FACOM 222, first transistor-based computer manufactured by Fujitsu, the fastest and largest machine of its type produced in Japan at the time, April 1961.
On console, Mayumi Takahashi, a claims officer at the Kyoei Life Insurance Co. is running the SORT/MERGE program on earthquake damage policies. It had 10,000 words of main core memory and a 100,000 word auxiliary magnetic drum storage unit, able to connect up to ten 200,000 word magnetic tape devices, integer performance was 6,250 additions/sec and 1,100 multiplies/sec. Floating point performance was 350µs(addition), 800µs(multiplication), and 3,300µs(division). High-reliability was achieved by a complete check system, including checks based on 5C2 code for arithmetic operation. The systems were used by trading companies, manufacturing businesses, universities, and computation centers.
Software
Fujitsu shipped the relay computers FACOM 100, FACOM 128A and FACOM 128B between 1954 and 1958. However, Fujitsu did not provide their software, and users created programs in machine languages. The company initiated research on programs in conjunction with the start of development of the large general-purpose computer FACOM 222 in 1958, and prototyped a FORTRAN programming system (FACOM 222P FAST), an assembler programming system (FACOM 222P FASP)(*), an IOCS (Input Output Control System) and a SORT/MERGE program for FACOM 222P. Because the main memory of FACOM 222P consisted of a 400-word core memory and a 9,600-word magnetic drum, the company took various measures to achieve control similar to today’s virtual memory. In 1963, following these prototypes, the company provided a FORTRAN programming system (FACOM 222 FAST), an assembler (FACOM 222 FASP), an IOCS and a SORT/MERGE program as software for FACOM 222A. This FORTRAN programming system was a closed system that contained a relocatable binary loader (FACOM 222 FAST LOADER), a subroutine during execution and a small monitor. In addition, the assembler itself also constituted one system, and the object program used the IOCS and SORT/MERGE program.
Ancient Snow Gum tree (Eucalyptus pauciflora) at Bogong High Plains near Cape West Aquaduct, Alpine National Park, Victoria, Australia
Photo: Groei en Bloei Asten-Someren
