BARK
Encyclopedia
BARK was an early electromechanical computer
. BARK was built using standard phone relays, implementing a 32-bit
binary machine. It could perform addition in 150 ms and multiplication in 250 ms. It had a memory with 50 registers and 100 constants. It was later expanded to double the memory. Howard Aiken
stated in reference to BARK "This is the first computer I have seen outside Harvard that actually works."
BARK was developed by Matematikmaskinnämnden (Swedish Board for Computing Machinery
) a few years before BESK
. The machine was built with 8000 standard phone relays, 80 km of cable and with 175,000 soldering points. It was completed in February 1950 at a cost of 400.000 Swedish kronor
, became operational on April 28, and was taken offline on September 22, 1954. The engineers on the team led by Conny Palm
were Harry Freese, Gösta Neovius, Olle Karlqvist, Carl-Erik Fröberg, G. Kellberg, Björn Lind, Arne Lindberger, P. Petersson and Madeline Wallmark.
Electromechanics
In engineering, electromechanics combines the sciences of electromagnetism, of electrical engineering and mechanics. Mechanical engineering in this context refers to the larger discipline which includes chemical engineering, and other related disciplines. Electrical engineering in this context...
. BARK was built using standard phone relays, implementing a 32-bit
32-bit
The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....
binary machine. It could perform addition in 150 ms and multiplication in 250 ms. It had a memory with 50 registers and 100 constants. It was later expanded to double the memory. Howard Aiken
Howard Aiken
Howard Hathaway Aiken was a pioneer in computing, being the original conceptual designer behind IBM's Harvard Mark I computer....
stated in reference to BARK "This is the first computer I have seen outside Harvard that actually works."
BARK was developed by Matematikmaskinnämnden (Swedish Board for Computing Machinery
Swedish Board for Computing Machinery
The Swedish Board for Computing Machinery, Matematikmaskinnämnden , was a Swedish government agency which built Sweden's first computers, BARK and BESK....
) a few years before BESK
BESK
BESK was Sweden's first electronic computer, using vacuum tubes instead of relays. It was developed by Matematikmaskinnämnden and during a short time it was the fastest computer in the world. The computer was completed in 1953 and in use until 1966...
. The machine was built with 8000 standard phone relays, 80 km of cable and with 175,000 soldering points. It was completed in February 1950 at a cost of 400.000 Swedish kronor
Swedish krona
The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
, became operational on April 28, and was taken offline on September 22, 1954. The engineers on the team led by Conny Palm
Conny Palm
Conrad "Conny" Palm was a Swedish electrical engineer and statistician, known for several contributions to teletraffic engineering and queueing theory....
were Harry Freese, Gösta Neovius, Olle Karlqvist, Carl-Erik Fröberg, G. Kellberg, Björn Lind, Arne Lindberger, P. Petersson and Madeline Wallmark.
External links
- Tekn. lic. Olle Karlqvist in memoriam, memorial site of one of the engineers behind BARK and BESK