A serial computer is a computer typified by

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 ...

i.e., internally operating on one

bit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communication. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as ...

or digit for each

clock cycle In electronics and especially synchronous digital circuits, a clock signal (historically also known as ''logic beat'') is an electronic logic signal (voltage or current) which oscillates between a high and a low state at a constant frequency and ...

. Machines with serial

main storage Computer data storage or digital data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media that are used to retain digital data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers. The central processin ...

devices such as acoustic or

magnetostrictive Magnetostriction is a property of magnetic materials that causes them to change their shape or dimensions during the process of magnetization. The variation of materials' magnetization due to the applied magnetic field changes the magnetostrictive ...

delay lines and rotating magnetic devices were usually serial computers. Serial computers require much less hardware than their bit-parallel counterparts which exploit

bit-level parallelism Bit-level parallelism is a form of parallel computing based on increasing processor word size. Increasing the word size reduces the number of instructions the processor must execute in order to perform an operation on variables whose sizes are gr ...

to do more computation per clock cycle. There are modern variants of the serial computer available as a

soft microprocessor A soft microprocessor (also called softcore microprocessor or a soft processor) is a microprocessor core that can be wholly implemented using logic synthesis. It can be implemented via different semiconductor devices containing programmable logic ...

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 In data transmission, parallel communication is a method of conveying multiple binary digits ( bits) simultaneously using multiple conductors. This contrasts with serial communication, which conveys only a single bit at a time; this distinction ...

was the

Whirlwind A whirlwind is a phenomenon in which a vortex of wind (a vertically oriented rotating column of air) forms due to instabilities and turbulence created by heating and flow ( current) gradients. Whirlwinds can vary in size and last from a cou ...

in 1951. A serial computer is not necessarily the same as a computer with a

1-bit architecture In computer architecture, 1-bit integers or other data units are those that are (1/8 octet) wide. Also, 1-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers of that size. T ...

, which is a subset of the serial computer class. 1-bit computer instructions operate on data consisting of single bits, whereas a serial computer can operate on ''N''-bit data widths, but does so a single bit at a time.

Serial machines

EDVAC EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) was one of the earliest electronic computers. It was built by Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Along with ORDVAC, it was a successor to the ENIAC. ...

(1949) *

BINAC BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer) is an early electronic computer that was designed for Northrop Corporation, Northrop Aircraft Company by the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) in 1949. J. Presper Eckert, Eckert and Mauchly had started ...

(1949) * SEAC (1950) *

UNIVAC I The UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) was the first general-purpose electronic digital computer design for business application produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the invento ...

(1951) * Elliott Brothers

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 ...

(1954) *

Bendix G-15 The Bendix G-15 is a computer introduced in 1956 by the Bendix Corporation, Computer Division, Los Angeles, California. It is about and weighs about . The G-15 has a drum memory of 2,160 29-bit words, along with 20 words used for special purpos ...

(1956) *

LGP-30 The LGP-30, standing for Librascope General Purpose and then Librascope General Precision, is an early off-the-shelf computer. It was manufactured by the Librascope company of Glendale, California (a division of General Precision Inc.), and so ...

(1956) * Elliott Brothers

Elliott 803 The Elliott 803 is a small, medium-speed transistor digital computer which was manufactured by the British company Elliott Brothers in the 1960s. About 211 were built. History The 800 series began with the 801, a one-off test machine built i ...

(1958) *

ZEBRA Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), the plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. ...

(1958) *

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 ...

guidance computer (1962) *

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 pi ...

(1966) * General Electric GE-PAC 4040

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 se ...

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 ...

(1970) transferred all data serially, but internally operated on many bits in parallel *

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 ...

(1971) *

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 ...

(1971) *

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 He ...

(1972) * Digit-serial

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 ...

-based calculators from the

HP-71B The HP-71B was a hand-held computer or calculator programmable in BASIC, made by Hewlett-Packard from 1984 to 1989. Description Smaller and less expensive than the preceding model HP-75, the 71B has a single-line 22-character liquid crystal ...

(1974) to the

HP 50g The HP 49/50 series are Hewlett-Packard (HP) manufactured graphing calculators. They are the successors of the HP 48 series. There are five calculators in the 49/50 series of HP graphing calculators. These calculators have both algebrai ...

(2006–2015) *

National Semiconductor SC/MP National Semiconductor's SC/MP (pronounced ''scamp'') for Simple Cost-effective Micro Processor, is an early 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor which became available in April 1976. It was designed to allow systems to be implemented with the mi ...

(1976) *

Ferranti F100-L The Ferranti F100-L was a 16-bit microprocessor family announced by Ferranti in 1976 which entered production in 1977. It was among the first 16-bit single-chip CPUs, and the first 16-bit design to be designed in Europe. It was designed with milita ...

(1977)

16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two ...

, but uses a bit-serial

arithmetic logic unit In computing, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) is a Combinational logic, combinational digital circuit that performs arithmetic and bitwise operations on integer binary numbers. This is in contrast to a floating-point unit (FPU), which operates on ...

Massively parallel

Most of the early

massive parallel processing Massively parallel is the term for using a large number of computer processors (or separate computers) to simultaneously perform a set of coordinated computations in parallel. GPUs are massively parallel architecture with tens of thousands of ...

machines were built out of individual serial processors, including: *

ICL Distributed Array Processor The Distributed Array Processor (DAP) produced by International Computers Limited (ICL) was the world's first commercial massively parallel computer. The original paper study was complete in 1972 and building of the prototype began in 1974. The fir ...

(1979) *

Goodyear MPP The Goodyear Massively Parallel Processor (MPP) was a massively parallel processing supercomputer built by Goodyear Aerospace for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. It was designed to deliver enormous computational power at lower cost than ot ...

(1983) *

Connection Machine The Connection Machine (CM) is a member of a series of massively parallel supercomputers sold by Thinking Machines Corporation. The idea for the Connection Machine grew out of doctoral research on alternatives to the traditional von Neumann arch ...

CM-1 (1985) * Connection Machine CM-2 (1987) *

MasPar MasPar Computer Corporation (later NeoVista Software, Inc.) was a minisupercomputer vendor that was founded in 1987 by Jeff Kalb. The company was based in Sunnyvale, California. History While Kalb was the vice-president of the division of Digita ...

MP-1 (1990) 32-bit architecture, internally processed 4 bits at a time * VIRAM1

computational RAM Computational RAM (C-RAM) is random-access memory with processing elements integrated on the same chip. This enables C-RAM to be used as a SIMD computer. It also can be used to more efficiently use memory bandwidth within a memory chip. The gene ...

(2003)

Serial machines

Massively parallel

See also

References

Further reading