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Introduction

A Marconi-designed computer that led the world in its time and appeared in three versions:

Myriad I     Desk top - ultra fast Ferranti Logic - battery power back-up.      Myriad I engineering 

Myriad II    Rack mounted - utilized rejected Ferranti logic [Speed] - no battery back-up       Myriad II engineering.

Myriad III   Next generation logic ; wasn't allowed to be sold and was a casualty of the Elliott/Marconi merger [ GEC Computers].

IMP demonstrations - the prototype that proved the technology for Myriad I

Input by Brian Partridge

Christened by Eric Atkins, officially it was an experiment in high-speed logical design and high-speed ferrite core storage. The management did not know that it would end up being a working computer until the great day of the demonstration. Myriad was a completely new design based on the techniques investigated on IMP. This computer was very fast compared with anything on the market at that time, there were special design considerations which optimised the speed of the transistor circuitry. Unusually both machines worked in asynchronous mode, this was done by using a set of different time delays for each step of an instruction process rather that having a clocked system. This approach was revealed to the Society of Electrical Engineers by a paper presented by myself in London. It was one of the techniques which enabled the computer to operate at a greater speed than other machines.

IMP was transferred to the Science Museum store but I don't know if it is still there [Editors note - see this entry]

New input by Brian Partridge
IMP was never intended as a computer project. The official project was to investigate high speed logic systems and ferrite core storage techniques. Myriad was created with micro-circuits using transistors and associated components contained in a miniature metal capsule and fast storage using magnetic storage. The object  of this design was the small size and real-time speed. It was the local team Don Beckett, Derek Jeffrey and myself encouraged by Eric Atkins our boss who decided to make a computer. [Editors note - Ben Starksfield was a great promoter of the project] It was named IMP ( 'igh Speed Miniature Processor ). It was never manufactured but once it had been revealed in a working condition we were asked to design a production machine based on the lessons learned. Then followed Myriad 1 which was a computer built into a desk with battery powered backup to support short power failure. Then followed Myriad 2 which was aimed at industrial use such as power stations and was a lower cost rack mounted system. Myriad 3 was also rack mounted but had higher performance and a much larger core store (made by the recently taken over Elliott Automation group. Myriad 3 was never sold but the design was completed and prototypes made at which point Computer Division was closed down. I was declared redundant unless I agreed to move to Boreham Wood to join the old Elliott Automation team which I refused to do. I was then offered a job with Radar Division to Keep an eye on the Myriads and joined Arther Young at which point the Radar crowd were looking for ways to automate a number of radar systems with new computers. Hence Locus 16.

Input by Fred Kime

 [Editors note - this information came in a message to me. I had forgotten all about it. I can now say I had a hand in naming both of the microelectronic machines!]

[Hello Alan] Reading the entries to the MOGS channel I note there is some interest in the naming of Myriad. I am sure that if you dig into your memories you may recall that you and I had to find a name so that it could go into the catalogue. We worked on the principle that the name must start with M and worked through to find something suitable that was not registered and we were reaching the end of our tethers and when sampling My..... we were near the end of the alphabet for the second letter. At this point in time we found the word Myriad which appeared to offer some appropriate connotations hence the name was born.

Myriad team

This is a large pictorial/text file and takes a while to download

"Marconi Companies and Their People" June 1965

Myriad Musicode- an item from MOGS.

New Scientist

The Centre for Computing History

University of Manchester - John Ryland's Library

Wikipedia

This is a miscellaneous collection of links some more useful than others;

http://www.computermuseum.org.uk/fixed_pages/marconi_TAC.html
http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/nahc-mar-c
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/geccl/refs.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marconi_Myriad
http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Myriad_microminiature_digital_computer.html?id=rAmTYgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=StqzbnydiLQC&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86&dq=myriad+computer+marconi&source=bl&ots=GSgjI2Yb0X&sig=CJVipR0sQUHomvnj_eco5o_PnSs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7h1OT9WHLceDhQeKw9Eq&ved=0CF4Q6AEwCTgU#v=onepage&q=myriad%20computer%20marconi&f=false
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/694644.pdf    ------ page 24
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=57SmliUoH-QC&pg=PA769&lpg=PA769&dq=myriad+computer+marconi&source=bl&ots=my_oZpfObu&sig=l6oSskRKBBAS4gh45MhYRnYvJ7Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oh5OT4SgJY66hAenwrX3Dw&ved=0CFwQ6AEwCDge#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/content/10/1/46.full.pdf
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/7695/Marconi-Myriad-Corestore-Driver-Circuit-Board/

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