Atlas: engineers' console and cabinets

• Atlas - close up, console Catalogue 3
• Date: Circa 1967
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• This is the engineers console of the Manchester Atlas situated on the top floor of the Electrical engineering department in Dover street.The cabinet on the left contained the central control logic, the floating point arithmetic unit and the "B" store (120 index registers plus 8 special purpose registers). The right hand cabinet contained the "Fixed store" (read only) which consisted of small plastic "hairbrushes" with ferrite rods to read a "one" or a copper rod to read a zero. The unit can be further identified by the mascot known as the "Fixed Store Pig" standing on top of the cabinet. The Creed 75 printer to the right of the console was used to output data mainly when running test programs and laterly operator instructions from the "supervisor" operating system. The magnetic tape units in the room to the rear were Ampex FR300 and TM2 transports.(8 decks on this machine).The drum storage was also installed in this room along with the DC power sequencing unit. .
  
• The prototype of the fixed store is on display in the Kilburn Building. .
  
• A description of the fixed store is given with the image of Dick Grimsdale working on the prototype fixed store $set293.
  
• The "fixed store pig" can also be seen in IMG0062. The original Mark I blue pig can be seen in SET0010 on top of the Ferranti Mark I console, sometime after the machine was moved to Dover Street in 1954. The history of the pig and of its life on Atlas is documented with that image.

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ID: page15b. 12778x9867 (+PDF).Forum entry: page15b Copyright: unknown. Collection: The Departmental 35mm negative collection, which includes copies of most images in the earlier collections. Source artefact: P3057H-page15b, photographic negative, condition: good.

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Edited 27-May-2025 (Jim Miles)

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