CSIRAC in Melbourne

Well, its been a long time since I blogged. But its been very busy and admittedly, I have been preoccupied with other stuff. I cant stop bragging about the trip to the Melbourne Museum. It was fantastic. The last time I went to the museum, I was only about 12 years old. It has since moved location and is in a fantastic new building as well.

By far, the most fascinating exhibit for me was CSIRAC. CSIRAC is a computer, in fact it is Australia’s very first computer. It is iconic in the modern digital age. I reckon it’s awesome. There are about 2000 valves in this behemoth. Its about 5 metres wide and 2 metres tall, jam packed full of circuit boards, and houses an enormous barrel type hard drive.

From what I remember, she holds around 200bytes of data and was capable of processing around 500 instructions per second with her processing speed of 300khz.
Sure, compared to modern multi-core desktop processors, she is little more than an enormous calculator, but she is a genuine electronic and scientific wonder of the 20th Century. CSIRAC was used for all sorts of stuff from weather pattern prediction, to loan repayment calculations. Ironically, it was Australia’s financial decision in the 1940’s to pour money into the CSIRO’s research into rain making (yes it is true) rather than computer research that bore the need for a computer that would make complex and detailed cloud and water droplet formations and other weather pattern predictions possible.

If you get the chance, it's well worth a look. Here's a picture of part of a nearby building
in Melbourne. Makes an interesting photo. Kool stuff I reckon. Anyway, if you find this interesting, check out the Melbourne museum’s website at http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/csirac/