Digital Computer Laboratory / DCL

The Digital Computer Laboratory was born in 1949 under the guidance of Ralph Meagher. [1] While the University had initially intended to remodel an existing space for the new laboratory, on January 16, 1957 it decided to construct a new building instead [2] and construction was completed in 1958. The University had received a $100,000 grant from the Atomic Energy Commission and the Office of Naval Research for the "design of a new, very high-speed electronic computer", and the grant had been entered into with the understanding that funding would be available for the construction of the computer shortly afterward. The University submitted a proposal to complete the computer by December 1, 1961 for a cost of $1,216,675. The construction of the new computer required adequate facilities, and planning began on a new $350,000 computer, with $250,000 allocated by November of that year. [3] The Computer Science Department was born. [4] The new building was designed by A. Epstein and Sons, Inc, C. A. Petry and Son, Inc. providing the general contracting services. [5] In 1963 a $476,000 addition was built that doubled the size of the building and added two stories and a basement. The addition also provided "tape cutting rooms, offices, conference rooms and a lab for use with a high-speed computer". [6]

That high-speed computer lab was eventually to be home to the Illiac IV Computer, "a machine [to] have an arithmetic capacity of approximately one billion multiplications per second". [7] On February 16, 1966, the University, in conjunction with the Rome Air Development Center, part of the United States Department of Defense, approved the "prime research contract to design, fabricate, and operate the Illiac IV Computer". On March 16, the University awarded the Study Phase subcontracts to three companies and on April 19, it authorized a "cost-plus incentive fee contract" to the Burroughs Corporation to construct the new computer for $14,602,986, inclusive of fees. It authorized the company to begin construction up to $500,000 while the final contract was being completed. The final contract added a $1,332,000 "input/output system" and the "rental of a B5500 computer for use prior to delivery of the input/output system" for $688,440. There was also an allocation of $626,678 for "interfacing the input/output system to the main frame", with the final contract being $17,250,104. [8]