CSIRAC

[3][4][5][6][7][8] After being exhibited at Melbourne Museum for many years, it was relocated to Scienceworks in 2018 and is now on permanent display in the Think Ahead gallery.

[10] The CSIRAC was constructed by a team led by Trevor Pearcey and Maston Beard, working in large part independently of similar efforts across Europe and the United States, and ran its first test program (multiplication of numbers) sometime in November 1949.

The bus (termed the "digit trunk" in their design)[15] is unusual compared to most computers in that it was serial—it transferred one bit at a time.

The machine was controlled through a console which allowed programs to be stepped through one instruction at a time, and featured CRT displays which showed the contents of registers.

A high-level interpreted programming language called INTERPROGRAM was developed in 1960 by Geoff Hill.

[4][7][8][5][6][21] In 1955, with the CSIRO's decision that computing research was outside its purview, the machine was transferred from its home at the Radiophysics Laboratory at the CSIRO in Sydney, to the University of Melbourne, where it formed Australia's only academic computing facility until late 1956.

Interest in the machine was revived in the 1990s, as it was realised that many of its developers were ageing and history was being lost forever.

After being exhibited at Melbourne Museum for many years, it was relocated to Scienceworks in 2018 and is now on permanent display in the Think Ahead gallery.

CSIRAC, side view
CSIRAC display at Scienceworks