Technical Description
The EDVAC was a binary serial computer with automatic addition, subtraction, multiplication, programmed division and automatic checking with an ultrasonic serial memory capacity of 1,000 44-bit words (later set to 1,024 words, thus giving a memory, in modern terms, of 5.5 kilobytes).
Physically, the computer comprised the following components:
- a magnetic tape reader-recorder (Wilkes 1956:36 describes this as a wire recorder.)
- a control unit with an oscilloscope
- a dispatcher unit to receive instructions from the control and memory and direct them to other units
- a computational unit to perform arithmetic operations on a pair of numbers at a time and send the result to memory after checking on a duplicate unit
- a timer
- a dual memory unit consisting of two sets of 64 mercury acoustic delay lines of eight words capacity on each line
- three temporary tanks each holding a single word
EDVAC's addition time was 864 microseconds (about 1.16 kHz) and its multiplication time was 2900 microseconds (about 0.38 kHz).
The computer had almost 6,000 vacuum tubes and 12,000 diodes, and consumed 56 kW of power. It covered 490 ft² (45.5 m²) of floor space and weighed 17,300 lb (7,850 kg). The full complement of operating personnel was thirty people per eight-hour shift.
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