Performance and Cost Records for A Pegasus Computer
E. S. Page · ITNOW · 1965
In May 1956 an order was placed with Ferranti Ltd., for a pegasus computer, a machine with a magnetic drum with 4096 39-bit words of available store and 1024 words on isolated tracks, 48 words of nickel delay lines and 7 accumulators/index registers. The forecast date of delivery was November 1957. On the first of that month the machine, number 13 of the production series, arrived. After its acceptance tests it provided computing facilities for both the Durham and Newcastle divisions of what was then the University of Durham and some computer time for hire to industry and other Universities until its withdrawal from service on 31 July 1964. A magnetic tape control unit and 32-word delay line buffer with a Decca Twin tape transport (thus provided two tape decks) were added in January 1961. The table shows the amount that the machine was switched on in each of the academic years together with the breakdown into times spent on useful computing, on routine maintenance, idle, on engineering modifications and additions and time lost through faults and repair.