CIFA (computer)

CIFA is the acronym for „Calculatorul Institutului de Fizică Atomică” (en. "Atomic Physics Institute Computer", the first Romanian computer, built in 1957 under the guidance of Victor Toma.

Photograph of CIFA-1, the first Romanian computer.

The experimental first-generation model CIFA-1 was reproduced in small numbers both in the original variant with vacuum tubes as well as in two variants using transistors: CIFA-10X and CET 500.

History

The logic designs for CIFA-1, started in 1953, was presented at the International Symposium in Dresden in 1955, and the prototype, which used 1500 vacuum tubes, cylindrical magnet memory and machine code programming, was finished in 1957. Later CIFA computers were CIFA-2 (800 vacuum tubes) in 1959, CIFA-3 (for the Bucharest University's Computer Center) in 1961 and CIFA-4 in 1962.

VITOSHA was the first bulgarian computer, built in 1962-1963 on the basis of a cultural agreement between the Romanian and Bulgarian Academies of Science, was based on CIFA-3.

Other Romanian computers of the era are MECIPT and CETA at the Timișoara Polytechnical Institute and DACICC at the Cluj Computing Institute.

CIFA Computer Characteristics

Computer Model	CIFA-1	CIFA-4	CIFA-101	CIFA-102
Year	1957	1962	1962	1964
Number of computers produced	4	4	1	5
Semiconductive diodes	2500		3000
Vacuum tubes	800		350
Computing speed	50 op/s		50 - 2000 op/s
Internal memory type	cylinder 50 rot/s		cylinder 50 rot/s
Internal memory capacity	512 words × 4 bits		4 k words × 4 bits
Peripherals	• punch card reader 15 caracters/s • writer 8 hcaracters/s		• punch card reader 15 caracters/s • writer 8 characters/s	• punch card reader 100 caracters/s • writer 8 characters/s
Number of instructions	16		32
Word length	31		32
Word processing mode	parallel		serial
Power utilization	5 kW		1 kW