# Cyclone (computer) > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Cyclone_(computer) > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Cyclone_(computer).md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_(computer) > Source revision: 1353068436 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Vacuum tube computer built by Iowa State College For other uses, see [Cyclone (disambiguation)](/source/Cyclone_(disambiguation)). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Cyclone" computer – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The **Cyclone** is a [vacuum-tube computer](/source/Vacuum-tube_computer), built by [Iowa State College](/source/Iowa_State_University) (later University) at Ames, Iowa. The computer was commissioned in July 1959. It was based on the [IAS](/source/IAS_machine) architecture developed by [John von Neumann](/source/John_von_Neumann). The Cyclone was based on [ILLIAC](/source/ILLIAC), the [University of Illinois](/source/University_of_Illinois_at_Urbana%E2%80%93Champaign) Automatic Computer. The Cyclone used 40-bit words, used two 20-bit instructions per word, and each instruction had an eight-bit [op-code](/source/Op-code) and a 12-bit operand or address field. In general IAS-based computers were not code compatible with each other, although originally math routines which ran on the ILLIAC would also run on the Cyclone. The Cyclone was completed just as the transistor was replacing the vacuum tube as an active computing element. The Cyclone had about 2,500 vacuum tubes, 1,521 of which were type 5844. (The [IBM 1401](/source/IBM_1401) computer, announced the same year, was fully transistorized. About 15,000 IBM 1401 machines were produced.) The supervisor of the Cyclone computer construction was Dr. R. M. Stewart, a professor of physics at ISC (now ISU). The [paper-tape](/source/Punched_tape) input was upgraded with an optical character reader using a high-speed stepper motor, again by a person from the Physics Department. Robert Asbury Sharpe organized and taught courses for interested faculty and wrote an [assembler](/source/Assembly_language) as well as an [ALGOL](/source/ALGOL) compiler for the Cyclone. The Cyclone solved 40 equations with 40 unknowns in less than four minutes. This was the same type of problem that the [Atanasoff–Berry Computer](/source/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_Computer) was designed to solve twenty years earlier at the same college. The Cyclone computer was 10 feet tall, 12 feet long, 3 feet wide, and contained over 2,700 vacuum tubes. It used 19 kW of electric power and weighed about 5,000 pounds (2.5 short tons; 2.3 t). "Good time" was about 40 hours per week. The original Cyclone had: 1. Input and output via five-hole paper tape. 1. A model 28 [Teleprinter](/source/Teleprinter), 10 characters per second, was also available for output. 1. Memory was originally 1,024 40-bit words of [Williams tube](/source/Williams_tube) electrostatic memory. The Cyclone had a major rebuild about 1961: 1. Five-hole paper tape was replaced by an eight-hole tape reader/punch. 1. The console printer was upgraded to an eight-hole [Friden Flexowriter](/source/Friden_Flexowriter). 1. 1024-word Williams memory was replaced by four banks of [magnetic-core memory](/source/Magnetic-core_memory), 4096 words in each bank. Both versions had features and limitations: - All IAS derivatives used an [asynchronous CPU](/source/Asynchronous_CPU), with no clock. Each unit generated an "answer-back" or "I'm ready" signal, which permitted the output to be used or the next step taken. Most computers designed since then are "synchronous", meaning after a certain number of clock cycles the unit is finished with the pending operation, for example an addition. - There were no index registers. To access sequential data in a loop, programs used address modification in the instructions instead of incrementing or decrementing an index. - The Cyclone had a loudspeaker system connected to the sign bit of the accumulator. Operators or monitors could listen for an infinite loop or particular program. When the computer was finished, the memory exerciser program was started, which had a distinctive sound - signaling others that the machine was available. Speakers were placed in offices and work areas for convenience. The only input device was the paper tape reader and the only outputs were the console printer and paper tape punch. As the paper tape punch was much faster than the printer, most output was punched, and then listed on an off-line printer. The Iowa State Cyclone is distinct from the [Atanasoff–Berry Computer](/source/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_Computer) of the late 1930s - neither [John Vincent Atanasoff](/source/John_Vincent_Atanasoff) nor [Clifford Berry](/source/Clifford_Berry) worked on this machine. ## See also - [IAS machine](/source/IAS_machine) - [Computer music](/source/Computer_music) - [LaFarr Stuart](/source/LaFarr_Stuart) ## References 1) "A Third Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems" Report No. 1115, March 1961 by Martin H. Weik, published by Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 2) "A Fourth Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems" Report No. 1227, January 1964 by Martin H. Weik, published by Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 3) [LaFarr Stuart](/source/LaFarr_Stuart) was an economics graduate student and also wrote test programs and utilities during and after the development of the second version of the Cyclone. LaFarr wrote the assembler in machine code as there was no machine for a cross assembler. Also wrote a music program, see External links. ## External links - [BRL Report No. 1115, March 1961](http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL61-c.html#CYCLONE) - [BRL BRL Report No. 1227, January 1964](http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL64-c.html#CYCLONE) - [Iowa State University, Department of Statistics, Cyclone Computer Records, RS 13/24/5](https://web.archive.org/web/20130503163532/http://www.lib.iastate.edu/arch/rgrp/13-24-5.html) - [Iowa State University, CS Department History](https://web.archive.org/web/20130105140533/http://www.cs.iastate.edu/department/history.php) - [Iowa State University, Computer Technology Research](http://www.ece.iastate.edu/the-department/history/research-history/) v t e Mainframe computers Australia CSIRAC (1949) SILLIAC (1956) Israel WEIZAC (1955) Japan FACOM (1954) FUJIC (1949) Sweden SARA (1957) SMIL (1956) EDB-1 (1957) TRASK (1964) Soviet Union BESM-6 ES-2701 [ru] Mars [ru] PS-2000 PS-3000 [ru] SVS [ru] Elbrus Electronika SS VLSI [ru] See also: Soviet computer systems United States IAS family 1950s ILLIAC (1952) AVIDAC (1953) BESK (1953) IBM 701 (1953) JOHNNIAC (1953) ORACLE (1953) ORDVAC (1952) WEIZAC (1955) DASK (1955) SARA (1957) SILLIAC (1956) SMIL (1956) MANIAC I (1956) MANIAC II (1956) MISTIC (1957) MUSASINO-1 (1957) EDB-1 (1957) EDB-2/3 (1957) Cyclone (1959) 1960s FACOM 201 (1960) TRASK (1964) University of Illinois ORDVAC (1952) ILLIAC I (1952) ILLIAC II (1958) ILLIAC III (1966) ILLIAC IV (1965) CEDAR (1988) ILLIAC 6 (2005) Trusted ILLIAC (2006) Harvard University Harvard Mark I (1944) Harvard Mark II (1947) Harvard Mark III (1949) Harvard Mark IV (1952) IBM v t e IBM vacuum tube computers 305 RAMAC 610 650 701 702 704 705 709 SAGE AN/FSQ-7 AN/FSQ-8 Mainframes University of Pennsylvania ENIAC (1945) EMCC EDVAC (1949) UNIVAC I (1951) Remington–Sperry Rand UNIVAC II UNIVAC 1101 UNIVAC 1103 UNIVAC 1105 See also: Computers built 1955–1978 Raytheon RAYDAC (1953) United Kingdom Colossus computer (1943) Related Transistor computer list Vacuum-tube computer list History of computing hardware History of computing hardware (1960s–present) List of pioneers in computer science --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Cyclone (computer)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_(computer)) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_(computer)?action=history)). 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