NEAC-2202

Ishii Yoshiteru, Saito Masato, and others were the primary developers of the NEAC-2202, an online, real-time computer intended to mechanize Yamaichi Securities’ processing of buy and sell chits. The first unit was completed and shipped in December 1959. In order to immediately process requests from up to seven terminals, a time-sharing methodology was devised to transfer data between the terminals and the storage unit by stealing CPU cycles. And to reduce the amount of CPU hardware, programs were put on patch boards, each with 50 program steps, and plug-in boards were developed that contained up to 100 constant values, such as tax rates. These innovations meant that the entire CPU was compact enough to fit on a single rack. Because the computer had a small footprint and consumed little power, wiring was easy and no air-conditioning was needed.