CSIRAC Chronology

I have tried to piece together events relating to CSIRAC over the years.

The CSIRAC computer was originally called the CSIR Mk1. It was not until the move to Melbourne when it was renamed "CSIRAC".

1945 - Trevor Pearcey sees Howard Aiken's Mk1 (or Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator) at Harvard, and decides that paper tape-based systems are too slow, and that a fully electronic design would be superior.

1946 - Trevor Pearcey begins to formulate the logical planning for an "Automatic Computer".

1946 - Chief of Radiophysics Edward Bowen and Assistant Chief Joseph Pawsey decided on radioastronomy and rain-physics as the two main areas of research, with a third, radio propogation dropped in favour of the development of electronic computing.

1948 - Construction of the Mk1 computer begins with Maston Beard in charge of engineering and Trevor Pearcey covering the logical design.

1949 - First test program is run in late November - a long multiplication routine.

1951 - Brian Cooper constructs a drum-based secondary storage unit, and begins to construct a larger drum-based device with greater capacity.

1951 - The Mk1 is publicly demonstrated.

1951 - Music first played on the Mk1.

1953 - Reginald Ryan doubles the Mk1's mercury delay line storage capacity to 1024 words.

1955 - Maston Beard designs a disk-type secondary storage unit, abandoning Brian Cooper's second drum-type design.

1954 - Maston Beard with the assistance of Geoff Chandler completely redesigns the main memory circuits which were designated MKII.

1955 - The Mk1 is dismantled for shipment to Melbourne.

1956 - June 14. The Computation Laboratory is opened at the University of Melbourne and the machine is renamed "CSIRAC".

1964 - CSIRAC is decommissioned and donated to the Museum of Victoria. It is replaced by an IBM 7044.

1980's - CSIRAC is removed from storage and placed on display at Caulfield (later Chisolm) Institute of Technology (now Monash University - Caulfield campus).

1992 - CSIRAC is returned to storage in the Museum of Victoria.

1996 - In June the machine is placed on display at the University of Melbourne, as part of the 40th Anniversary Celebration of CSIRAC arriving in Melbourne.

1996 - In December, CSIRAC is placed back into storage at the Scienceworks Museum, Spotswood.

2000 - CSIRAC will be placed on permanent display in the new Museum of Victoria at Carlton Gardens, Melbourne.

2001 - CSIRAC is on display as part of the Museum Victoria Technology Collection at Carlton Gardens, Melbourne.

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