This is a color image of the ILLIAC IV with three men nearest to the camera, standing and working around the system. There are two other men in the far back of the room. The light is coming from the ceiling. Written on verso side on white label is "ILLIAC IV Boston". Also written on verso side is "#1449". Parallel Processing appeared in the huge ILLIAC IV, the first computer to abandon the classic one-step-at-a-time scheme of John von Neumann. ILLIAC IV had sixty-four processors, each with its own memory, all operating simultaneously on separate parts of one problem. Designed at the University of Illinois and built by Burroughs, the computer took six years to complete at a cost of $40 million. It was the fastest machine then in use, but ahead of its time. Plagued by technical ills and very difficult to program, ILLIAC IV was one of a kind.
Date
1966-1974
Publisher
Illinois, University of (Urbana-Champaign); Burroughs Corporation