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Fujitsu

Malaysia

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FACOM100 (1954)

Completed in 1954, the FACOM100 was Japan's first practical relay-type automatic computer. Under the guidance of Professor Hideo Yamashita of the University of Tokyo, Fujitsu completed a statistical classification and tabulation device mainly using relays in 1951, and created a prototype of a relay-type computer for stock transaction settlements in 1953. The development experience gained from these undertakings was applied to complete the FACOM100, a fully-functional freely programmable relay-type computer. Shortly after its completion, Fujitsu received a request from Professor Hideki Yukawa, the first Nobel Prize recipient from Japan, for the calculation of a tremendously complex multiple integral. The FACOM100 successfully completed the calculation in 3 days, which would have taken 2 years if performed by humans. This prompted Professor Yukawa to express his satisfaction with the statement "This will dramatically improve the speed of research." The name of this computer, "FACOM", was derived from the initials of "Fuji Automatic COMputer".