Argonne History

Computers: AVIDAC to Virtual Reality

Today, Argonne scientists can solve computational problems once considered unsolvable. They can "walk into" experiments in a computerized virtual reality environment where they can see, hear and manipulate information with a mouse-like control wand. The computer's development -- as with reactor technology -- was sped by defense needs during World War II. ENIAC, containing 18,000 vacuum tubes, was built at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946 and was soon used by Argonne researchers to solve ballistic trajectory problems. Two years later, the discovery of the transistor inaugurated an industrial revolution and made possible construction of powerful computers. It was not until 1951, however, that the first commercial transistor-driven computer, UNIVAC , was introduced for use in business and science.

Digital to Analog

AVIDAC, Argonne's first digital computer, began operation in January 1953. It was built by the Physics Division for $250,000. Pictured is pioneer Argonne computer scientist Jean F. Hall. (Click the image to see a larger photo.)

Argonne physicists encountered mathematical problems of enormous complexity. In 1949, since there were no computers available commercially, the researchers built their own. The laboratory's first electronic digital computer, referred to as an "electronic brain," began operation in January 1953. It was named AVIDAC and was used in reactor engineering and theoretical physics research. Several months later, it was followed by ORACLE, a larger computer system. Increasingly, almost exponentially, the need for better and quicker handling of scientific data grew as the laboratory expanded. Advanced computer facilities became a necessity. In 1957, Argonne scientists built GEORGE, a large-scale digital computer that operated around the clock. A digital IBM-704, then one of the world's largest computers, was installed. The next year, PACE (Precision Analog Computing Equipment) was purchased. PACE, unlike the digital computers, measured and simulated experimental conditions.

High-Speed Machines

By the early 1960s, Argonne was one of the biggest computing centers in the Midwest. Its high-speed computers were used for design calculations to help determine reactor design and for data analysis to interpret experiments by measuring physical properties important, for example, in determining the effects of small amounts of radiation in the human body. The computers allowed physicists, biologists and chemists to compare experimental results and test them against the validity of theoretical models.

GUS, which stood for GEORGE Unified System, was based on upgrades to GEORGE, a large-scale digital computer Argonne built in 1957 to operate around the clock. GUS provided memory for as many as seven computers operating simultaneously. (Click the image to see a larger photo.)

Difficulty keeping up with the demand for state-of-the-art computer technology led to new and expanded programs. In 1963, construction began on a new mathematical and computer facility, staffing in the Applied Mathematics division was increased by 50 percent, and one of the world's most advanced electronic computers, the CDC 3600, was purchased. In addition, GEORGE got a new, and tripled, memory, and other upgrades, including a floating index point (FLIP) that let GEORGE automatically handle numbers of widely varying sizes. It would later "become" GUS (GEORGE Unified System) as part of the trend toward "linking" computers; GUS provided memory for up to seven computers operating at the same time. Throughout the decade, Argonne added new computer resources. Of particular note was the design and development of a series of computer systems called CHLOE, POLLY and ALICE. These systems were capable of analyzed data on photographic film and were used in scanning spark chamber data for physics research and fingerprint patterns.

Algorithms and Software

Software engineering was established as a laboratory discipline during the 1970s and 1980s. PACKs, the first truly high-quality collections of mathematical software, were designed and implemented under Argonne leadership. EISPACK, in particular, set a new standard for reliability, efficiency and accuracy. LINPACK, developed shortly thereafter, remains today in great demand by industry and the scientific community and is widely used throughout the world to evaluate new computer performance. By the early 1980s, Argonne was internationally recognized as a world leader, not only in numerical software, but in symbolic computation.

Researchers at the laboratory introduced new theorem-proving strategies that enabled programs to "reason." Such programs, called "automated reasoning programs," today are being used to design circuits, verify computer codes, solve puzzles and prove theorems from mathematics and logic.

Parallel Computing

Anticipating the growing importance of parallel computing, Argonne established the Advanced Computing Research Facility in 1984. For almost a decade, the facility supported collaborative research with universities, laboratories and industry on a variety of experimental parallel machines including hypercubes and a locally developed shared-memory machine nicknamed the Lemur. More recently, the laboratory established a High-Performance Computing Research Facility featuring a massively parallel IBM Scalable POWERparallel SP system. Researchers use the SP for a range of collaborative studies from high-energy physics, propulsion, and data imaging to automotive research and environmental restoration. To support such research, laboratory scientists are developing toolkits for portable parallel programming. Argonne computer scientists also spearheaded efforts to promote the use of MPI, a standard interface for message passing on distributed-memory, shared-memory, and networked computers. MPI permits supercomputer programs to be quickly converted for easy use on parallel processing computers.