Bendix G-15

The Bendix G-15 is a computer introduced in 1956 by the Bendix Corporation, Computer Division, Los Angeles, California. It is about 5 ft × 3 ft × 3 ft (1.52 m × 0.91 m × 0.91 m) and weighs about 966 lb (438 kg). The G-15 has a drum memory of 2,160 29-bit words, along with 20 words used for special purposes and rapid-access storage. The base system, without peripherals, cost $49,500. A working model cost around $60,000 (equivalent to $693,929 in 2024). It could also be rented for $1,485 per month. It was meant for scientific and industrial markets. The series was gradually discontinued when Control Data Corporation took over the Bendix computer division in 1963.

The chief designer of the G-15 was Harry Huskey, who had worked with Alan Turing on the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) in the United Kingdom and on the Standards Western Automatic Computer (SWAC) in the 1950s. He made most of the design while working as a professor at University of California, Berkeley (where his graduate students included Niklaus Wirth), and other universities. David C. Evans was one of the Bendix engineers on the G-15 project. He would later become famous for his work in computer graphics and for starting up Evans & Sutherland with Ivan Sutherland.