TI Advanced Scientific Computer

The Advanced Scientific Computer, usually called the ASC, was a supercomputer designed and manufactured by Texas Instruments between 1966 and 1973. The project began as the Advanced Seismic Computer, because Texas Instruments wanted faster machines to process the seismic survey data of its Geophysical Service Incorporated subsidiary, and the word Seismic was later changed to Scientific when the scope widened. Its processor supported vector processing, and together with the Control Data STAR-100 it was one of the first computers to offer the technique, which later machines such as the Cray-1 would develop further. The design used a single high-speed shared memory reached by the processor and eight input and output channel controllers, in an arrangement similar to that of the CDC 6600, and a separate peripheral processor built from eight virtual processors. Only seven ASC machines had been installed when the Cray-1 was announced in 1975, and sales ended almost overnight, after which Texas Instruments left the supercomputer market. Installations included seismic work at Shell in the Netherlands and weather model development for NOAA.