BINAC, the Binary Automatic Computer, was an early electronic
computer designed for
Northrop Aircraft Company by the
Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in
1949. Eckert and Mauchly, though they had started the design of
EDVAC at the University of Pennsylvania, choose to leave and start EMCC, the first computer company. BINAC was their first product and the first stored-program computer in the US. The BINAC was a bit-serial
binary computer with two independent
CPUs, each with its own 512-
word acoustic mercury
delay line memory. The CPUs continuously compared results to check for errors caused by hardware failures. It used approximately 700
vacuum tubes. The 512-word acoustic mercury delay line memories were divided into 16 channels each holding 32 words of 31
bits, with an additional 11-bit space between words to allow for circuit delays in switching. The clock rate was 4.25 MHz (1 MHz according to one source) which yielded a word time of about 10 microseconds. The addition time was 800
microseconds and the multiplication time was 1200 microseconds. New programs or data had to be entered manually in
octal using an eight-key keypad. BINAC was significant for being able to perform high-speed arithmetic on binary numbers, with no provisions to store characters or
decimal digits.
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BINARY AUTOMATIC COMPUTER. BINAC