SAPO (computer)
Encyclopedia
The SAPO was the first Czechoslovak
computer
. It operated in the years 1957-1960 in Výzkumný ústav matematických strojů, part of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
. The computer was the first fault-tolerant computer - it had three parallel arithmetic units, which decided on the correct result by voting (if all three results were different, the operation was repeated).
SAPO was designed between 1950 and 1956 by a team led by Czechoslovak cybernetics
pioneer Antonín Svoboda
. Svoboda had experience from building electromechanical computers in the USA, where he worked at MIT until 1946. It was electromechanical design with 7,000 relay
s and 400 vacuum tube
s, and a magnetic drum memory with capacity of 1024 32-bit words. Each instruction had 5 operands (addresses) - 2 for arithmetic operands, one for result and addresses of next instruction in case of positive and negative result. It operated on binary floating point numbers.
In 1960, a spark from one of the relays fired the greasing oil, and the whole computer burnt down.
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
. It operated in the years 1957-1960 in Výzkumný ústav matematických strojů, part of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences was established in 1953 to be the scientific center for Czechoslovakia. It was succeeded by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in 1992.-History:...
. The computer was the first fault-tolerant computer - it had three parallel arithmetic units, which decided on the correct result by voting (if all three results were different, the operation was repeated).
SAPO was designed between 1950 and 1956 by a team led by Czechoslovak cybernetics
Cybernetics
Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...
pioneer Antonín Svoboda
Antonín Svoboda
Antonin Svoboda was a Czech computer scientist, mathematician, electrical engineer, and researcher. He is credited with originating the design of fault-tolerant computer systems, and with the creation of SAPO, the first Czech computer design....
. Svoboda had experience from building electromechanical computers in the USA, where he worked at MIT until 1946. It was electromechanical design with 7,000 relay
Relay
A relay is an electrically operated switch. Many relays use an electromagnet to operate a switching mechanism mechanically, but other operating principles are also used. Relays are used where it is necessary to control a circuit by a low-power signal , or where several circuits must be controlled...
s and 400 vacuum tube
Vacuum tube
In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
s, and a magnetic drum memory with capacity of 1024 32-bit words. Each instruction had 5 operands (addresses) - 2 for arithmetic operands, one for result and addresses of next instruction in case of positive and negative result. It operated on binary floating point numbers.
In 1960, a spark from one of the relays fired the greasing oil, and the whole computer burnt down.