ALWAC III-E explained

The ALWAC III-E was an early commercial vacuum-tube computer employing a rotating magnetic drum main storage unit,^[1] operational in 1955. It weighed about 2200lb.^[2]

The invention of the ALWAC III-E is attributed to Axel Wenner-Gren,^[3] and the name is derived from Axel Leonard Wenner-Gren Automatic Computer,^[4] letter E stands for the E-register (index register).^{[5] [6]} The ALWAC III-E contained 132^[3] –275^[1] vacuum tubes, 5000^[3] –5400^[1] silicon diodes, and cost $60,000^[1] –$80,000.^{[3] [4]} Word size was 32 bits + sign + recoverable overflow bit.^[3]

Instruction execution times (including average memory access times) were 5.25–5.75 milliseconds for addition and subtraction, and 21.25 ms for multiplication and division.^[1]

An ALWAC III-E was installed at the University of British Columbia in March 1957 and remained in service until October 1961. Others were installed at Oregon State University (then College)^[4] and Loyola Marymount University (then Loyola University of Los Angeles). An ALWAC III-E was installed by the CIA in September, 1957 in the offices of the Photographic Intelligence Division. Located at Fifth and K streets NW. and given the name Project Automat, the ALWAC was used to analyze pictures taken by U-2 spy planes.

Wegematic 1000

In 1960 Wenner-Gren Centre Foundation donated a Wegematic 1000 (based on ALWAC III-E) computer to the University of Turku in Turku, Finland.^{[7] [8]}

Further reading

• Book: Impagliazzo . John . Järvi . Timo . Paju . Petri . History of Nordic Computing 2: Second IFIP WG 9.7 Conference, HiNC 2, Turku, Finland, August 21-23, 2007, Revised Selected Papers . 2009 . Springer Science & Business Media . 9783642037566 . 95–100 . https://books.google.com/books?id=eN-FVGVJ18YC&q=%22ALWAC%22&pg=PA95 . en . 2. The ALWAC IIIE Computer.

External links

• Photo of ALWAC III-E at UBC: Web site: ALWAC III-E. www.cs.ubc.ca. 2018-09-24. 2018-09-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20180925025319/https://www.cs.ubc.ca/timeline/node/183. dead.
• Web site: ALWAC, ALWAC III and III-E documents . www.bitsavers.org.

Notes and References

1. Web site: SYSTEMS ANALYSIS OF THE ALWAC III-E DIGITAL COMPUTER . DUBINSKI . GEORGE ANTHONY . June 1960 . ScholarsArchive@OSU . Oregon State University . 2016-08-11 .
2. Web site: ALWAC III E. Weik. Martin H.. March 1961. ed-thelen.org. A Third Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems.
3. Web site: ALWAC III-E . . Computer Science - People and Milestones . The University of British Columbia . 2016-08-11 . 2017-12-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171220150006/https://www.cs.ubc.ca/timeline/node/183 . dead .
4. Web site: Wegematic 1000 . Törn . Aimo . December 1, 2000 . Early History of Computing in Turku, 1959-1964 . Åbo Akademi (University) . 2016-08-11.
5. Book: Impagliazzo . John . Järvi . Timo . Paju . Petri . History of Nordic Computing 2: Second IFIP WG 9.7 Conference, HiNC 2, Turku, Finland, August 21-23, 2007, Revised Selected Papers . 2009 . Springer Science & Business Media . 9783642037566 . 96 . en.
6. 4. ALWAC III (Logistics Research, Inc.). Digital Computer Newsletter. Jan 1956. 8. 1. 4. https://web.archive.org/web/20190406120028/http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0694619. dead. April 6, 2019. en.
7. Web site: Wegematic 1000 . Suomen Tietojenkäsittelymuseoyhdistys.
8. Book: Suominen . Jaakko . Paju . Petri . Törn . Aimo . The Wegematic 1000 Computing Center, 1959–1964 . IFIP International Federation for Information Processing . 174 . 16 June 2003 . 464, 468–471, 479, 480–481, 485. 10.1007/0-387-24168-x_40 . en. 978-0-387-24167-8 .