Mainframe Computer Component, Digital Resolver Plug in Chassis for ORDVAC Computer
date: label: date made
content: 1951-1952
name: label: maker
content: University of Illinois
notes: label: Description
content: The ORDVAC (Ordnance Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) was built at the University of Illionis for the Ballistics Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, along with a twin, the ILLIAC, which stayed at the University of Illinois. This portion of the room-sized computer resolves four levels of the output adder to two of the output ten register; the comonent handles one eighth of the total capacity of the ORDVAC. It has thirty-six vacuum tubes arranged in rows of six - these rows would fit along a half-cylinder.
label: Description
content: The object came to the Smithsonian from the Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1962.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: James E. Robertson, "The ORDVAC and the ILLIAC," <I>A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century</I>, ed. N. Metropolis, J. Howlett and G.-C. Rota, New York: Academic Press, 1980, pp. 347-364.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Urbana
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Department of the Army
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CI.321739
label: catalog number
content: 321739
label: accession number
content: 242457
objectType: label: Object Name
content: mainframe computer component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (vacuum tubes material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 6 3/4 in x 9 1/2 in; 30.48 cm x 17.145 cm x 24.13 cm