SEAC and SWAC completed

SEAC and SWAC completed

 

he Standards Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC) is the first stored-program computer completed in the United States. It was built in Washington D.C. as a laboratory for testing components and systems and for setting computer standards. It was also the first computer to use all-diode logic, a technology more reliable than vacuum tubes. Magnetic tape in the external storage units (shown on the right of this photo) stored programming information, coded subroutines, numerical data, and output. The NBS also built the Standards Western Automatic Computer (SWAC) at the Institute for Numerical Analysis in Los Angeles. Rather than testing components like its companion, the SEAC, the SWAC had an objective of computing using already-developed technology. SWAC was used to create the first computer-scanned image as well as to discover five previously unknown Mersenne prime numbers.