ICT Pioneers and Leaders
Including SILLIAC 50th Anniversary Celebration Events

SILLIAC — A History

SILLIAC, the first automatic computer built in Australia within an Australian university, was a copy of ILLIAC, the first automatic computer built at the University of Illinois, USA. Sir Adolph Basser donated 50 000 pounds in February 1954 (later doubled to 100 000 pounds) to the then Nuclear Research Foundation, founded by Professor Harry Messel, to enable the Australian version to be built. The computer was constructed in the School of Physics and at Standard Telephones and Cables Pty Ltd (now Alcatel Australia), Sydney, during 1955 and 1956. The first successful scientific calculation on the machine was performed on 4 July 1956 with SILLIAC officially opened by Sir John Northcott, Governor of NSW and Administrator of the Commonwealth of Australia, on 12 September 1956.

At the time of SILLIAC’s construction only one other computer was already in operation in Australia. This first computer CSIR Mk1 was designed and constructed by staff at the CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory from 1945 to 1949 when the Laboratory was located in what is now the Madsen Building on the University of Sydney campus. This computer was dismantled in 1955 and reassembled at the University of Melbourne. It was renamed CSIRAC and the Laboratory in which it was housed was opened on 14 June 1956. CSIRAC is now on display at the Museum of Victoria.

Why did CSIRAC move to Melbourne rather that relocate to one of the two universities in Sydney? Planning for SILLIAC and another computer, UTECOM, was well advanced and it was realised that a further computer was not required at a university in Sydney. The computer UTECOM was bought "off the shelf" from the UK company, English Electric.

SILLIAC AND ITS CONTEMPORARIES

In 1954, the NSW State Government made a grant of 125,000 pounds to Professor Baxter who was then Vice Chancellor of the University of Technology (now UNSW) and also Chairman of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission to carry out research into nuclear physics.

The machine was delivered to the Kensington campus in June 1956 and was officially opened by the Premier of NSW on 11 September 1956 - a day before SILLIAC - even though it did not become operational until the following month!

A fourth computer WREDAC was bought again “off the shelf” from another UK company, Elliott Bros. It was installed at the Weapons Research Establishment in South Australia in October 1955 and began operations in September 1956. It was used to model the flight paths of missiles and later for administrative work.

SILLIAC IS OPERATIONAL ... AND HOW!

1956 was an important year for computing in Australian universities and also in the broader community. Commercial computers began to arrive in Australia from both the UK and the USA soon after and these required trained staff to operate them. While other contemporary computer designs existed around the same time including Cambridge’s EDSAC, the US BINAC and even Australia’s CSIRAC – all these emphasised functionality and attempted to minimise the expensive, rare and bulky electronic components.

In contrast to these one-bit-at-a-time serial designs SILLIAC did everything it could in parallel, everything was duplicated 40 times to produce the greatest operating speed possible. This was the supercomputer of the first generation of computers.

Soon SILLIAC became invaluable not only to the University of Sydney but also to the surrounding business community. It served both as an invaluable computational tool and as a training ground for the first generation of computer specialists. SILLIAC ran twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year until it was finally dismantled in 1968.

MORE INFORMATION

Further Information on SILLIAC’s ‘contemporaries’:
CSIRAC, UTECOM and WREDAC

A more detailed overview of the development of computers in Australia Is given in the report “Technology in Australia 1788 – 1988” produced by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.