MUSASINO-1

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The MUSASINO-1 was the second electronic computer built in Japan. Construction started in Musashino, Tokyo in 1952, and upon completion in July 1957, the computer was used until July 1962.

Using 519 vacuum tubes and 5,400 parametrons, the MUSASINIO-1 possessed a magnetic core memory, initially of 32 (later expanded to 256) words. A word was composed of 40 bits, and two instructions could be stored in a single word. Addition time was clocked at 1,350 microseconds, multiplication at 6,800 microseconds, and division time at 26.1 milliseconds.

The MUSASINO-1's instruction set was a superset of the ILLIAC I's instruction, so it could generally use the latter's software. However, many of the programs for the ILLIAC used some of the unused bits in the instructions to store data, and these would be interpreted as a different instruction by the unit.

[edit] References and External Links

  • Raúl Rojas and Ulf Hashagen, ed. The First Computers: History and Architectures. 2000, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-18197-5.

[edit] See also

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