ICL 4-70

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ICL SYSTEM 4-70 [1]

ICL System 4-70, (ICL 4-70)
a 32-bit mainframe computer, member of the English Electric System 4 and since 1968 ICL 4 series, derived from the RCA Spectra 70, an IBM 360 clone. The IBM 360 compatibility made it particularly attractive to customers in the Soviet Union, as the sale of IBM computers was politically sensitive and commercially restricted during the Cold War [2]. Computer speed was 0.280 MWIPS on Whetstone benchmark [3] and 368 KIPS on Gibson Mix benchmark [4]. The cost of the computer in 1968 was 600 thousand pounds [5].

Photos

KaissaICL4-70.jpg

Kaissa on ICL 4-70 operated by Vladimir Arlazarov during the WCCC 1974 [6]

Quotes

Quote by Aaron L. Futer about the ICL 4-70 computer at the Institute of Control Sciences:

The algorithm is implemented on a computer with the IBM-360 command system. The unit of information of this computer is a byte — 8 binary digits (bits). The command system provides for work with the following values: byte, halfword (2 bytes), word (4 bytes), double word (8 bytes), variable length field (up to 256 bytes). Performance depends on the command format, but on average it is 300 thousand operations per second. The machine's main memory, available to the programmer, is 330 thousand bytes. Capacity of external devices: magnetic tape — 20×106 bytes, disk — 7.2×106 bytes. The operating system allows several programs to run in parallel. To encode the chessboard, we use 64 bits — a double word. Bits are numbered from 0 to 63 [7].

Chess Programs

See also

External Links

ICL 4-70 in the ICS RAS computer room
ICL 4-70 in the ICS RAS computer room (8:33 - 14:49):

References

  1. ICL SYSTEM 4-70, Hungary, Budapest XIV, Angol Street 27, the National Design Office's computer center, 1973, FOTO: FortepanID 99262, Donor: UVATERV, Wikimedia Commons
  2. International Computers Limited - English Electric LEO Marconi (EELM)
  3. Whetstone Benchmark History and Results
  4. Computer Speeds From Instruction Mixes pre-1960 to 1971
  5. The European Computer Users Handbook, 1969, p. II/21
  6. Kaissa World Champion from Памяти Г. М. Адельсон-Вельского | Facebook (cropped), Image from display case TASS, 1974
  7. Translated by Google Translate Edward Komissarchik, Aaron L. Futer (1974). On the analysis of the queen endgame using a computer. in Problems of Cybernetic, No. 29 , p. 213

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