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Bendix G-15

Manufacturer Bendix
Identification,ID G-15
Date of first manufacture1956
Number produced about 300
Estimated price or cost"$50,000 in late 1950 dollars"
location in museum -
donor -

Contents of this page:

Photo Photo
Bendix G-15
Detail photos THE AUSTRALIAN COMPUTER MUSEUM SOCIETY

Placard
Bendix G-15 - by Ron Mak

Architecture
  • Two address, drum main memory,
  • Word length - 29 bits
  • Optional magnetic tape storage
  • Double-length arithmetic registers for machine supported double precision

Special features
  • Block I/O permitted movement of up to 108 words with a single command
  • Simultaneous I/O and computation
  • The following interesting peripherals were available
    • An accessory "DIGITAL DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER DA-1" greatly eased and speeded certain engineering work.
    • Graphical Plotter PA-3
    • Punched Card Coupler CA-2
    • Punched Paper Tape Reader PR-1 (250 character/sec), PR-2 (430 characters/sec, can read 5, 6, 7, or 8 bit tape, searchable)
    • Special Input-Putput Registers
  • Gordon S. Becker - beckers@main.nc.us - says " I was in charge of a scientific computing division for the U.S. Army Map Service and the cost for G-15D computer (The D postscript denotes an alphabetic capability) was in the neighborhood of $50,000.00 in late 1950 dollars. I also have retained copies of the coding for a number of double precision computer programs. ..."

Historical Notes
  • Same year, similar use of circulating registers on drum as LGP-30
  • Followed by the transistorized Bendix G-20

This Specimen
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Interesting Web Sites

Other information
BRL-61 Link

from Rob Kolstad, Dec 2008

I have identified perhaps half a dozen extant G-15s, including one at the [Computer History Museum]. I have built a paper tape reader so I hope to get all the software (!) up and running on the simulator that I'm reworking from the australians (who originally wrote the simulator in SIMULA-60).

Its architecture is so simple that it lends itself to a fabulous evolution-of-computer-architecture exhibit -- especially since it's arguably the first Personal Computer (!). 

 
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          ((__))       Rob Kolstad                      USACO Head Coach
           (00)        kolstad@ace.delos.com   15235 Roller Coaster Road  
     -nn--(o__o)--nn-  +1 719 481 6542        Colorado Springs, CO 80921
           ----        http://www.usaco.org        Cell: +1 719 321 7333
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Updated December , 2008