Computing Center of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
The Slovak Academy Sciences (SAS) Computing Center has been established on 1 April 1976.
The use of computers at the Slovak Academy of Sciences could be dated back to 1959, when the first analog computer had been built at the Institute of Technical Cybernetics (ITC). Five years later, the era of digital computers had started at the SAS. First, the ZRA -1 (1962 – 1968,. KarlZeiss Jena) was used by SAS institutes, and GIER (1968 – 1976 REGNECENTRALEN, Kodan) at the ITC. Due to increasing computation performance demands, the scientists had started to use external computers, namely the CDC 3300 at VVS OSN (UNO Research Computing Center), now INFOSTAT), and SIEMENS 4004 at UVTVS (University Computer Science Institute) in Mlynska dolina. In 1973, the ITC Computing Laboratory had established and developed the Liaison site for the use of external computers (operated by 52 SAS programmers) and the project for the building of Central Computing Center, respectively. The Central Computing Center had been operating in provisional rooms occupied currently by SUZ SAV (Administration of SAS Utilities). The design of new SAS Computing Center building started in 1978, and in 1979 the SM minicomputers were operated there. The building was designed for two large EC 1045 computers, installed in 1982.
The period between 1982 and 1990 can be regarded as the prime of computer services at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and as the demonstration of how a computing center services for scientific institutions should look like (system service with machine time offer, analysis and programming service, and team for the development of new algorithms). At that time, the staff of the CC amounted to 80. After 1990, EC computers were no longer used, because they were (even then) outdated, faulty and demanding too much power. Considerable success has been achieved by personal computers with the possibility of unshared computing on one's own working table. The computation projects were aimed at available personal computer software, and there had been no more programming requirements for the Computing Center. Common hardware for scientific and technical, as well as economic (social and economic information) computation was no more required. A new feature – the Internet – has appeared, and the Computer Center of the SAS has started to develop optical network at the Patronka premises as early as in 1991.
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