Martlesham's Computer 3X More Powerful Than Atlas (Mannerisms)

Martlesham's Computer 3X More Powerful Than Atlas

'The Post Office research workers, in their new site at Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, will be opening their computer in 1972-2 with 100 terminals attached to a central processor some three times as powerful as Atlas'.

So starts the front page lead story in Electronics Weekly's edition of July 2^nd 1969.

Note: Atlas Computer, a joint development between Manchester University, Ferranti and Plessey, became operational in 1962. It was the fastest computer in the world until Control Data's 6600. Its performance derived from its use of germanium transistors.

Atlas did not have a clock, and its performance parameters were measured: fixed point B-addition: 1.59 microseconds; floating point add, no modification: 1.61 microseconds; floating point add, double modify: 2.61 microseconds; floating point multiply, double modify: 4.97 microseconds.

'About six years later the central processor will need to be 12 times the power of Atlas and will have around 400 terminals in use.', adds the EW story.

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Posted by David Manners on July 14, 2008 2:48 PM | Permalink|

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on July 14, 2008 2:48 PM.

The previous post in this blog was The Reckless Engineer.

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Mannerisms

Ruminations on the semiconductor industry from David Manners