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RCA 501
The RCA 501 was a transistor computer manufactured by RCA beginning in 1958. History RCA's pioneering work in transistors in other products provided its engineers with the basis needed to design effective use of transistors in early solid-state electronic computer systems as well. After three years of development, RCA introduced by 1959 the all-transistor RCA 501, a medium- to large-scale computer which according to the sales brochures was "the world's most advanced electronic data processing system". It was designed by industrial designer John Vassos, who employed a modular design strategy, framing the computer and its components as a system and not as individual units. He also used color coding to assist the operator to run the machine in an "orderly and fully controlled manner" according to the advertisement. The Air Force purchased a 501 system in 1959 for $121,698. Other customers included the Navy, Army, State Farm Life Insurance, and General Tire and Rubber Company. ...
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Transistor
upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electrical power, power. The transistor is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminals for connection to an electronic circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Some transistors are packaged individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits. Austro-Hungarian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld proposed the concept of a field-effect transistor in 1926, but it was not possible to actually constru ...
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English Electric KDF8
KDF8 was an early British computer built by English Electric as a version of the RCA 501. By producing a software-compatible system, the intention was to reduce time and cost to develop software. However, the lengthy process of developing manufacturing capability meant that the system was soon outpaced by systems from other vendors. Only a few systems were sold during its 5 years of production. Due to the consolidation of the British computer industry, English Electric's computer division became one of the components of what would become ICL. Background During the late 1950s English Electric embarked on two major computer projects. Firstly, English Electric built a version of the RCA 501 computer which was known as the KDP10 (KDP for Kidsgrove Data Processing). This was a machine intended for commercial data processing applications, with fixed length instructions, and capabilities for processing variable-length numeric and alpha-numeric data. RCA's original design was adapted ...
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List Of Transistorized Computers
This is a list of transistorized computers, which were digital computers that used discrete transistors as their primary logic elements. Discrete transistors were a feature of logic design for computers from about 1960, when reliable transistors became economically available, until monolithic integrated circuits displaced them in the 1970s. The list is organized by operational date or delivery year to customers. Computers announced, but never completed, are not included. Some very early "transistor" computers may still have included vacuum tubes in the power supply or for auxiliary functions. 1950s 1953 *University of Manchester Transistor Computer 1953 (prototype) 1955 (full scale) experimental 1954 *Bell Labs TRADIC for U.S. Air Force 1955 *Harwell CADET demonstrated February 1955, one-off scientific computer 1956 *Electrotechnical Laboratory ETL Mark III (Japan) experimental, began development 1954, completed 1956, Japan's first transistorized stored-program computer *MIT T ...
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Tape Drive
A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and a long archival stability. A tape drive provides sequential access storage, unlike a hard disk drive, which provides direct access storage. A disk drive can move to any position on the disk in a few milliseconds, but a tape drive must physically wind tape between reels to read any one particular piece of data. As a result, tape drives have very large average access times. However, tape drives can stream data very quickly off a tape when the required position has been reached. For example, Linear Tape-Open (LTO) supports continuous data transfer rates of up to 360 MB/s, a rate comparable to hard disk drives. Design Magnetic tape drives with capacities of less than one megabyte were first used for data storage on mainframe computers in the 1950s. , capaci ...
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Drum Memory
Drum memory was a magnetic data storage device invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria. Drums were widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s as computer memory. For many early computers, drum memory formed the main working memory of the computer. It was so common that these computers were often referred to as ''drum machines''. Some drums were also used as secondary storage as for example various IBM drum storage drives. Drums were displaced as primary computer memory by magnetic core memory, which offered a better balance of size, speed, cost, reliability and potential for further improvements. Drums in turn were replaced by hard disk drives for secondary storage, which were both less expensive and offered denser storage. The manufacturing of drums ceased in the 1970s. Technical design A drum memory or drum storage unit contained a large metal cylinder, coated on the outside surface with a ferromagnetic recording material. It could be considered the precu ...
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Magnetic-core Memory
Magnetic-core memory was the predominant form of random access, random-access computer memory for 20 years between about 1955 and 1975. Such memory is often just called core memory, or, informally, core. Core memory uses toroids (rings) of a hard magnetic material (usually a Ferrite (magnet)#Semi-hard ferrites, semi-hard ferrite) as transformer cores, where each wire threaded through the core serves as a transformer winding. Two or more wires pass through each core. Magnetic Magnetic hysteresis, hysteresis allows each of the cores to "remember", or store a state. Each core stores one bit of information. A core can be magnetized in either the clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. The value of the bit stored in a core is zero or one according to the direction of that core's magnetization. Electric current pulses in some of the wires through a core allow the direction of the magnetization in that core to be set in either direction, thus storing a one or a zero. Another wire ...
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System Console
One meaning of system console, computer console, root console, computer operator, operator's console, or simply console is the text entry and display device for system administration messages, particularly those from the BIOS or boot loader, the Kernel (computer science), kernel, from the init system and from the syslog, system logger. It is a physical device consisting of a keyboard and a screen, and traditionally is a text terminal, but may also be a graphical terminal. System consoles are generalized to computer terminals, which are abstracted respectively by virtual consoles and terminal emulators. Today communication with system consoles is generally done abstractly, via the standard streams (stdin, stdout, and stderr), but there may be system-specific interfaces, for example those used by the system kernel. Another, older, meaning of system console, computer console, hardware console, operator's console or simply console is a hardware component used by an operator to control ...
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Printed Circuit Board
A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in Electrical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a Lamination, laminated sandwich structure of conductive and insulating layers: each of the conductive layers is designed with an artwork pattern of traces, planes and other features (similar to wires on a flat surface) Chemical milling, etched from one or more sheet layers of copper Lamination, laminated onto and/or between sheet layers of a Insulator (electricity), non-conductive substrate. Electrical components may be fixed to conductive pads on the outer layers in the shape designed to accept the component's terminals, generally by means of soldering, to both electrically connect and mechanically fasten them to it. Another manufacturing process adds Via (electronics), vias: plated-through holes that allow interconnections between layers. ...
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English Electric
N.º UIC: 9094 110 1449-3 (Takargo Rail) The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, had been making munitions, armaments and aeroplanes. It initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers, railway locomotives and traction equipment, diesel motors and steam turbines. Its activities were later expanded to include consumer electronics, nuclear reactors, guided missiles, military aircraft and mainframe computers. Two English Electric aircraft designs became landmarks in British aeronautical engineering; the Canberra and the Lightning. In 1960, English Electric Aircraft (40%) merged with Vickers (40%) and Bristol (20%) to form British Aircraft Corporation. In 1968 English Electric's operations were merged with GEC's, the combined business employing more than 250,000 people. Foundation Aiming ...
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Computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as Computer program, programs. These programs enable computers to perform a wide range of tasks. A computer system is a nominally complete computer that includes the Computer hardware, hardware, operating system (main software), and peripheral equipment needed and used for full operation. This term may also refer to a group of computers that are linked and function together, such as a computer network or computer cluster. A broad range of Programmable logic controller, industrial and Consumer electronics, consumer products use computers as control systems. Simple special-purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls are included, as are factory devices like industrial robots and computer-aided design, as well as general-purpose devi ...
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General Tire And Rubber Company
Continental Tire the Americas, LLC, d.b.a. General Tire, is an American manufacturer of tires for motor vehicles. Founded in 1915 in Akron, Ohio by William Francis O'Neil, Winfred E. Fouse, Charles J. Jahant, Robert Iredell, & H.B. Pushee as The General Tire & Rubber Company (also referred to as The General Tire & Rubber Co. and starting in the 1960's as simply General Tire) using funding from Michael O'Neil, William Francis' father, who owned Akron's O'Neil's department store. The company later diversified by 1984 into a conglomerate (GenCorp) with holdings in tires (General Tire), rubber compounds (DiversiTech General), rocketry and aeronautics ( Aerojet), entertainment and news (RKO General), and real estate. The tire division was sold to Germany's Continental in 1987, becoming Continental Tire North America, before its re-incorporation again to its current name. The compounds division was spun off & became OMNOVA Solutions. The rocketry business was kept and expanded, and ...
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State Farm Insurance
State Farm Insurance is a large group of mutual insurance companies throughout the United States with corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois. Overview State Farm is the largest property and casualty insurance provider, and the largest auto insurance provider, in the United States. State Farm is ranked 42nd in the 2022 Fortune 500, which lists American companies by revenue. State Farm relies on exclusive agents (also known as captive agents) to sell insurance. Only State Farm agents can sell State Farm insurance, and their agents can sell only State Farm products. Financial services State Farm has expanded into the financial services arena, such as banking and mutual funds. The bank opened in May 1999 and is operated by State Farm Financial Services, FSB, a subsidiary of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. These are separate from its insurance products. State Farm Bank does not have branch offices. Its regular banking services, which include checking and ...
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