The Parametron Computer 1 (PC-1) was a binary, single-address

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 C ...

developed at Professor Hidetosi Takahasi's Laboratory at the Department of Physics,

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

,"Hidetoshi Takahashi"
Computer Pioneers, IEEE and was one of the first general purpose computers that used

parametron Parametron is a logic circuit element invented by Eiichi Goto in 1954.Information Processing Society of Japan Parametron/ref> The parametron is essentially a resonant circuit with a nonlinear reactive element which oscillates at half the driving f ...

components and dual frequency

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 ...

. Construction started in September 1957 and was completed on March 26, 1958. The PC-1 was used at Takahasi's Laboratory for research related both to hardware and software and the researchers in the Faculty of Science also used it for

scientific computing Computational science, also known as scientific computing or scientific computation (SC), is a field in mathematics that uses advanced computing capabilities to understand and solve complex problems. It is an area of science that spans many disc ...

. The PC-1 was retired in May 1964. The arithmetic and control circuits of the PC–1 consisted of 4200 parametrons. Binary numbers were coded using the two's complement representation; a short number was coded using 18 bits and a long one using 36. The single-address instructions were 18 bits long and there were about 20 of them. The memory consisted of 512 short words. The clock frequency was 15 kHz. One addition or subtraction required 4 clock cycles; one multiplication 26 cycles for a short multiplier, or 44 cycles for a long multiplier. Division consumed 161 cycles and a store operation 8. The power consumption was 3 kW and the floor area required was 8 square meters. The input was done using a photoelectric

paper tape Five- and eight-hole punched paper tape Paper tape reader on the Harwell computer with a small piece of five-hole tape connected in a circle – creating a physical program loop Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data storage ...

reader; the output was provided by a

teletype A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Initia ...

References

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References

Further reading