List of vacuum tube computers

Vacuum tube computers are programmable digital computers using vacuum tube logic circuitry. They were preceded by systems using electromechanical relays and followed by systems built from discrete transistors. Later entries in this list may have been built using transistors in addition to vacuum tubes.

This is a list of vacuum tube computers, arranged by date put into service:

Computer	Date	Notes
Atanasoff–Berry Computer	1942	Not programmable, could solve a system of linear equations
Colossus	1943	First programmable electronic digital computer. Special purpose: cryptanalysis. Used to break the German Lorenz cipher. Working replica demonstrated daily at The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park.
ENIAC	1946	First large-scale general-purpose programmable electronic digital computer. Built by the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering for the U.S. Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory. Originally programmed by wiring together components, later converted to a form of stored-program operation.
Manchester SSEM ("The Baby")	1948	First stored-program computer worked June 1948. Working replica demonstrated daily in Manchester Museum of Science and Industry
EDSAC	1949	Provided a computing service from May 1949. Working replica currently being built at The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park. Scheduled to go live in 2016.
Manchester Mark 1	1949	Provided a computing service from April 1949. First index registers. Replaced in 1951 by Ferranti Mark 1.
BINAC	1949	First stored-program computer to be sold, but did not work for customer.
CSIRAC	1949	Oldest surviving first generation electronic computer — unrestored and non-functional.
SEAC	1950	First U.S. stored-program computer to become operational. Built by and for the U.S. National Bureau of Standards. Used solid-state diode circuits for its logic. Several computers were based on the SEAC design.
SWAC	1950	Built for the National Bureau of Standards, it had 2,300 vacuum tubes. It had 256 words (each 37 bits) of memory, using Williams tubes
ERA Atlas	1950	(Military version of Univac 1101) Used 2700 vacuum tubes for its logic circuits
MADDIDA	1950	Special-purpose digital computer for solving a system of differential equations. Forty-four integrators were implemented using a magnetic drum with six storage tracks. The interconnections of the integrators were specified by writing an appropriate pattern of bits onto one of the tracks.
Harvard Mark III	1950	It used 5,000 vacuum tubes and 1,500 crystal diodes
Pilot ACE	1950	Based on a full-scale design by Alan Turing
Ferranti Mark 1	1951	First commercially available computer, based on Manchester Mark 1.
EDVAC	1951	The successor to ENIAC, and also built by the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering for the U.S. Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory. One of the first stored-program computers to be designed, but its entry into service was delayed. EDVAC's design influenced a number of other computers.
Harwell Dekatron Computer	1951	Now officially the oldest original working computer in the world. Is frequently demonstrated at The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park.
Whirlwind	1951	Parallel logic, approx 5,000 vacuum tubes. First use of core memory.
UNIVAC I	1951	Mass-produced. 46 were made.
ORDVAC	1951	Built by the University of Illinois for the Ballistic Research Laboratory and was a twin of the ILLIAC I
LEO I	1951	First computer for commercial applications. Built by J. Lyons and Co. restaurant and bakery chain. Based on EDSAC design.
UNIVAC 1101	1951	Designed by ERA, Used 2700 vacuum tubes for its logic circuits
Hollerith Electronic Computer (HEC)	1951	Initial design by Andrew Donald Booth, then engineered by British Tabulating Machine Company. HEC 1 can be seen at The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park.
Remington Rand 409	1952	Built by Remington Rand, it was a punched card calculator programmed by a plugboard
Harvard Mark IV	1952	built by Harvard University under the supervision of Howard Aiken for the United States Air Force
IAS machine	1952	Built at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), sometimes called the von Neumann machine, since design was described by John von Neumann (the Von Neumann architecture). 1500 tubes. It was the basis of about 15 other computers.
ILLIAC I	1952	Built by the University of Illinois in Urbana
MANIAC I	1952	Built at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and based on the IAS computer
IBM 701	1952	Built by IBM, also known as the Defense Calculator, based on the IAS computer
BESM-1, BESM-2	1952	Built in the Soviet Union
AVIDAC	1953	Based on the IAS computer
FLAC	1953	Design based on SEAC. Located at Patrick Air Force Base.
JOHNNIAC	1953	Built by the RAND Corporation, based on the IAS computer
IBM 702	1953	Built by IBM for business computing
UNIVAC 1103	1953	Designed by Engineering Research Associates (ERA)
RAYDAC	1953	Built by Raytheon for Naval Air Missile Test Center
Strela computer	1953	Built in the Soviet Union
IBM 650	1954	The world's first mass-produced computer
IBM 704	1954	The first mass-produced computer with floating-point arithmetic hardware for scientific use
IBM 705	1954	Mostly compatible with the IBM 702, for business use
BESK	1954 April	Sweden's first computer and was the fastest computer in the world for a brief time
IBM NORC	1954 Dec	Built by IBM for the US Navy Bureau of Ordnance, it was the first supercomputer and the most powerful computer in the world for at least 2 years. 9,800 tubes in logic.
REAC C-400 series	1954	In 1961 REAC installed for $60,000 at University of Minnesota[1]
UNIVAC 1102	1954	A variation of the UNIVAC 1101 built for the US Air Force
DYSEAC	1954	Built by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards as an improved version of SEAC. Mounted in a trailer van, making it the first computer to be transportable.
WISC	1954	Built by the University of Wisconsin–Madison
CALDIC	1955	Designed to be inexpensive and simple to use; it used decimal arithmetic
English Electric DEUCE	1955	A commercial version of the Pilot ACE
ICT 1200 series	1955	Built by Andrew Booth
WEIZAC	1955	Built by the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) under the guidance of Prof. G. Estrin. First computer designed in the Middle East.
IBM 305 RAMAC	1956	The first commercial computer to use a moving-head hard-disk drive for secondary storage
Bull Gamma 3	1956	Made by Groupe Bull and contained almost 400 tubes. Source says 1952.
PERM	1956	Built in Munich
SMIL	1956	Built in Sweden and based on the IAS computer
Bendix G-15	1956	A small computer for scientific and industrial purposes
LGP-30	1956	Data-processing system made by Librascope
UNIVAC 1103A	1956	First computer to have hardware interrupts
FUJIC	1956	The first electronic computer in Japan, designed to perform calculations for lens design by Fuji
Ferranti Pegasus	1956	Second oldest working computer in the world, at the London Science Museum.
SILLIAC	1956	Built at the University of Sydney, based on the ILLIAC and ORDVAC
RCA BIZMAC	1956	RCA's first commercial computer, it contained 25,000 tubes
Zuse Z22	1957	An early commercial computer, built in Germany
DASK	1957	The first computer in Denmark; had an early implementation of ALGOL
UNIVAC 1104	1957	A 30-bit variation of the UNIVAC 1103
Ferranti Mercury	1957	An early commercial computer by Ferranti
IBM 610	1957	A small computer designed to be used by one person with limited experience
FACIT EDB 2	1957
MANIAC II	1957	Built by the University of California and the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
MISTIC	1957	A Michigan State University based on the ILLIAC I
MUSASINO-1	1957	A Japanese computer based on the ILLIAC I
Sandia RAYPAC (Ray Path Analog Computer)	c. 1957	Sandia's Blast Prediction Unit used for Operation Teapot[2]
EDSAC 2	1958	First computer to have a microprogrammed control unit and a bit slice hardware architecture.
IBM 709	1958	An improved version of the IBM 704, the FORTRAN programming language was introduced on the 709
UNIVAC II	1958	An improved, fully compatible version of the UNIVAC I
UNIVAC 1105	1958	A follow-up to the UNIVAC 1103 scientific computer
AN/FSQ-7	1958	Largest vacuum tube computer ever built. 52 were built for Project SAGE.
Ural series	1959–1964	Ural-1 to Ural-4.
Ferranti Perseus	1958
ZEBRA	1958	Designed in Holland and built by Britain's Standard Telephones and Cables[3]
France SEA CAB 303	1958
Rice Institute Computer	1959	Operational 1959-1971, 54-bit tagged architecture
Cyclone	1959	IAS-type computer at Iowa State College
TIFRAC	1960	The first computer developed in India
CER-10	1960	The first computer developed in Yugoslavia, it also used some transistors
Philips Pascal	1960
Sumlock ANITA calculator	1961	Desktop calculator
UMC-1	1962	Developed in Poland, it used the unusual negabinary number system internally
BRLESC	1962	1727 tubes and 853 transistors
OSAGE	1963	Close copy of the Rice Institute Computer built at the University of Oklahoma

See also

• List of transistorized computers
• History of computing hardware

References

1. http://www.ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL61-u.html
2. Operation Teapot: Report of the Test Manager (Report). p. 68.