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Ferranti's Argus computers were a line of industrial control computers offered from the 1960s into the 1980s. Originally designed for a military role, a re-packaged Argus was the first digital computer to be used to directly control an entire factory. They were widely used in a variety of roles in Europe, particularly in the UK, where a small number continue to serve as monitoring and control systems for nuclear reactors. ==Original series== The original Argus was developed in 1958 as a ground-based control computer for the Bristol Bloodhound Mark 2 missile.〔("Ferranti Argus 700" ), The Centre for Computing History〕 Along with general readiness and fire-control duties, the Argus had a unique function in this system. The Bloodhound had a radar dish in the nose of the missile that had to be locked down during launch due to the vibration of the solid fuel rocket boosters that got the missile up to speed. Once the boosters were burned out and ejected, two ramjet engines took over that provided smooth thrust, allowing the radar antenna to be unlocked and start tracking the target. The Argus calculated where the target would be relative to the missile at the point of burnout, feeding that to the missile before launch and thereby allowing it to slew the radar to the correct angle when it unlocked.〔Andrew Wylie, ("The Ferranti Argus Computers" ), 2006〕 During development, another team at Ferranti were positioning the system as a process control computer. Their first sale in this market was in 1962, to ICI, to operate their soda ash/ammonia plant at Fleetwood, Lancashire.〔Jonathan Aylen, ("Bloodhound on my Trail: Building the Ferranti Argus Process Control Computer" ), ''International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology'', Volume 82 Number 1 (January 2012), pp. 1-36〕 This was the first large factory to be controlled directly by a digital computer.〔("Process-control computers make a hit with chemical manufacturers" ), ''New Scientist, 15 October 1964, p. 165〕〔("Process Control: Concepts Dynamics And Applications" ), PHI Learning, 2010, p. 490〕 Other European sales followed.〔("Ferranti Argus Computer for Belgian Power Station will Monitor Boiler and Turbo-generator Set" ), Journal of Electronics and Control", Volume 14 Issue 3 (March 1963), p. 345〕 The Argus circuitry was based on germanium transistors with 0 and -6 volts representing binary 1 and 0, respectively. The computer was based on a 12-bit word length with 24-bit instructions. The arithmetic was handled in two parallel 6-bit ALUs operating at 500 kHz. Additions in the ALU took 12 µs, but adding in the memory access time meant simple instructions took about 20 µs. Double-length (24-bit) arithmetic operations were also provided. Data memory was supplied in a 12-bit, 4096 word, core memory store, while up to 64 instruction words were stored in a separate plugboard array, using ferrite pegs dropped into holes to create a "1". Op codes were 6 bits, registers 3 bits, index register (modifier) 2 bits and data address 13 bits.〔("Ferranti Argus: Process-Control Computer System" ), Ferranti, 1961〕 The original design was followed in 1963 by the single-ALU Argus 100, which was also intended for process control use. Unlike the original, the Argus 100 used a flat 24-bit addressing scheme with both data and code stored in a single memory. A smaller 5-bit opcode was used in order to simplify the basic logic and gain an address bit. The single ALU and other changes resulted in a basic operation time of 72 μs. One notable use of the Argus 100 was to control the Jodrell Bank Mark II telescope in 1964. With the 100's release, the original design was retroactively renamed Argus 200 as it was considered more powerful. The design of the Argus 300 was started in 1963 as a much faster machine featuring a fully parallel-architecture arithmetic logic unit, as opposed to the earlier and much slower serial units. Its instruction set was nevertheless fully compatible with the Argus 100. The 300 was very successful and used throughout the 1960s in various industrial roles. A variant of the 300 was the Argus 350, which allowed external access to its core to allow direct memory access. This improved performance of input/output, avoiding having to move data via code running on the processor. The 350 was used in various military simulators, including the Royal Navy for frigate, submarine and helicopter based anti-submarine training, and the Royal Air Force for a Bloodhound Mk.II simulator and the Vickers VC10 flight simulator built at Redifon and delivered to RAF Brize Norton in 1967. The model used on the VC10 Simulator was a 3520B, this meant that it had (20)kWords of memory and a (B)acking Store. Redifon also used the 350 on the Air Canada DC9 flight simulator that was installed in Montreal in the Spring of 1966.The 350's were delivered in the 1967 to 1969 timeframe. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ferranti Argus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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