Detail map of 6, 4-chōme, Shiroyama, Odawara, Kanagawa, Japan,7, Uenokōen, Taito City, Tōkyō-to, Japan Overview map of 6, 4-chōme, Shiroyama, Odawara, Kanagawa, Japan,7, Uenokōen, Taito City, Tōkyō-to, Japan

A: 6, 4-chōme, Shiroyama, Odawara, Kanagawa, Japan, B: 7, Uenokōen, Taito City, Tōkyō-to, Japan

Okazaki Bunji Designs and Builds FUJIC, the First Japanese Stored-Program Computer

3/1956

In March 1956 FUJIC, the first Japanese stored-program electronic computer was operational. It was designed and built by essentially one person—Dr. Okazaki Bunji—for the Fuji Photo Film Company in Odawara, western Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The project began in 1949.

"Originally designed to perform calculations for lens design by Fuji, the ultimate goal of FUJIC's construction was to achieve a speed 1,000 times that of human calculation for the same purpose – amazingly, the performance achieved was double that number.

"Employing approximately 1,700 vacuum tubes, the computer's word length was 33 bits. It had an ultrasonic mercury delay line memory of 255 words, with an average access time of 500 microseconds. An addition or subtraction was clocked at 100 microseconds, multiplication at 1,600 microseconds, and division at 2,100 microseconds (Wikipedia article on FUJIC, accessed 9-2020).

FUJIC is preserved in The National Museum Of Nature and Science in Tokyo.

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