MECIPT-1

The MECIPT-1 (Mașină Electronică de Calcul – Institutul Politehnic Timișoara), completed in 1961, is the first digital computer designed and built at a Romanian university, and the second in Romania after the CIFA-1 of the Institute of Atomic Physics [1]. It was built at the MECIPT research centre of the Timișoara Polytechnic Institute, set up in the 1960s; the MECIPT computers also spurred the development of electronics, especially digital circuits, and of measurement and automation teams in Timișoara [1]. Its design began in 1956 [1]. It was a first-generation parallel fixed-point machine with advanced microprogramming features, built with 2,000 valves, more than 20,000 capacitors and resistors, 30 km of wire and 100,000 solder joints, and drew about 10 kW [1]. Its magnetic drum memory held 1,024 addresses, and its speed, about 50 operations a second, matched the drum’s speed; 15-bit instructions had a 10-bit address field and 5 bits selecting one of 32 wired instructions [1]. Programs and data were entered on punched tape, and a typewriter whose keys were worked by relays served as printer; some programs ran for hours or days [1]. It was used for industrial projects such as the concrete-pouring calculations of the Vidraru dam on the Argeș, done in 18 days instead of about nine months by hand, the redesign of the Rom-Expo dome, the automation of the Timișoara brewery, consolidation studies for many buildings, simulations for a possible hydro power station on the Danube and the resizing of Arad’s water network [1]. It was followed by the MECIPT-2 [1].