MOCK-UP OF A CRYOTRON DIGITAL COMPUTER WITH PROGRAMMED CONTROL,
Abstract
A small-scale model of a cryotron computer was built and tested at the Physico-technical Institute of the Academy of Sciences UkrSSR. The model contained only essential blocks such as the arithmetic unit, number memory unit, instruction memory with machine halt unit, control unit, and an I/0 unit. The model could add, subtract, and multiply 4-bit (including sign bit) words in fixed-point notation. Instructions were of the three-address type, and the memory unit was random-access. The computer was built using 504 lead-tin wire cryotrons mounted on micarta cards. Three tests lasting 11, 17, and 21 hours were made during which every 3 hours the machine was stopped while liquid helium was added. No malfunctions were encountered. Certain simple algorithms were tried out using eight 9-bit instructions. It was established that multiplication required 3 sec and subtraction 5 sec of machine time; clock period was therfore made equal to 6 sec. The authors state that the test conditions were not optimal in the sense of maximum speed, and propose certain modifications which would bring the computing speed into the megacycle clock-frequency range. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 07, 1968
- Accession Number
- AD0678814
Entities
People
- G. A. Kikhailov
- V. A. Rakhubovskii
- Ya. S. Kan
Organizations
- National Air and Space Intelligence Center