ILLIAC I - Definition and Overview

The ILLIAC I (Illinois Automatic Computer), a pioneering computer built in 1952 by the University of Illinois, was the first computer built and owned entirely by an educational institution. It was also the first computer at the University of Illinois.

ILLIAC I was based on the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) architecture developed by mathematician John von Neumann. Like all computers of its era, it was a one of a kind machine that could not exchange programs with other computers (not even other IAS machines), i.e. it was not software compatible with any other machine. The computer had 2,800 vacuum tubes, measured 10 ft (3 m) by 2 ft (0.6 m) by 8½ ft (2.6 m) (L×B×H), and weighed 5 tons (4.5 t). ILLIAC I was very powerful for its time; in 1956 it had more computing power than all of Bell Labs. The machine was retired in 1962, when the ILLIAC II became operational.

See also

• ILLIAC II
• ILLIAC III
• ILLIAC IV

External links

• Illinois Computing Timeline (including ILLIAC I info) (http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/about/history.html) – From the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois
• ILLIAC I Programmer's Manual (http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/illiac/ILLIAC) – Including program library documentation