WEIZAC
|
|
The WEIZAC or Weizmann Automatic Computer, an early computer built in 1954 by the Weizmann Institute in Israel, was based on the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) architecture developed by John von Neumann. As with all computers of its era, it was a one of a kind machine that could not exchange programs with other computers (even other IAS machines). The WEIZAC was operated until 1964. Later, the institute built more advanced computers, like the GOLEM I in 1964 and the GOLEM II in 1972.
Uses of the Weizac
The WEIZAC was used to study problems like worldwide changes in tide, and it took hundreds of hours to compute any problem. The computer found out that there was a point in the South Atlantic at which the tide doesn't change. The computer also calculated the relationship between a helium nucleus and its two electrons* and yielded results that were experimentally confirmed by the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The computer solved a problem to see how earthquakes worked and to test a theory about the internal structure of the earth.
(* Note that no general solution exists for the three-body problem, of which the Helium nucleus–electron relationship is a special case.)
External link
- Weizmann Institute Computer Studies (http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/site/EN/weizman.asp?pi=420&doc_id=755) – With a historical overview including the WEIZAC