The ORDVAC or Ordnance Discrete Variable Automatic Computer, an early computer built by the University of Illinois for the Ballistic Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, was based on the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) architecture developed by John von Neumann, which came to be known as The Von Neumann Architecture . The electrical engineers at The University of Illinois were the first to complete a computer implementation based upon this design, and that first computer was ORDVAC.
ORDVAC became operational in the spring of 1951 at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
Unlike other computers of its era, the ORDVAC and ILLIAC I were twins and could exchange programs with each other. The later SILLIAC computer was a copy of the ORDVAC/ILLIAC series. J. P. Nash of the University of Illinois was a developer of both the ORDVAC and of the university's own, identical copy, The ILLIAC. Donald B. Gillies assisted in the checkout of ORDVAC at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
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