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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 61 - 70) 1274 items
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Journal - Computer Music Journal, 'Real-Time Computer Music in 1951', Cambridge, Massachus ...
Computer Music Journal, Volume 28, Number 1, Spring 2004. Published by the MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America. The issue is entitled 'Real-time Computer Music ...
From: Carlton, Australia Images: 0 -
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Correspondence - CSIRAC Computer, Staffing, Mr Maggs, 1956
Correspondence related to the appointment of a skilled constructon and maintenance person for the University's Computer Project. This includes a letter from Cherry to GW Paton, the Vice ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 0 -
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Schematic Diagram - CSIRAC Computer, 'Sequence Register', SKE5181, 30 June 1953
Schematic diagram in hard copy relating to the computer CSIRAC. A schematic diagram shows the detailed connections between all the components in a circuit. Such diagrams were used to b ...
From: Sydney, Australia Images: 0 -
Manual - CSIRAC Computer, Interprogram, University of Melbourne,1960
'User friendly' programming manual for the Automatic Electronic Computer, CSIRAC, 1960. The manual was written by Geoff Hill of the Division of Mathematical Statistics of the CSIRO an ...
From: Parkville, Australia Images: 1 -
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Correspondence - CSIRAC Computer, Establishment in Melbourne, Cherry & Pearcey, 1954-1955
This file contains correspondence between Cherry and Pearcey. The first letter makes reference to the computer and to maintenance staff. The remaining correspondence relates to the poss ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 0 -
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Correspondence - CSIRAC Computer, Establishment in Melbourne, Clunies Ross & Paton,1955
This file contains a copy of letter from GW Paton, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, to Sir Ian Clunies Ross, Chairman of the CSIRO, accepting the offer (of 15 November 19 ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 0 -
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Schematic Diagram - CSIRAC Computer, 'Interpreter', SKE5183, 22 May 1953
Schematic diagram in hard copy relating to the computer CSIRAC. A schematic diagram shows the detailed connections between all the components in a circuit. Such diagrams were used to b ...
From: Sydney, Australia Images: 0 -
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Correspondence, Reports, Manuals - CSIRAC Computer,"Non CSIRAC", NSW University of Technol ...
Letters to Thomas Cherry from RE Vowels, Professor of Electrical Engineering at the New South Wales University of Technology, regarding the installation of an EEC `DEUCE' computer. Cor ...
From: Parkville, Australia Images: 0 -
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Annual Reports & Correspondence - CSIRAC Computer, Computation Laboratory, 1956-1964
Crrespondence and reports related to computational developments in Australia during the 1950s. The greater part of the material comprises University of Melbourne Computation Laborator ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 0 -
Storage Box - 5-Hole Paper Tapes, CSIRAC Computer, Interprogram, 1959-1964
Cardboard box containing two 5 hole paper tapes. Obtained from Dr Frank Hirst by Ron Bowles on 26/4/2000. The longer paper tape contains fully compiled Interprogram and is the only exi ...
From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 1
