The Atlas popped up unexpectedly in a Pi day computing challenge…
Over here there’s a brief mention of the short paper The Riemann Hypothesis and Pseudorandom Features of the Möbius Sequence by Good and Churchhouse - one can read it here. It’s an example of a large scale pure mathematics computation, in 1967 - 50 batch jobs, or maybe 100, of which two failed, running on the Atlas at Chilton. We’re not told the runtime.
More about the Atlas on the ever-interesting Chilton computing history pages:
National Institute for Research in Nuclear Science (NIRNS) Atlas 1
- This was the largest Atlas installation with 48k words of main memory and 32 magnetic tape decks. Installation and commissioning started in June 1964 and one-shift working began on 8th October 1964. The operation was later organised as a separate establishment - the Science Research Council Atlas Computing Laboratory - and provided a general computing service to all UK universities. The system was shut down (and replaced by an ICT1906A) in March 1973.
A nice overview of the machine and its uses in
- A Computer for all purposes by R F Churchhouse
and more on Bob Churchhouse here.
Some other topics here regarding or mentioning the Atlas: