Pegasus

Ferranti, GB

  • Year
  • 1956
  • Category
  • Miscellaneous (Other, Various) - see notes
  • Radiomuseum.org ID
  • 180764

 Technical Specifications

  • Wave bands
  • - without
  • Power type and voltage
  • Line (AC, UC or DC not known)
  • Loudspeaker
  • - - No sound reproduction output.
  • Material
  • Metal case
  • from Radiomuseum.org
  • Model: Pegasus - Ferranti, GB
  • Shape
  • Miscellaneous shapes - described under notes.
  • Notes
  • Pegasus was an early thermionic valve (vacuum tube) computer built by Ferranti, Ltd of Great Britain.

    The Pegasus 1 was first delivered in 1956 and the Pegasus 2 was delivered in 1959. Ferranti sold twenty-six copies of the Pegasus 1 and twelve copies of the Pegasus 2, making it Ferranti's most popular valve (vacuum tube) computer. At least two Pegasuses survive, one in The Science Museum and one in The Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.

    In 1956 the first Pegasus was used to calculate the stesses and strains in the tail plane of the first vertical take off aeroplane, the SR53; the results were used to check the manufacturers figures; the programmer was Anne Robson. Because of the importance of a computer it was housed in the drawing room, complete with an Adam's ceiling, of Ferranti's London office in Portland Place.

    In 1957, a Pegasus computer was used to calculate 7480 digits of pi, a record at the time.

    (Part of the text in this page is from Sciencemuseum Object wiki, distributed under Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0).
  • Author
  • Model page created by Alessandro De Poi. See "Data change" for further contributors.

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Museums

The model Pegasus can be seen in the following museums.

 Forum