Editing BINAC

{{About|the early electronic computer|the town in Kosovo|Binač}}
'''BINAC''' ('''Binary Automatic Computer''') is an early electronic [[computer]] that was designed for [[Northrop Corporation|Northrop Aircraft Company]] by the [[Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation]] (EMCC) in 1949.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1949-09-01|title=9. The Binac|url=http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0694595|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200710212244/http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0694595|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 10, 2020|journal=Digital Computer Newsletter|language=en|volume=1|issue=2|pages=4}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=January 1950|title=Automatic Computing Machinery: News - Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation.|journal=Mathematics of Computation|language=en-US|volume=4|issue=29|pages=48–49|doi=10.1090/S0025-5718-50-99480-4|issn=0025-5718|doi-access=free}}</ref>  [[J. Presper Eckert|Eckert]] and Mauchly had started the design of [[EDVAC]] at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], but chose to leave and start EMCC, the first computer company. BINAC was their first product, the first [[stored-program computer]] in the United States; BINAC is also sometimes claimed to be the world's first commercial digital computer<ref name="ieee">{{cite journal |last=Stern |first=Nancy |date= July 1979 |title=The BINAC:A case study in the history of technology |journal=Annals of the History of Computing |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=9–20 |publisher=American Federation of Information Processing Societies |location=Arlington, VA |issn=1058-6180 |doi= 10.1109/mahc.1979.10005|s2cid=11687205 }}</ref> even though it was limited in scope and never fully functional after delivery.

==Architecture==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:BINACModel.jpg|thumb|Model picture of the BINAC from its overview manual{{Deletable file-caption|Thursday, 12 December 2024|F11}}]] -->
The BINAC was a [[bit-serial]] [[binary numeral system|binary]] computer with two independent [[Central processing unit|CPU]]s, each with its own 512-[[Word (data type)|word]] acoustic [[delay-line memory#Mercury delay lines|mercury delay-line]] [[computer storage|memory]]. The CPUs continuously compared results to check for errors caused by hardware failures. It used approximately 700 [[vacuum tube]]s. The 512-word acoustic mercury delay-line memories were divided into 16 channels, each holding 32&nbsp;words of 31&nbsp;[[bit]]s, with an additional 11-bit space between words to allow for circuit delays in switching. The clock rate was 4.25&nbsp;MHz (1&nbsp;MHz according to one source), which yielded a word access time of about 10&nbsp;[[microsecond]]s. The addition time was 800&nbsp;microseconds, and the multiplication time was 1200&nbsp;microseconds. Programs or data were entered manually in [[octal]] using an eight-key keypad or were loaded from magnetic tape.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102646200 |title=The Binac: A Product of the Eckert-Mauchley Computer Corp. |website=Computer History Museum |language=en |access-date=2018-05-17}}</ref> BINAC was significant for being able to perform high-speed arithmetic on binary numbers, with no provisions to store characters or [[decimal]] digits.{{Citation needed|date=May 2018|reason="with no provisions to store characters or decimal digits"}}

==Project and plan==
In early 1946, months after the completion of [[ENIAC]], the [[University of Pennsylvania]] adopted a new patent policy, which would have required Eckert and Mauchly to assign all their patents to the university if they stayed beyond spring of that year. Unable to reach an agreement with the university, the duo left the [[Moore School of Electrical Engineering]] in March 1946, along with much of the senior engineering staff. Simultaneously, the duo founded the Electronic Control Company (later renamed the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation) in [[Philadelphia]], to create electronic [[stored-program]] computers on a commercial basis.<ref>{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGk9W65vXNA|date=May 14, 2015|title=Computer History: ENIAC - The First Electronic Computer|author=Computer History Archives Project|work=[[YouTube]]|access-date=November 11, 2024|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="BINAC DEV">{{cite web|url=https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=661|title=Innovative Aspects of the BINAC|work=History of Information|access-date=November 30, 2024}}</ref> Later in October 1947, needing money to keep their business afloat while working on the [[UNIVAC I]] (which was also in development at the time) for the [[United States Census Bureau]], the duo drafted a contract with [[Northrop Aircraft]] to build a new computer, which became the BINAC. The company quickly signed it and simultaneously ordered one, as they were engaged in a project to build a long-range guided missile for the U.S. Air Force, and had the idea of using electronic computers for airborne navigation.<ref name="BINAC DEV"/><ref name="BINAC VID">{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udJUWenPK4w|date=September 16, 2018|title=BINAC at the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation|author=Computer History Archives Project|work=[[YouTube]]|access-date=December 1, 2024}}</ref>

<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File: Binac Specifications big.jpg|thumb|Section 2 of the BINAC Operation and Maintenance Manual, which describes the inner workings, inputs and outputs, and memory system of the BINAC]] -->
By September 1948, the second module for the computer was complete in the newly renamed Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, which included germanium [[diode]]s – the first application of [[semiconductors]] in computers – for the logic-processing hardware. As test programs were being run in early 1949, the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation made an operating  and maintenance manual on the computer, specifically for the Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Construction on the computer was complete in August of that year. That same month, the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation issued a press release describing the sale of the BINAC, which was the first press release ever issued for the sale of an electronic computer.<ref name="BINAC DEV"/>

==Early test programs==
The BINAC ran a test program (consisting of 23 [[instruction (computer science)|instruction]]s) in March 1949, although it was not fully functional at the time. Here are early test programs that BINAC ran:

* February 7, 1949 – Ran a five-line program to fill the memory from register A.
* February 10, 1949 – Ran a five-line program to check memory.
* February 16, 1949 – Ran a six-line program to fill memory.
* March 7, 1949 – Ran 217 iterations of a 23-line program to compute squares. It was still running correctly when it stopped.
* April 4, 1949 – Ran a fifty-line program to fill memory and check all instructions. It ran for 2.5 hours before encountering an error. Shortly after that it ran for 31.5 hours without error.

==Customer acceptance==
Northrop accepted delivery<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Adams|first1=C. W.|last2=Israel|first2=D. R.|date=1950-04-06|others=John W. Mauchly|title=Applications of BINAC|journal=Conference on Automatic Computing Machinery, Rutgers University, March 28–29, 1950|language=en|pages=7|hdl=1721.3/38941}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-f7NIGeIU2EC&q=%22binac%22+poisson+equations&pg=PA183|title=Computers and Commerce: A Study of Technology and Management at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company, Engineering Research Associates, and Remington Rand, 1946-1957|last=Norberg|first=Arthur Lawrence|date=2005|publisher=MIT Press|others=Poisson equations test results|isbn=9780262140904|pages=183|language=en}}</ref> of BINAC in September 1949. Northrop employees said that BINAC never worked properly after it was delivered, although it had worked at the Eckert-Mauchly workshop. It was able to run some small programs but did not work well enough to be used as a production machine. Northrop attributed the failures to it not being properly packed for shipping when Northrop picked it up; EMCC said that the problems were due to errors in re-assembly of the machine after shipping. Northrop, citing security considerations, refused to allow EMCC technicians near the machine after shipping, instead hiring a newly graduated engineering student to re-assemble it. EMCC said that the fact that it worked at all after this was testimony to the engineering quality of the machine.

==First computer user manual==
Previous computers were the darlings of university departments of engineering; the users knew the machines well.{{citation-needed|reason=Rather dubious claims (especially 'previous' and 'the users') since electronic programming had only just been invented requiring all users to learn new things: only the designers initially knew how to program; in any case, BINAC was one of the first three working useful computers in the world; c.f., EDSAC and Manchester Mark 1 both also of 1949|date=September 2022}} The BINAC was going to go to an end user, and so a ''user'' manual was needed. Automobile "users" were quite accustomed in those days to doing significant servicing of their vehicles, and "user manuals" existed to help them. The BINAC manual writers took inspiration from those manuals when writing the user manual for the BINAC.<ref name=":1" />

==See also==
* [[Ferranti Mark 1]]
* [[LEO (computer)]]
* [[List of vacuum-tube computers]]
* [[Short Code (computer language)|Short Code]]
* [[UNIVAC I]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Ceruzzi|first=Paul E.|url=https://archive.org/details/beyondlimitsflig00ceru|url-access=registration|quote=binac.|title=Beyond the Limits: Flight enters the computer age|publisher=MIT|year=1989|isbn=9780262530828|pages=[https://archive.org/details/beyondlimitsflig00ceru/page/24 24]–27}}

==External links==
* [http://purl.umn.edu/59495 Oral history interview with Isaac Levin Auerbach]  Oral history interview by Nancy B. Stern, 10 April 1978. [[Charles Babbage Institute]], University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.  Auerbach recounts his experiences at [[Electronic Control Company]] (later the [[Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company]]) during 1947–1949.  He emphasizes the economic and practical infeasibility of the BINAC computer project for [[Northrop Corporation|Northrop Aircraft]]. Auerbach also discusses the [[UNIVAC]], including personalities, politics, and its technical features. The roles of the [[National Bureau of Standards]], [[Northrop Corporation|Northrop Aircraft]], [[Raytheon]], [[Remington Rand]], and [[IBM]].
* {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422044157/https://wiki.cc.gatech.edu/folklore/index.php/UNIVAC_1:_The_First_Mass-Produced_Computer|date=April 22, 2017|title=UNIVAC 1: The First Mass-Produced Computer - Unisys History Newsletter, Volume 5, Number 1}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080804005753/http://www.palosverdes.com/lasthurrah/binac-description.html Roger Mills' Description of the BINAC]
* [http://moby.to/3yet86 Picture of BINAC history sign in Northeast Philadelphia]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udJUWenPK4w YouTube: Video History of BINAC]
{{Mainframes}}
[[Category:Vacuum tube computers]]
[[Category:One-of-a-kind computers]]
[[Category:1940s computers]]
[[Category:Computer-related introductions in 1949]]
[[Category:Serial computers]]