriam(in Swedish)
memorial site of one of the engineers behind BARK and BESK. On BARK page there's a technical pdf document (in English): ''The BARK, A Swedish General Purpose Relay Computer''
One-of-a-kind computers
Electro-mechanical computers
Science and technology in Sweden
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