General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

4

Total Parts

4

AKA

Punched tape

Patents

N/A

General Description

Perforated computer tape made of paper.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

336.5 cm

Width

2.5 cm

Height

N/A

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Printing

Category

Typesetting

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Unknown

Country

Unknown

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

Date inscribed in pencil on tape reads "Oct 8/63"

Canada

POSSIBLY FIRST TRANSISTORIZED COMPUTER DESIGNED & BUILT IN CANADA. EXPERTISE IN TRANSISTOR TECHNOLOGY IT GENERATED LATER ENABLED DEVELOPMENT OF RELIABLE CIRCUITRY FOR CANADIAN SATELLITES. IT WAS USED FOR COMPUTING AT DRTE & FOR PROCESSING DATA FROM OTHER CANADIAN SCIENTIFIC ENDEAVOURS SUCH AS ALOUETTE, CANADA'S FIRST SATELLITE, & AURORA EXPERIMENTS AT PRINCE ALBERT RADAR LAB

Function

Punched tape (also known as perforated tape) was used as a form of data storage consisting of a long strip of paper through which small holes were punched. This particular strip was a test strip

Technical

ONE-OF-A-KIND COMPUTER, NEVER PRODUCED COMMERCIALLY. IT WAS INNOVATIVE FOR ITS TIME, WITH SEVERAL NOVEL CONCEPTS SUCH AS NEW FORM OF TRANSISTORIZED FLIP-FLOP (P-N-P-N) CIRCUITRY, HARDWARE INSTEAD OF SOFTWARE DECIMAL-TO-BINARY & BINARY-TO-DECIMAL (DBBD) CONVERTER, & UNIQUE CORE MEMORY. SEVERAL PATENTS WERE TAKEN OUT BY CANADIAN GOV'T (SEE PATENTS)

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

One extremity in pencil reads "Comp Char test No. 3 Oct 8/63"

Missing

Appears complete

Finish

Long yellowed punched paper test strip

Decoration

N/A