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0,--:_ _ I":J C'''--''_ _J) CHARACTERISTICS OF CURRENT DIGITAL COMPUTERS ©.AMERICAN DATA PROCESSING, INC. 1967 410 BOOK BUILDING DETROIT, M ICH IGAN 48226 o library of Congress Catalog Number: 67·20702 Printed in U.S.A. Frank H. Gille, Publisher Edith H. Goodman, Editor PREFACE Represented in SPECS are more than one hundred digital computers, most of them general purpose. To clarify the conception, the definition of a general purpose computer in the language of the American Standards Association glossary is: a computer 1that is designed to solve a wide class of problems. And of a digital computer: a computer that operates on discrete data by performing arithmetic and logic processes on these data. And the IBM Glossary for Information Processing defines computer as: 1) a device capable of solving problems by accepting data, performing prescribed operations on the data, and supplying the results of these operations. 2) In information processing, usually, an automatic stored program computer. These are by no means all the computers lever made, nor does it include everyone now current. Current and new computer charts will be added as the large amount of information required for SPECS is available. Many of the first generation vacuum tube machines are not included as most are now retired, nor are one-of-a-kind computers included. Older computers included are for historic contrast (such as Univac I, IBM 650 etc.) to the third generation machines with their multiprocessing, multiprogramming, communication, graphics, and visual display capabilities. Today the trend of most large computer manufacturers is toward families (or series) of machines which are upward compatible, i.e., System 360s, Spectra 70s, GE 200, 400, and 600 series, Burroughs 5,00 series, Control Data's 3000 and 6000 series, Scientific Data Systems new Sigma series, Honeywell 200 series, Univac 9000 series, etc. The definitions below are included to aid in sharpening understanding and to help lin picking the way through the maze of snarled semantics in the data processing field. These definitions are either from the ASA glossary (1966) or the previous Glossary of Automatic Data Processi ng which the government prepa red ci rca 1962. Assembler: A program which is used to prepare a machine language program from a symbolic language program by substituting absolute operation codes for symbolic codes and absolute or relocatable addresses for symbolic addresses. Compiler: A program uSf3d to prepare a machine language program from a computer program written in another programming language by making use of the overall logic structure of the program, or generating more than one machinE~ instruction for each symbolic statement, or both, as well as performing the function of an assembler. Executive Routine: A routine that controlls the execution of other routines. Also defined as: a routine which controls loading and relocation of routines and in some cases makes use of instructions which are unknown to the general programmer. Sometimes called Master Control Program. Generator: A controlling routine that performs a generate function i.e. Report Generator, I/O Generator. Macro Instruction: An instruction in a source language that is equivalent to a specified sequence of machine instructions. Also: 1) an instruction consisting of a sequence of micro instructions which are inserted into the object routine for performing a specific operation; 2) the more powerful instructions which combine several operations in one instruction. Master Control: An application oriented routine usually applied to the highest level of a subroutine hierarchy. Micro Instruction: A small, single, shol't, add, shift or delete type of command. Multiprogramming: A technique for handling numerous routines or programs simultaneously by means of an interweaving process. Operating System: