ALWAC III-E


The ALWAC III-E was an early commercial vacuum tube computer employing a rotating magnetic drum main storage unit, operational in 1955. It weighed about.
The invention of the ALWAC III-E is attributed to Axel Wenner-Gren, and the name is derived from Axel Leonard Wenner-Gren Automatic Computer, letter E stands for the E-register. The ALWAC III-E contained 132 - 275 vacuum tubes, 5000 - 5400 silicon diodes, and cost $60,000 - $80,000. Word size was 32 bits + sign + recoverable overflow bit.
Instruction execution times were 5.25-5.75 milliseconds for addition and subtraction, and 21.25 ms for multiplication and division.
An ALWAC III-E was installed at the University of British Columbia in March 1957 and remained in service until October 1961. Another was installed at Oregon State University.

Memory

Wegematic 1000

In 1960 Wenner-Gren Centre Foundation donated a Wegematic 1000 computer to the University of Turku in Turku, Finland.