This is a color image of the ILLIAC IV control unit and console. The console is on the left side of the image and has a keyboard and screen. The main computer is shown with the module boards vertically installed inside. Light is coming from the ceiling as well as from the direction of the camera. Written on verso side of image in pencil is "#1452". There is also a stamped Kodak logo on the verso side of image. 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.
Publisher
Illinois, University of (Urbana-Champaign)
Identifying Numbers
Other number
1452
Dimensions
8 x 10 in.
Format
Photographic print
Category
Identification photograph; Publicity photograph
Subject
Illiac IV (Computer); Burroughs Corporation; Computers--History; Computer industry--History
