facom

2 Articles

Visiting The FACOM 128B 1958 Relay Computer

December 6, 2019 by 9 Comments

If you study the history of computing you might have heard of the FACOM 128B, a Japanese relay computer from 1958. It holds the distinction of being a contender for the oldest computer that still works in its original form, as it resides in a Fujitsu building in Numazu Japan. [CuriousMarc] visited the old computer and created a video about it as well as painting a picture of other contemporary machines. You can see the video below.

[Marc] explains how a relay machine was already behind the times in 1958, and also shows how the 5,000 relay machine is laid out. The machine on display came from a Tokyo university and did the kind of computations you might use a computer for today to do engineering design.

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Maybe The Oldest Computer, Probably The Oddest

August 3, 2019 by 39 Comments

[Tadao Hamada] works for Fujitsu Tokki, a subsidiary of the more famous Fujitsu. In 1956, Fujitsu decided to compete with IBM and built a relay-based computer, the FACOM128. The computer takes up 70 square meters and weighs about 3 tons. By 1959, they’d learned enough to make a FACOM128B model that was improved. [Hamada’s] job is to keep one of these beasts operational at Fujitsu’s Numazu plant. According to the Japanese Computer Museum, it may be the oldest working computer.

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