Mainframe Computer Component, SEAC Electrostatic Memory
name: label: maker
content: National Bureau of Standards
notes: label: Description
content: Designers of the SEAC, following the example of Frederick C. Williams and his colleagues who built the Manchester Mark I computer, adopted a cathode-ray tube memory for the machine, as this component well illustrates. It has an aluminum chassis with some front parts painted with light gray winkle paint, and some back parts painted with smooth black paint. There are four shielded cathode-ray tubes, each covered with fine mesh copper wire at the image end. The tube locations are stamped "A", "B", "C", and "43". Each cathode-ray tube has, at the chassis front, a toggle switch; Focus; Astic (?); and Gain cotrol; also an unmarked control with a "0" to "100" scale. There is a bracket at one side of the front with four potentiometers, each marked for a corresponding cathode-ray tube.
label: Description
content: There are two circuits on the front, one at the top and one at the bottom, each have four 6AN5 tubes.
label: Description
content: The circuit at the back is connected to the cathode-ray tube sockets.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1980.0305.02
label: catalog number
content: 1980.0305.02
label: accession number
content: 1980.0305
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Mainframe Component
label: Object Name
content: mainframe computer component
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 63.5 cm x 48.5 cm x 46 cm; 25 in x 19 3/32 in x 18 1/8 in