ILLIAC

ILLIAC
Character Information
Common Names	ILLIAC
Other Names	Illinois Automatic Computer
Human Name(s)	Ivanna von Neumann; Illya von Neuman
Faction	Currently an honorary member of Linux Unix Consortium
Lineage	Von Neumann Architecture
Appearance
Height	Low 5' range
Hair Color	Bright orange-red
Eye Color	Dark blue
Weapon(s)	n/a
Design
First Appearance	Jan 26, 2010
Technical Information
System Personified	ILLIAC
Developer(s)	University of Illinois
Debut	Circa 1952 (ILLIAC I)
Latest release	2006 (as Trusted ILLIAC)

Technical details

ILLIAC is a series of supercomputers created at UI Urbana-Champaign. ILLIAC was originally a Von Neumann architecture machine, but later incarnations were based on unrelated architectures. Today, the ILLIAC name lives on in the Trusted ILLIAC Linux cluster.

Character details

Note: ILLIAC-tan represents all ILLIAC computers, regardless of architecture type. Because of this, is may be better to consider her a sort of "catchall" computer system-tan rather than the personification of a single model of computer.

General

ILLIAC-tan is depicted as a college-age woman with longish, messy orange hair, pale skin, dark blue eyes and wire-frame round glasses. Her attire is contemporary and casual, with sweaters, jeans and sneakers perennial favorites of hers. While her attitude has always been youthful and mellow, today she is thoroughly into lackadaisical territory and is notorious for slacking. [1]

Powers

She is documented as having rather extraordinary regeneration abilities, and has been "reborn" a number of times, although the exact mechanics or extent of these abilities are unknown.

Family and Relationships

Like every other IAS Machine, ILLIAC's mother is IAS Machine-tan and her sisters are the other members of the Von Neumann family. Her twin sister is ORDVAC, although they did not have much contact. Nowadays, ILLIAC-tan associates mostly with the Linux-tans, so much in fact that she has become an honorary member of the Linux Unix Consortium and a close friend to Linux-tan.

History and Background

As ILLIAC I and II

ILLIAC-tan was born sometime in the early 1950s as ORDVAC-tan's twin sister (although "clone" might be a better description, since ORDVAC existed first and ILLIAC was built from her plans). The sisters spent time together in their youth, but work responsibilities separated them - ILLIAC-tan staying at the University of Illinois, and ORDVAC being stationed at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. [2]

She was originally a bright-eyed, enthusiastic young student, highly prized by her professors for her intelligence, speed and accuracy. Owing her nature as a computer, she wasn't enrolled in college like a typical human student - instead, taking whatever classes caught her fancy. She tends to insist that she majored in music and physics or biology, although she remains quite vague about the exact extent of her education.

She continued her studies and work normally throughout the 1950s and 60s.

ILLIAC III and IV

Starting in 1967 she underwent training with the Burroughs Corporation in Pennsylvania, in preparation for her transition to her next state - ILLIAC IV.

However, in 1968 she was involved in a laboratory accident at her university - a fire that badly injured her. While her physical wounds were repaired quite quickly due to her regeneratory nature, the psychological damage was profound and permanent - she developed a severe phobia of flames and explosions. This fear was intensified in the 1969-1970 period, when she became the target of protests over her ties to the US government and suspected involvement with the nuclear research program. She was not involved in atomic weapons research, but the rumors proved destructive; she was not allowed back to her university due to fears that she would be attacked or killed.

NASA instead offered her employment and in 1972 she moved to California to work at Ames Research Center, under the cover of being "hospitalized". While work restrictions were initially placed upon her due to fears of overheating, she became an indispensable part of their team, and at her peak she is said to have rivaled even CRAY-1-tan in terms of power. She was employed by NASA until 1982.

Post-ILLIAC III

She was essentially unemployed throughout the 1980s and 1990s, but she was the subject of renewed interest in the mid-2000s. In 2006, she was "reborn" as Trusted ILLIAC, working with Linux-tan and becoming affiliated with the Linux/Unix Consortium.

Today, she is semi-retired but still spends most of her time hanging out around her old campus. She is one of only a few surviving members of the von Neumann family, and continues to cling to her Neumannist heritage, although she has lapsed in practice.