Hardware
The Hardware that got us there
While computing at BYU once relied on simple 4-function calculators for simple administrative
functions, in 2013, hundreds of blade servers are housed in a secure datacenter and support all
the major functions of the university.
Mainframes
Though BYU had used rudimentary calculating machines, the university’s first computerized
calculator was bought in 1952. The IBM 602-A, a calculator the size of cabinet, assisted
registration, financial accounting, and budgeting. Like any handheld calculator of today, the
machine could add, subtract, multiply, and divide, but only through the cumbersome method of
punch cards. Stacks of cards were required to process a single calculation, making these early
computers far more paper-hungry than their paperless 21st century counterparts.
Just over ten years later, in 1963, BYU rented its first drum-based mainframe computer, an IBM
7040. First housed in the Jesse Knight Building, the nine-ton mainframe was so large it filled the
entire room, and BYU employees had to tear down walls to get it inside.
[Hardware_01.jpg: An IBM 3060 motherboard, much like BYU’s system.]
[Hardware_05.jpg: Mainframes took up a lot of space in the Talmage building.]
Maintenance
Troubleshooting the mainframe was not simple, and, unfortunately, there were plenty of
problems to troubleshoot. Mark Werner, OIT Software Engineer, recalls, “Even when remote
access was established, and we could work from home, plenty of sleep was still lost in keeping
the system going.” Employees would have to come into the office to fix the problem, which
would take hours. Even when remote access was established, maintenance would sometimes
require 24-hours of work per incident.
[Hardware_03.jpg: A worker pauses to place the program into the machine.]
[Hardware_07.jpg: Working under the floor tiles was a necessity in mainframe days.]
Heavy Data
The multi-ton machines created other challenges as well. In 1998, a student employee happened
to lift up a floorboard in the computer room. Structural stress from the heavy machines was
clearly visible. “He touched one of the posts that held the tiles up, flicked it with his finger, and it
shattered like glass,” said Sorrel Jakins, Director of Infrastructure Service Tools. “All these
excessively heavy machines full of water [required for cooling] were creating a tremendous
stress on the metal [structural supports], making the floor unsafe.”
[Hardware_02.jpg: Workers performing maintenance between the tiles pose for a brief
moment.]
[Hardware_04.jpg: A programmer works at a terminal to write and maintain code.]
The Rise of the PC
By the mid 1980s, the personal computing (PC) revolution came to campus. In response, the
university offered a host of new services including a Computer Consultation Center, Distribution
Center, and OIT Training service to help new PC users with the technology. As Don Engstrom,
former Financial Services Director, explained, PCs dramatically changed the relationship
between campus and those providing computing services, “Before this we approached
departments, asking what we could do for them. But once people had PCs on their desks, they
wanted more and more, and demanded [more] things from us.”
Data Centers and Virtualization
BYU replaced the IBM 3090 Mainframe with Unix servers in 1998, and three years later the
construction of a new, highly secure, data center began.
The new data center completed in 2002 and the availability of virtualized servers in 2006.
Departments, eager to place their servers in a low cost, secure and monitored facility, chose to
move their servers—numbering in the thousands—to the centralized, secure facility offered by
OIT. Through virtualization, BYU could divide its computing resources to run multiple
environments for different tasks. Departments across campus, for example, could use a
virtualized server without interfering with other processes. Thanks to this extra efficiency,
BYU’s data center could be centrally managed and secured while still allowing for diverse
applications throughout campus.
Supercomputing
Though personal computing put the power of computers within the reach of everyone, there was
still a need for computers that could tackle calculation-intensive problems. Where cutting-edge
in 1963 meant punch cards and 62,000 calculations per second, the Fulton Supercomputing Lab
today processes more than 160 trillion floating point operations per second. In 1999, Ira Fulton
donated to BYU a supercomputer that he named after his wife, Mary Lou. Over the next few
years, BYU purchased four more supercomputers to form one massive center with about 1200
processing. Housed in a climate-controlled secure room this resource is, nevertheless, accessible
to students and faculty alike for high-powered research and creative work like the creation of
award winning animated shorts.
At one time, the Center contained the 45th most powerful system in the world. Some of the
projects that Fulton Lab has assisted with are scanning the earth’s surface for NASA, creating the
award-winning animated film “Lemmings,” and building 3-D interactive models.
[Mary Lou 2004 lowres.jpg: Rows of processors form a portion of the supercomputer in the
Fulton Lab.]
[Mary Lou 2012 lowres.jpg: Slots of hardware is housed in a similar structure to a data
center.]
BYU’s Hardware Over Time: By the Numbers
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1952: BYU Purchases IBM 602-A calculator, which could perform at 200 calculations
per second.
1958: BYU rents an IBM 650, one of the first commercially available electronic
computers, then purchases it in 650. Performance speed: 600 calculations per second
1963: BYU leases IBM 7040 a mainframe computer that could perform 62,000
calculations per second.
1968: BYU purchases IBM 360/50 mainframe, with capabilities of 500,000 calculations
per second.
1973: BYU begins using DEC-10 and IBM 7030 “Stretch” computers for research and
educational purposes.
1973: BYU upgrades the IBM 360/50 to an IBM 360/65, which can perform 1.25 million
calculations a second.
1977: BYU buys two Apple IIes, two TRS-80s, and two Commodore PETs, newly
released desktop computers, for testing.
1980: BYU purchases and installs IBM 4341-2.
1986: N.A.S. 9000-1 installed for general computing.
1987: The mainframe is then upgraded to the N.A.S. 9000-2.
1990: BYU installs an Amdahl 3880, a machine designed by former IBM employees.
1993: IBM 3090-400e, BYU’s last mainframe, is installed.
1998: BYU’s last mainframe, the IBM 3090 is decommissioned.
2000: Mary Lou 1 and Mary Lou 2 supercomputers are purchased; they are upgraded in
spring 2002.
2002: BYU builds the Data Center
2003: The Mary Lou X supercomputer is purchased and is upgraded later that year.
2006: Server Virtualization technology allows departments to manage data as if they each
had individual servers.
2012: The Hitachi storage array is purchased and installed, thus providing an additional
700 TB of virtualized storage—bringing the total virtualized storage to 2.4 Petabytes.