ILLIAC IV

The ILLIAC IV was a ground-breaking, although not directly successful, supercomputer. It was the first supercomputer to be a multi-processor - although it was a tightly-coupled SIMD architecture, not a loosely-coupled MIMD, as most contemporary supercomputers are now. Its name came from the fact that it was the fourth machine built by the Illinois Automatic Computer (ILLIAC) team.

It was one of the first computers to use all semiconductor main memory; the ILLIAC's was produced by Fairchild Semiconductor. Much of the physical creation of the machine was done by Burroughs, the system contractor.

Further reading

• R. Michael Hord, The Illiac IV: The First Supercomputer, Computer Science Press, Rockville, 1982

External links

• ILLIAC IV - documentation at Bitsavers