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CSIRAC – Australia’s First Computer

CSIRAC - Australia's First Computer
Source: Museum Victoria

The world’s oldest complete computer.

CSIRAC (pronounced sigh – rack) stands for Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Automatic Computer.

The first automatic electronic stored-program computer in Australia and one of the first in the world, CSIRAC is practically intact and is the only first-generation computer still in existence.

Developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, later renamed CSIRO) at its Radiophysics Laboratory in Sydney, CSIRAC ran its first program in November 1949.

Transferred to the Department of Physics at the University of Melbourne in 1955, it remained in service from 1956 until 1964.

After being decommissioned, CSIRAC was donated to Museum Victoria. The computer now forms part of the Museum’s Technology Collection and is on public display on the Lower Ground Floor of the Melbourne Museum.

EVENT DETAILS

Your comments

Peter Smith 08 Sep 2010 11:58

"CSIRAC (pronounced sigh – rack) stands for Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Automatic Computer." is not 100% correct - when it was created the, now CSIRO, had not gained the word "Organisation", so a more accurate description is "CSIRAC (pronounced sigh – rack) stands for Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Automatic Computer." PS: I worked on it ion an undergradute in the early 1960s.

Discovery Centre 14 Sep 2010 13:04

Hi Peter, Thanks for your comments. CSIRAC’s name we referred to ‘The last of the first’ by Doug McCann and Peter Thorne (available at the Museum bookshop), page 4:“The new University of Melbourne Computing Laboratory was officially opened by the Chairman of the CSIRO Sir Ian Clunies-Ross and the Mk 1 was formally recommissioned and named CSIRAC (an acronym derived from Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Automatic Computer).”

 

 

Tim 20 Apr 2011 12:54

Where is the CSIRAC exhibition located?

Richard McEwen 02 Aug 2011 16:25

I spent the afternoon at Melbourne museum and could not find the CSIRAC valve computer....Where is housed? Regards Richard

Discovery Centre 03 Aug 2011 14:51

Hi Richard and Tim,

CSIRAC is currently on public display on the Lower Ground Floor of the Melbourne Museum, under the left hand escalators as you enter the Museum.

Greg 11 Nov 2011 15:19

The CSIR became the CSIRO under the Science and Industry Research Act 1949 (coincidentally the same year that the first program was run on the computer). The Act came into commencement on 19 May 1949 so it is reasonable to assume that by Nov, the organisation had gained the acronym CSIRO. It is also reasonable to assume that the computer was named well before this though.