SILLIAC: Первый компьютер в южном полушарии.

The SILLIAC (Sydney version of the Illinois Automatic Computer, i. e. the Sydney ILLIAC), an early computer built by the University of Sydney, Australia, was based on the ILLIAC and ORDVAC computers developed at the University of Illinois. Like other early computers, SILLIAC was physically large. The computer itself was a single large cabinet 2.5 m high, 3 m wide and 0.6 m deep in one room. Its power supply occupied a second room and air conditioning required an additional room in the basement. It ran until May 17, 1968, when it was replaced by a faster and bigger machine. Although it was then broken up, some pieces of SILLIAC are at the Powerhouse Museum and others are displayed at Sydney University.

SILLIAC had its genesis in late 1953 when Harry Messel, the dynamic new head of the School of Physics, and John Blatt, newly arrived researcher, both independently realised that the school needed an electronic computer as a tool for theoretical physics. Whilst the first computer in the southern hemisphere, the CSIR Mk 1, was already running elsewhere on the University of Sydney grounds, there were several serious impediments to its use by the School of Physics: The CSIR Mk 1 was fully occupied with CSIR research and John Blatt found its staff very unhelpful; and, as a serial architecture computer, it was far too slow for the sort of problems that Blatt and Messel envisaged. The solution was for the School to build its own computer. Rather than design a computer from scratch, Blatt and Messel chose to copy the design of the ILLIAC for which the University of Illinois were happy to provide plans and assistance. John Algie, then maintenance engineer for CSIRAC, estimated the cost at AU£35,200, which was approximately ten times the cost of a Sydney suburban house at the time. Based on this, a decision to proceed was made at the end of 1953. A mutual friend introduced Messel to Adolph Basser, who donated AU£50,000 towards the computer. SILLIAC's eventual cost was AU£75,000.

Some pieces of SILLIAC are at the Powerhouse Museum and others are displayed at Sydney University. When it had been broken up, parts had originally been given to a range of people, including 14 schoolchildren who had requested the University for mementoes. In March 2008, the Australian Computer Museum Society was seeking alternative storage, or risked its collection, including important components of SILLIAC, being scrapped. In 2023 the Australian Computer Museum Society now has a venue for displaying the parts of SILLIAC that are in its collection.