Lysator
Encyclopedia
Lysator is an academic computer club at Linköping University
Linköping University
Linköping University is a state university in Linköping, Sweden. Linköping University was granted full university status in 1975 and is now one of Sweden's larger academic institutions. Education, research and PhD training are the mission of four faculties: Arts and Sciences, Educational...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
with almost 600 members. It is an independent non-profit society, separate from the students' union and the faculties of the university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
.
History
Lysator was founded 29 March 1973. The first computer used at Lysator was a DatasaabDatasaab
Datasaab was the computer division of and later a separate company spun off from aircraft manufacturer Saab in Linköping, Sweden. Its history dates back to December 1954, when Saab got a license to build its own copy of BESK, an early Swedish computer design using vacuum tubes, from...
D21, delivered to Lysator on 25 May 1973. Later in the decade, members of Lysator developed and initially built a microcomputer
Microcomputer
A microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit. They are physically small compared to mainframe and minicomputers...
, the Lys-16, which was advanced for its time due to its 16-bit
Bit
A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states...
word size.
In February 1993, Lysator put up the first web server
Web server
Web server can refer to either the hardware or the software that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the Internet....
in Sweden, among the first 10–15 in the world.
On 30 July 2010, Lysator began migrating to a new 3U
Rack unit
A rack unit or U is a unit of measure used to describe the height of equipment intended for mounting in a 19-inch rack or a 23-inch rack...
home
Data center
A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems...
rack, increasing their available storage space from 700GB to 13TB
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
.
Projects hosted by Lysator
Lysator has been a starting ground for many notable projects, some of which have since become independent from the club:- Project RunebergProject RunebergProject Runeberg is an initiative patterned after Project Gutenberg that publishes freely available electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries...
- LysKOMLysKOMLysKOM is a KOM-based conferencing system developed by the Lysator Academic Computer Society at Linköping University and Linköping Institute of Technology. It can be seen as a cross between news and e-mail, but with the presence and speed of IRC or IM-networks. The most common client is the LysKOM...
- ElfwoodElfwoodElfwood is a popular web-based alternative art gallery and online community devoted to original science fiction and fantasy art and writing. It was started 1 May 1996 by Thomas Abrahamsson and claims to be the largest science fiction and fantasy art site in the world.-Early years:Elfwood was...
- SvenskMud
- NannyMUDNannyMUDNannyMUD is a MUD, a text-based online role-playing game, founded in 1990, making it one of the longest-running online games. It is hosted by Lysator, the computer club of Linköping University in Sweden.-Characteristics:...
- Sprite Animation ToolkitSprite Animation ToolkitSprite Animation Toolkit is a computer game programming library created by Lysator for the Apple Macintosh platform which was popular during the late 1990s, in particular for shareware games. SAT can be used with Think Pascal, Think C or CodeWarrior in the Pascal or C programming languages...