WEIZAC

The WEIZAC or Weizmann Automatic Computer, an early computer built by the Weizmann Institute in Israel, was based on the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) architecture developed by John von Neumann. As with all computers of its era, it was a one of a kind machine that could not exchange programs with other computers (even other IAS machines). The computer was built in 1954 and opperated until the 1964. The computer was propriatary from all other computers. Later, the institute built more advance computers, like the GOLEM I[?] in 1964 and the GOLEM II[?] in 1972.

Uses of the Weizac

The WEIZAC was used to study problems like worldwide chages in tide, and it took hundreds of hours to to any problem. The computer found out that there was a point in the south Atlantic[?] at which the tide doesn't change. The computer also calculated the relationship between a helium nucleus and its two electrons and yielded results that were experimentally confirmed by the Brookhaven National Laboratory (but no general solution exists for the "three body problem" of which this is a special case). The computer solved a problem to see how earthquakes worked and to test a theory about the internal structure of the earth.

External Link

• Weizmann Institute website about computer science (http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/site/EN/weizman.asp?pi=420&doc_id=755)