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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) 224 items
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Negative - CSIRAC, Valve Cabinet, circa 1954
This is part of a collection of items relating to CSIRAC containing drawings, photographs, documents, paper tapes and computer hardware.
From: Sydney, Australia Images: 1 -
No Image Available
Data Sheet - CSIRAC Computer, Flexowriter Printout, 1962
Printout of data output prepared via the flexowriter during the operation of CSIRAC. Printout entitled "Step function response CBR 282.3 Apr 62 line 3'" 'time x n2' and '4/4 62' written ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 0 -
No Image Available
Booklet - CSIRAC Computer, Flexowriter Printouts, 1962
Booklet of data output printouts prepared via the flexowriter during the operation of CSIRAC. Booklet entitled "step function response CBR 282.3 Apr 62 line 1" '2/4 62'. 'CBR' stood fo ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 0 -
No Image Available
Booklet - CSIRAC Computer, Flexowriter Printouts, circa 1962
Booklet of copies of data output printouts prepared via the flexowriter during the operation of CSIRAC. Booklet entitled "heat transfer params CBR 123". 'CBR' stood for CSIRO Division ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 0 -
No Image Available
Booklet - CSIRAC Computer, Flexowriter Printouts, circa 1962
Booklet of copies of data output printouts prepared via the flexowriter during the operation of CSIRAC. Booklet entitled "heat transfer params CBR 123". 'CBR' stood for CSIRO Division o ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 0 -
No Image Available
Data Sheet - CSIRAC Computer, Flexowriter Printout, 1962
Sheet of data output printout prepared via the flexowriter during the operation of CSIRAC. Sheet entitled "checking CBR 282.3 Apr 62 line 1" "4/4/62". 'CBR' stood for CSIRO Division of ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 0 -
Photograph - CSIRAC Computer, End of Mercury Delay Line, circa 1950
This is one of a series of photographic material in print, negative and/or digital formats covering CSIRAC machine and the people associated with it. The series was acquired from the Un ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 1 -
Photograph - CSIRAC Computer, Cathode Ray Tube Displays, circa 1955
This is one of a series of photographic material in print, negative and/or digital formats covering CSIRAC machine and the people associated with it. The series was acquired from the Un ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 1 -
Photograph - CSIRAC Computer, Ron Bowles Adjusting Main Clock, 15 June 1956
This is one of a series of photographic material in print, negative and/or digital formats covering CSIRAC machine and the people associated with it. The series was acquired from the Un ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 1 -
Photograph - CSIRAC Computer, Program Preparation Area, Editing 12 Hole Paper Tape Punch, ...
This is one of a series of photographic material in print, negative and/or digital formats covering CSIRAC machine and the people associated with it. The series was acquired from the Un ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 1
