Cutting-edge computing

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Tags: summer-2012

September, 1962 Edition of the UQ Gazette - profiling the University's purchase of the General Electric 225

In 1962, UQ was at the cutting edge of computing. For the princely sum of £142,000 (or $2.5million in today’s money), the University commissioned and installed the General Electric 225 (GE-225) – a truly visionary action. This was the first computer in Queensland and one of less than 70 computers in existence in Australia.

Operation of the GE-225 required a “Reader in Computing” (the officer in charge of the centre) assisted by a lecturer in computer electronics, two programmers, three machine operators, a clerk-typist and a maintenance technician (who was on loan from General Electric for 12 months). The computer contained 10,000 transistors and 20,000 diodes, and could cycle through up to 20,000 operations per second. When it was installed, UQ boasted that it could solve problems that would take a human 1300 man hours to work out in just 35 seconds, and complete 12 months of statistical work in just a few weeks.

The GE-225 was in operational use at the University until 16 February 1977 (almost 15 years). It lasted so long because it hosted the University’s payroll system and nobody wanted to risk ITS migration onto another platform.

After the GE-225 was decommissioned, it was donated to the Queensland Museum, where it still sits today. Data Centre 1 in the Prentice Building, where the GE-225 was housed, is still a fully functioning data centre and is potentially the oldest continually running Data Centre in Australia.

Now, of course, the University has hundreds of communication rooms and many thousands of computers in a myriad of forms. We have witnessed remarkable advancements in technological performance, and our staff, students and alumni community have made outstanding contributions to the computing and IT industry in Queensland and beyond.

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