General Information

Serial #

PROTOTYPE

Part Number

1

Total Parts

4

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

METALS; RUBBER; PLASTICS; GLASS; FABRIC

Dimensions

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

Length

220.0 cm

Width

121.0 cm

Height

136.0 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Space Technology

Category

Space science

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Communications CA

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

City

Shirleys Bay

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

1961-1966

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

PROGRAMMABLE MACHINE THAT ACCEPTS & PROCESSES DATA. ORIGINALLY DESIGNED & BUILT BY GOVERNMENT DEFENSE RESEARCH AGENCY AS MEANS OF INVESTIGATING TRANSISTOR TECHNOLOGY, IT WAS USED ALSO FOR RESEARCH IN COMPUTER SCIENCE & AS COMPUTER TO PROCESS DATA FROM OTHER INTERNAL & EXTERNAL SCIENTIFIC ENDEAVOURS.

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

INCISED LETTERING ON UPPER LEFT PANEL READING "MEMORY"; LOWER CENTRE PANEL "PROGRAMCOUNTER" & "AUTOMATIC OPERATION"; UPPER CENTRE PANEL "ARITHMETIC CONTROL"; UPPER RIGHT PANEL "CONVERTER"/ LETTERING ON PANELS FOR CONTROL FUNCTIONS/ PUNCHED LABEL ON "FLORA FLORIDA LIKE OCCIDENTAL RECORDING ABACUS FLORA"

Missing

ORIGINAL PERIPHERAL EQUIPMENT INCLUDED 4 TAPE RECORDERS, PRINTER, HIGH-SPEED TAPE PUNCH & READER, & POWER SUPPLIES

Finish

GREY METAL CABINET HAS DESK LIKE APPEARANCE; GREEN LEATHERETTE - TEXTURED COVERING GLUED TO DESK-TOP SURFACES

Decoration

N/A