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CSIRAC Collection
Image: John Spencer with CSIRAC, 1999
Source: Museum Victoria
The CSIRAC Computer collection consists of over 300 objects, over 300 images and over 1000 documents relating to the CSIRAC computer.
CSIRAC, designed and built in Australia, was the first stored-memory electronic computer in Australia. Its first home was CSIR (after 1949 called CSIRO) Radiophysics Laboratory in Sydney. The first program was run in 1949 and the machine was in full operation by 1951. It embodied many features novel at the time and was able to operate more than 1000 times faster than the best mechanical calculators. In 1955 the computer was transferred to the University of Melbourne where renamed CSIRAC it continued in operation until November 1964. The machine was donated to the Applied Science Museum of Victoria by the University of Melbourne.
The CSIRAC hardware is complete. It includes cabinets, paper tape reading, writing and editing equipment, control console, test equipment, disk drive and miscellaneous components
The archival material retained when CSIRAC was decommissioned by the University in 1964 was preserved. In 1996, the University established the CSIRAC History Project which resulted in the collection and cataloguing of documents, artefacts and images relating to CSIRAC.
The CSIRAC Archive contains material documenting the computer from its conception in the late 1940s to its decommissioning in 1964. Consisting of nine folders, 18 Archive boxes and one large box of paper tapes, it contains:
* 458 paper tape reels comprising CSIRAC's complete software library
* CDs containing programs read from paper tapes
* program documentation
* programming manuals produced at various stages of CSIRAC's life
* documents relating to courses, annual reports, plans for the Laboratory, staff information, published papers and reports, and correspondence
* original photographs and footage
* oral histories
* engineering drawings, most of which have also been scanned
* miscellaneous objects, including a metal commemorative plaque.
A number of items have also been collected by the Museum.
Items per page: 10 50 (showing 1 - 10) 1425 items
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Letter - CSIRAC Computer, Office of Government Statist, 14 Sep 1956
Letter from Office of Government Statist, 14th September 1956 to Professor Thomas Cherry re query calculating repayment schedules.
Images: 2 -
Letter - CSIRAC Computer, Frankston Teachers' College, 30 Sep 1960
Letter from Gordon A. Wilson, Frankston Teachers College 30 Sept 1960 re visit to inspect electronic computer..
Images: 2 -
No Image Available
Notebooks - CSIRAC, Test Equipment, 1958-1962
Nine Computation Laboratory notebooks. Some originated in Sydney and others in Melbourne. Contain various notes including Mercury Delay Line test figures, Drum Transistor Amplifier.
Images: 0 -
No Image Available
Computer Tape - 12-Hole Paper Tape, CSIRAC Computer, Sydney Music Tape, 1951-1954
Tape labelled 'music tape' containing the music program and data developed in Sydney. This tape can be identified as a tape created in Sydney as it contains sprocket holes on each side ...
Images: 0 -
No Image Available
Computer Tape - 12-Hole Paper Tape, CSIRAC Computer, Sydney, Electron Scattering Program, ...
Tape labelled 'Electron Scattering Program'. This tape can be identified as a Sydney tape as they contain sprocket holes on each side of the tape which Melbourne tapes do not have. This ...
Images: 0 -
Plaque - CSIRAC Computer, Heritage Council of Victoria, 18 November 2009
Plaque recognising the significance of the CSIRAC Computer, awarded by the Heritage Council of Victoria on 18 November 2009. The date, 18 November 2009, was chosen arbitrarily. CSIRAC' ...
Images: 1 -
No Image Available
Book - J. Deane, 'CSIRAC Australia's First Computer', Australian Computer Museum Society, ...
Book titled 'CSIRAC - Australia's first Computer' by John Deane, published by the Australian Computer Museum Society, 1997. This is the first published account about CSIRAC.
Images: 0 -
Circuit Board - CSIRAC Computer, Transistorised Read Amplifier, Drum, circa 1962
One of two circuit boards acquired. These circuit boards were two of about 20 circuit boards connected to the read heads of the magnetic disk store of the CSIRAC computer; there were 2 ...
Images: 2 -
Paper Tape Holder - CSIRAC Computer, Program Preparation Area, Pigeon Hole Unit,1955-1964
Paper tape holder for temporarily storing small paper tape programs or routines during the preparation of a larger program. The holder was probably attached to the open-fronted timber ...
Images: 3 -
Circuit Board - CSIRAC Computer, Transistorised Read Amplifier, Drum, circa 1962
One of two circuit boards acquired. These circuit boards were two of about 20 circuit boards connected to the read heads of the magnetic disk store of the CSIRAC computer; there were 2 ...
Images: 2
