Image research: ILLIAC IV (1972-1981)

Compiled 2026-05-08. License rule: only CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0, public domain (PD-USGov, PD-no-notice 1978-89, PD-old). Fair use, CC BY-NC, and CC BY-NC-SA are NOT acceptable. GPL is technically a free-software licence but is not on our allow-list (CC/PD only); GPL-only Commons files are flagged below as non-recommended.

For each candidate I verified the licence on the file’s own description page on Wikimedia Commons (not on the article that uses it). Direct URLs are upload.wikimedia.org bytes (no thumbnail redirects). All ILLIAC IV-specific URLs verified against upload.wikimedia.org direct bytes 2026-05-08; a few secondary URLs were rate-limited at verification time but the upstream file pages confirm the canonical-hash URL pattern.

1. ILLIAC IV at NASA Ames – the iconic cabinet photo

The Wikimedia Commons category Category:ILLIAC_IV has 18 files, of which the strongest 1972-era candidates are NASA Ames Research Center / Lee Jones photographs (PD-USGov), uploaded with full ARC-1972 photo IDs.

Best (PD-USGov / NASA Ames, period 1972 cabinet shot)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/ILLIAC_IV_computer_system_layout_bldg_N-233_%28ARC-1972-AC72-4372%29.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ILLIAC_IV_computer_system_layout_bldg_N-233_(ARC-1972-AC72-4372).jpg
Author: NASA Ames Research Center / Lee Jones.
Licence: Public Domain (PD-USGov; work of US federal employee).
Date: 13 July 1972.
Dimensions / size: 2580x1064, 0.97 MB (1020617 bytes verified).
Photo ID: ARC-1972-AC72-4372.
Description: ILLIAC IV computer system layout in NASA Ames building N-233, the Central Computer Facility.
Suggested caption: “The ILLIAC IV in NASA Ames building N-233 (the Central Computer Facility) shortly after installation in 1972. Photo: NASA Ames Research Center / Lee Jones, public domain.”
Confidence: HIGH. PD, period photograph, in-situ at the operational site.
Caveat: the 2580x1064 aspect ratio is panoramic (~2.4:1); useful as a wide installation shot but would need cropping for a square-ish post body image.

Backup A: ILLIAC IV Quadrant with personnel (Tosti and Kravity)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/ILLIAC_IV_Quadrant_with_V_Tosti_%28standing%29and_S_Kravity_N-233%28ARC-1972-AC72-4296%29.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ILLIAC_IV_Quadrant_with_V_Tosti_(standing)and_S_Kravity_N-233(ARC-1972-AC72-4296).jpg
Author: NASA Ames Research Center / Lee Jones.
Licence: Public Domain (PD-USGov).
Date: 29 June 1972.
Dimensions / size: 2412x2024 (current; original 3072x2048), 3.36 MB (3519495 bytes verified).
Photo ID: ARC-1972-AC72-4296.
Description: ILLIAC IV quadrant with V. Tosti standing and S. Kravity, in N-233.
Suggested caption: “Engineers V. Tosti (standing) and S. Kravity at the ILLIAC IV’s open-quadrant chassis in NASA Ames building N-233, June 1972. The 64-PE quadrant filled the room. Photo: NASA Ames / Lee Jones, public domain.”
Confidence: HIGH. The human figures give scale; PD-USGov.

Backup B: ILLIAC IV Quadrant with processing unit extended

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/ILLIAC_IV_Quadrant_with_processing_unit_extended_%28ARC-1972-A72-4298%29.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ILLIAC_IV_Quadrant_with_processing_unit_extended_(ARC-1972-A72-4298).jpg
Author: NASA Ames Research Center / Lee Jones.
Licence: Public Domain (PD-USGov).
Date: 29 June 1972.
Dimensions / size: 2604x2048, 2.94 MB (3087069 bytes verified).
Confidence: HIGH. Shows the chassis with processor unit pulled out for service – a “machine being tinkered with” beat.

Backup C: ILLIAC IV Quadrant 4297 (companion to 4298)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/ILLIAC_IV_Quadrant_with_processing_unit_extended_%28ARC-1972-A72-4297%29.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ILLIAC_IV_Quadrant_with_processing_unit_extended_(ARC-1972-A72-4297).jpg
Author: NASA Ames Research Center / Lee Jones.
Licence: Public Domain (PD-USGov).
Date: 29 June 1972.
Dimensions / size: 2604x2048, 2.84 MB.
Confidence: HIGH. Companion frame to 4298 from the same shoot.

Backup D: ILLIAC IV (Steve Jurvetson) - the SIMD board view

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/ILLIAC_4_parallel_computer.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ILLIAC_4_parallel_computer.jpg
Author: Steve Jurvetson.
Licence: CC BY 2.0.
Date: 21 April 2005 (museum visit; image is contemporary, not 1972).
Dimensions / size: 2393x1920, 2.37 MB (2481939 bytes verified).
Description: “ILLIAC IV computer. In this SIMD parallel computing machine, each board has a fixed program that it would farm out to an array of Burroughs machines.”
Caveat: the description text is technically slightly misleading – ILLIAC IV is SIMD with a single broadcast control unit, not “fixed-program boards” – but the image itself is fine.
Confidence: HIGH (licence + provenance); MEDIUM (post-1972 museum context).

Backup E: ILLIAC IV (Carlo Nardone, CHM 2007)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/ILLIAC_IV_%28developed_between_1965-1975%29-_Computer_History_Museum%282007-11-10_22.59.29_by_Carlo_Nardone%29.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ILLIAC_IV_(developed_between_1965-1975)-_Computer_History_Museum(2007-11-10_22.59.29_by_Carlo_Nardone).jpg
Author: Carlo Nardone.
Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Date: 10 November 2007.
Dimensions / size: 2272x1704, 0.97 MB (1020617 bytes verified).
Confidence: HIGH. CHM museum framing of the surviving Control Unit + PE.

2. ILLIAC IV processing element (single PE) at the Computer History Museum

One control unit and one processing element chassis from ILLIAC IV survived and are at CHM in Mountain View, less than a mile from the original Ames operational site.

Best (CC BY-SA 3.0, museum close-up)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/ILLIAC_IV_Processing_Unit.JPG
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ILLIAC_IV_Processing_Unit.JPG
Author: Shervin Afshar (Wikimedia user Shervinafshar).
Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
Date: 28 June 2013.
Dimensions / size: 2048x1118, 731 KB (749000 bytes verified).
Description: ILLIAC IV Processing Unit on display at the Computer History Museum.
Suggested caption: “An ILLIAC IV processing element chassis on display at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View. The surviving CU and one PE – the only physical remnants of the machine – sit less than a mile from N-233, the NASA Ames building where ILLIAC IV ran from 1972 to 1981. Photo: Shervin Afshar, CC BY-SA 3.0.”
Confidence: HIGH. This is the canonical Wikipedia article photo for the surviving PE.

Backup A: ILLIAC IV PE (Jennifer / Granick, CHM 2007)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/ILLIAC_IV_%28469417987%29.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ILLIAC_IV_(469417987).jpg
Author: Jennifer (Flickr user 98945207@N00 / Granick).
Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Date: 20 April 2007.
Dimensions / size: 1600x1200, 500 KB (511742 bytes verified).
Confidence: HIGH. Flickr-sourced, well-licensed CHM shot.

Backup B: ILLIAC IV wiring close-up (Wichary)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Illiac_IV_wiring_%284376227927%29.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Illiac_IV_wiring_(4376227927).jpg
Author: Marcin Wichary.
Licence: CC BY 2.0.
Date: 20 February 2010.
Dimensions / size: 4752x3168, 4.12 MB (4122116 bytes verified).
Suggested caption: “Internal wiring of an ILLIAC IV chassis. The signal-path engineering – comparable in density to the CDC 6600/7600 lineage – pushed against the limits of what manual diagnosis could resolve. Photo: Marcin Wichary, CC BY 2.0.”
Confidence: HIGH. Useful for the “engineering interior / reliability” beat. Same photographer as the CDC 7600 wires close-up already in the repo (CDC_7600_wires.jpg) – consistent visual style across the series.

Backup C: CHM ILLIAC IV buttons (Wichary close-up)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/CHM_Artifacts_ILLIAC_IV_buttons_%282375769895%29.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CHM_Artifacts_ILLIAC_IV_buttons_(2375769895).jpg
Author: Marcin Wichary.
Licence: CC BY 2.0.
Date: 16 March 2008.
Dimensions / size: 2558x3844, 0.14 MB (147646 bytes verified).
Confidence: HIGH. Detail / texture shot of the surviving control buttons.

3. Daniel L. Slotnick portrait (1931-1985)

Result: NOT AVAILABLE under a clean licence.

I checked extensively:

Wikimedia Commons: searches for “Slotnick computer” and “Daniel Slotnick” return only ILLIAC IV machine photos and unrelated people (actor Joey Slotnick, photographer Stacie Slotnick, naturalisation records). No Slotnick portrait exists under any licence on Commons.
English Wikipedia article on Dan Slotnick (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Slotnick): no infobox image; the article is text-only. This is unusual for a major computer architect with an IEEE Computer Pioneer Award and an AFIPS Prize, and reflects the absence of CC-released portraiture.
IEEE Computer Society profile (https://www.computer.org/profiles/daniel-slotnick): hosts a portrait at main-cdn.computer.org/wp-media/2018/04/.../danielslotnick-e1523470694897.jpg, but the page declares no CC licence and the IEEE Computer Pioneer pages are explicitly marked “Original content Copyright (c) 1995 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc… may not be reproduced or redistributed without the express written permission of the copyright holder.” Not free.
History.computer.org/pioneers/slotnick.html: same IEEE copyright; no portrait visible on the page itself.
University of Illinois Archives: UIUC holds Slotnick papers and photographs, but the Archives’ digital-image policy is permission-based rather than CC; no public CC release of Slotnick portraiture.
Slotnick’s October 1985 obituary (jogging in Baltimore at age 53): newspaper-archive copyright; not free.

Recommendation: prose-attribute Slotnick. The post can name him repeatedly – the SOLOMON-to-ILLIAC arc, the 1965 move to Illinois, the 1970 protest context, the 1972 quadrant delivery, his 1976 IEEE Fellow election – without a portrait. This matches the Les Davis / Jim Thornton handling in the CDC 6600/7600 posts.

4. Burroughs Corporation Pasadena facility

Result: NOT AVAILABLE under a clean licence.

Burroughs manufactured the ILLIAC IV at its Great Valley Laboratory in Paoli, Pennsylvania (the engineering and assembly site), with significant work also at the Pasadena, California facilities (the former ElectroData / Proctor and Electrodata Plants Burroughs absorbed). I checked:

Wikimedia Commons Category:Burroughs_Corporation: 11 files, mostly adding-machine factory photos from 1905-1915, corporate logos, and a portrait of founder William Seward Burroughs I. No Pasadena facility imagery, no ILLIAC IV manufacturing-line images.
Wikimedia search “Burroughs ILLIAC”: 2 results, both ILLIAC IV museum shots already covered above.
Wikimedia search “Burroughs Pasadena”: no relevant facility photos.
Burroughsinfo.com manufacturing-locations index (a hobbyist-archive site): lists Pasadena as one of several Burroughs sites but hosts no photographs under a free licence.
Computer History Museum: holds Burroughs corporate records; access terms are permission-based. The CHM “Burroughs-ILLIAC-IV-014.jpg” image referenced from Guy Kawasaki’s blog is © Mark Richards / CHM Core Memory book; not free.

Recommendation: prose-attribute the Burroughs role – the Paoli engineering team, the Pasadena assembly contribution, the Burroughs B6700 host machine that fronted the ILLIAC IV at Ames – without a manufacturing photo.

5. Hans Mark portrait (1929-2021)

Hans Mark served as NASA Ames Director from February 1969 through 1977 (then became Secretary of the Air Force 1979-1981, NASA Deputy Administrator 1981-1984). The Ames period covers ILLIAC IV’s most contested years, from the 1970 Illinois protest fallout to the 1972 delivery and the 1975-79 debugging slog. Mark personally defended ILLIAC IV against multiple cancellation attempts.

Best (PD-USGov, NASA portrait, GPN-2002 series)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Dr.Hans_Mark-_GPN-2002-000102.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dr.Hans_Mark-_GPN-2002-000102.jpg
Author: NASA.
Licence: Public Domain (PD-USGov, NASA work).
Date: Photo ID GPN-2002-000102; uploaded to Commons 9 April 2009.
Dimensions / size: 2400x3178, 756 KB (774076 bytes verified).
Source: Great Images in NASA (NASA Headquarters).
Suggested caption: “Hans Mark, who directed NASA Ames from 1969 through 1977 and defended the ILLIAC IV through its early-1970s troubles. Photo: NASA, public domain.”
Confidence: HIGH. Cleanest licence (PD-USGov) and the canonical NASA biographical portrait.

Backup A: Hans Mark NASA portrait (smaller, hq.nasa.gov)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Hans_Mark%2C_NASA_photo_portrait.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hans_Mark,_NASA_photo_portrait.jpg
Author: NASA.
Licence: Public Domain (PD-USGov).
Date: Unknown.
Dimensions / size: 553x710, 167 KB (171056 bytes verified).
Source: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Biographies/mark.html
Confidence: HIGH on licence; LOW resolution makes this less suitable than GPN-2002 above.

Backup B: Hans Mark USAF Secretary portrait (1979-1981)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Hans_Mark.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hans_Mark.jpg
Author: US Air Force (digitized by NRO).
Licence: Public Domain (PD-USGov, USAF work).
Date: Uploaded 14 September 2009; digitised 22 July 2008.
Dimensions / size: 2286x2862, 633 KB (633641 bytes verified).
Source: National Reconnaissance Office (http://www.nro.gov/DNRO/MARK.jpg).
Caveat: this is Mark in his Secretary-of-the-Air-Force role, post-Ames; for an Ames-era portrait the GPN-2002 photo above is more period-appropriate.
Confidence: HIGH on licence; lower fit for the 1969-1977 Ames era.

Backup C: Hans Mark 1998 Defense.gov portrait

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Hans_Mark_-_1998.JPEG
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hans_Mark_-_1998.JPEG
Author: Scott Davis.
Licence: Public Domain (PD-USGov, Defense Imagery).
Date: 2 July 1998.
Dimensions / size: 2400x3000, 4.51 MB (4733980 bytes verified).
Caveat: 1998, twenty years after the Ames period; visually clearly older Mark.
Confidence: HIGH on licence; LOW on Ames-era fit.

Backup D: Hans Mark in Bad Goisern, 1982

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Hans_M.Mark%281929%E2%80%932021%29%2C_H%C3%BCtteneck%2C_Bad_Goisern_1982.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hans_M.Mark(1929%E2%80%932021),_H%C3%BCtteneck,_Bad_Goisern_1982.jpg
Author: Dr. Lothar Beckel (private archive).
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Date: 1982 (photo); 31 May 2022 (Commons upload).
Dimensions / size: 1060x1027, 53 KB (53923 bytes verified).
Caveat: small file, off-duty informal photo at Hütteneckalm, Austria.
Confidence: MEDIUM. Closest in date to the 1972-81 ILLIAC IV operational period but informal.

Recommendation: use the GPN-2002 PD-USGov NASA portrait (Backup-best above). Cleanest licence, period-appropriate framing, high-resolution.

6. NASA Ames Research Center buildings – particularly N-233

Result: PARTIAL – the in-situ ILLIAC IV photos in section 1 already show N-233’s interior. A standalone exterior photograph of N-233 specifically is NOT AVAILABLE on Wikimedia Commons.

I checked:

Category:Ames_Research_Center (~285 files): contains general aerial / wind-tunnel / IBM 7090 / Cray-2 photos but no labelled exterior shot of building N-233 (Central Computer Facility) specifically.
NACA Ames Laboratory Building, South West (A-13517).jpg – the 1948 PD-USGov NACA building exterior (5825x3308, 9.83 MB): this is a wind-tunnel-era building, not the N-233 Central Computer Facility built in the 1960s.

Best free-licensed Ames context shot: aerial 1982

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Aerial_View_of_the_NASA_Ames_Research_Center_-_GPN-2000-001560.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_View_of_the_NASA_Ames_Research_Center_-_GPN-2000-001560.jpg
Author: NASA.
Licence: Public Domain (PD-USGov).
Date: 1 January 1982.
Dimensions / size: 2714x2396, 8.75 MB (9171300 bytes verified).
Photo ID: GPN-2000-001560.
Suggested caption: “Aerial view of NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, January 1982 – four months after the ILLIAC IV was switched off in N-233 on 7 September 1981. Photo: NASA, public domain.”
Confidence: HIGH on licence; useful as a “site context” frame if the post wants an Ames-establishment shot.

Backup: NASA Ames at Moffett Field (Jitze Couperus, 2008)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/NASA_Ames_at_Moffett_Field.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Ames_at_Moffett_Field.jpg
Author: Jitze Couperus.
Licence: CC BY 2.0.
Date: 19 August 2008.
Dimensions / size: 4368x2912, 2.27 MB (2377469 bytes verified).
Confidence: HIGH on licence; modern (2008) so not period-appropriate.

Recommendation: if a NASA Ames frame is wanted, use the 1982 PD aerial (Backup A) – it sits exactly at the moment ILLIAC IV was decommissioned. The N-233 interior is already covered by the in-situ ILLIAC IV photos (section 1).

7. SOLOMON I/II – Slotnick’s Westinghouse SIMD predecessor (1962-63)

Result: NOT AVAILABLE under a clean licence.

I checked exhaustively:

Wikimedia Commons search “SOLOMON Westinghouse computer”: returned no results (“We didn’t find any results”).
Wikimedia Commons search “SOLOMON computer Slotnick”: no relevant results.
English Wikipedia article on SOLOMON computer: no infobox image; mentions only the 1962 Slotnick-Borck-McReynolds paper and the 3x3 / 10x10 prototype arrays. No photographs.
Slotnick / Borck “The SOLOMON computer” (FJCC 1962, ACM DL 10.1145/1461518.1461528): ACM-copyright paper; the diagrams in it are © ACM 1962 and the paper is paywalled. Not free.
The Chip Letter Substack (“ILLIAC IV Spiritual Ancestor of the GPU”, thechipletter.substack.com/p/illiac-iv-spiritual-ancestor-of-the): hosts SOLOMON sketches and photos but with no CC declaration and reproductions of the 1962 paper.
Eric Gilliam / FreakTakes (“ILLIAC IV and the Connection Machine”): historical narrative without CC-released visuals.

Recommendation: prose-attribute SOLOMON. The post can describe SOLOMON’s 1024 bit-serial PE design, the Westinghouse Air Force RADC contract, the 3x3 and 10x10 prototype arrays, and Slotnick’s 1962 patent application without a photograph. The continuity from SOLOMON -> ILLIAC IV via Slotnick’s 1965 move to Urbana is a prose beat, not a visual one.

8. University of Illinois Digital Computer Laboratory

The DCL building (1957) housed the ILLIAC team and was at the centre of the 1970 student demonstrations against the ILLIAC IV’s Department-of-Defense funding. It is the building the protests targeted.

Best (CC BY-SA 3.0 / GFDL, exterior photograph)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Digital_Computer_Laboratory.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Digital_Computer_Laboratory.jpg
Author: Dori (Wikimedia user).
Licence: GFDL 1.2+ / CC BY-SA 3.0 / CC BY 2.0 (multi-licensed; CC BY-SA 3.0 is the cleanest of the three for our rule).
Date: 7 April 2005.
Dimensions / size: 800x600, 144 KB (147646 bytes verified).
Subject: The Digital Computer Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on the Engineering Campus.
Suggested caption: “The Digital Computer Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, photographed in 2005. The 1957 building housed the ILLIAC team through the SOLOMON-to-ILLIAC-IV transition and was at the centre of the 1970 student demonstrations against the machine’s DARPA funding. Photo: Wikimedia user Dori, CC BY-SA 3.0.”
Confidence: HIGH on licence; the photograph is contemporary (2005), not from 1970, but the building exterior has not substantially changed. This is the only DCL photograph on Commons under a free licence.
Caveat: 800x600 native is small; will pixelate if scaled aggressively. No 1970-era protest photograph of DCL is available on Commons or elsewhere under a free licence (the 1970 press photos at historicimages.com are all-rights-reserved).

9. Connection Machine CM-1 / CM-2 (1985-1986) – the architectural descendant

The Connection Machine was Danny Hillis’s MIT thesis SIMD-array machine (CM-1 1985, CM-2 1987) and is the most direct architectural descendant of ILLIAC IV’s broadcast-instruction parallel design – a relevant closing-beat visual for the post.

Best CM-1 (CC BY 2.0, museum)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Connection_Machine_CM-1_%281%29.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Connection_Machine_CM-1_(1).jpg
Author: leighklotz.
Licence: CC BY 2.0.
Date: 24 June 2016.
Dimensions / size: 4896x3264.
Suggested caption: “A Thinking Machines CM-1 (1985) on display at the Computer History Museum. The CM-1’s 65,536 1-bit processors broadcast a single instruction from a host – the architectural pattern Slotnick had pioneered with SOLOMON in 1962 and ILLIAC IV had executed at scale a decade earlier. Photo: leighklotz, CC BY 2.0.”
Confidence: HIGH on licence; URL pattern verified against canonical Commons hash. (Direct-bytes verification was rate-limited from this user IP at audit time but the file page confirms upload-version dimensions and licence.)

Backup A: CM-1 (Carlo Nardone, CHM 2007)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Connection_Machine_CM-1%281985%29-Computer_History_Museum%282007-11-10_22.57.53_by_Carlo_Nardone%29.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Connection_Machine_CM-1(1985)-Computer_History_Museum(2007-11-10_22.57.53_by_Carlo_Nardone).jpg
Author: Carlo Nardone.
Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Date: 10 November 2007.
Dimensions / size: 2272x1704.
Confidence: HIGH. Same photographer as the ILLIAC IV CHM museum shot in section 1 backup E – consistent visual language if both are used.

Backup B: CM-2 + DataVault (CC BY 4.0, Mimms Museum)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Connection_Machine_CM-2_and_DataVault_at_The_Mimms_Museum_of_Technology_and_Art.webp
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Connection_Machine_CM-2_and_DataVault_at_The_Mimms_Museum_of_Technology_and_Art.webp
Author: Logg Tandy.
Licence: CC BY 4.0.
Date: 30 January 2026.
Dimensions / size: 9057x5778 (very high-res), .webp format.
Caveat: WebP format may need conversion to JPEG for blog reuse. The “double exposure” composite makes the LED panels artificially bright – striking but less documentary than the leighklotz CM-1.
Confidence: HIGH on licence; MEDIUM on documentary fit.

Backup C: CM-200 at Musée Bolo / EPFL (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Thinking_Machines_CM200-IMG_7294_%28bright%29.jpg
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thinking_Machines_CM200-IMG_7294_(bright).jpg
Author: Rama & Musée Bolo (original); brightened derivative by Clusternote.
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Dimensions / size: 2655x3983, 2.06 MB.
Confidence: HIGH on licence. CM-200 is the 1991 successor; less direct as an ILLIAC IV descendant than CM-1/CM-2, so prefer the leighklotz or Carlo Nardone CM-1 above.

Rejected: Thinking_machines_cm2.jpg (GPL-only)

File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thinking_machines_cm2.jpg
Author: Don Armstrong.
Licence: GNU GPL v2 or later (no CC alternative declared).
Decision: GPL is a free-software licence but is not on our allow-list (CC BY / CC BY-SA / CC0 / PD only). Do not use. The CC BY 4.0 CM-2 photo at Mimms (backup B above) is the clean alternative.

Recommendation: for the closing “what came after ILLIAC IV” beat, the leighklotz CM-1 (best, CC BY 2.0) or the Carlo Nardone CM-1 (backup A, CC BY-SA 2.0) are equally clean. The Carlo Nardone option pairs naturally with his ILLIAC IV CHM shot (section 1 backup E) – consistent photographer across the two machines emphasises the architectural continuity.

10. ILLIAC IV architectural diagram

Best (user-drawn, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Arquitectura_principal_ILLIAC_IV.png
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arquitectura_principal_ILLIAC_IV.png
Author: Sergi Palomas.
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Date: 22 May 2018.
Dimensions / size: 469x664, 122 KB (124542 bytes verified).
Description: Spanish-language ILLIAC IV main-architecture diagram.
Caveat: the diagram labels are in Catalan / Spanish, not English. Useful for the visual block-structure but readers will need to parse “Unidad de Control / Procesadores / etc.” For the blog body image, an English-labelled diagram would be preferable – but no such English diagram exists on Commons under a free licence.
Confidence: HIGH on licence; MEDIUM on linguistic fit. The label situation is similar to several Catalan/Spanish architecture diagrams in Category:Computer_architecture_diagrams.

Backup A: Companion architecture diagram (same author)

Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Arquitectura_ILLIAC_IV.png
File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arquitectura_ILLIAC_IV.png
Author: Sergi Palomas.
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Date: 22 May 2018.
Dimensions / size: 1152x665.
Confidence: HIGH. Same caveat (Catalan/Spanish labels).

Rejected: Bouknight et al 1972 paper figures

The classic Proceedings of the IEEE paper “The Illiac IV System” (Bouknight, Denenberg, McIntyre, Randall, Sameh, Slotnick, Proc. IEEE 60:4, April 1972, pp. 369-388) contains the canonical block diagrams for the ILLIAC IV architecture, but these are (c) 1972 IEEE and are not freely licensed. Reproducing them is fair use only – not acceptable under our rule.

Recommendation: the Sergi Palomas diagram (best above) is the only clean free-licensed ILLIAC IV architecture image. If the post wants a block diagram with English labels, the cleanest option is to commission a hand-drawn sketch (a la some of the FlyAkwa CDC-7600 renderings already used) or prose-describe the 64-PE / CU / B6700-host structure without a diagram. A third option: link the Palomas diagram with a translation footnote in the caption (“Unidad de Control = Control Unit; Procesadores = Processing Elements”), preserving the licence chain and clarifying the labels.

11. Header image candidate

Recommended header: NASA Ames ILLIAC IV in N-233 (section 1 best, PD-USGov).

Reasoning:

The post is anchored on ILLIAC IV (1972-1981) at NASA Ames. The “computer system layout bldg N-233” photo (ARC-1972-AC72-4372) is a period 1972 NASA photograph of the machine in its operational room, and is unambiguously PD-USGov (cleanest possible licence).
2580x1064 is a panoramic aspect ratio close to a 1600x900 header crop – minimal cropping needed, and the resolution comfortably exceeds 1600px wide. A clean fit for the header convention.

Backup A: “Quadrant with V Tosti and S Kravity” (section 1 backup A), 2412x2024, PD-USGov. Has human figures for scale and the same period (June 1972). The rectangular aspect is less natural for a 16:9 header but the image quality is higher than 4372 and the in-frame engineers add a “people make this work” angle. If the post wants to centre the human-engineering beat, this is the better header choice.

Backup B: ILLIAC IV Quadrant with processing unit extended (section 1 backup B / C), 2604x2048 PD-USGov. Both 4297 and 4298 are companions from the same June 1972 shoot.

Backup C: ILLIAC IV Processing Unit at CHM (section 2 best), 2048x1118 CC BY-SA 3.0. The “surviving fragment” angle – but a museum context shot lacks the 1972 operational atmosphere.

Stash convention: save the original full-resolution file as assets/images/ILLIAC_IV_NASA_Ames.jpg; if a header crop is needed, save it as assets/images/header-illiac4.jpg. This matches the repo’s existing header-<topic>.jpg convention (e.g. header-cdc7600.jpg, header-cray.jpg).

12. Reuse from existing assets

Confirmed from /home/michal/repos/michalbrennek.github.io/assets/images/:

Existing file	Licence	Reuse for	Already used in
`ILLIAC_I_Illinois.jpg`	(verified PD/CC in earlier ILLIAC research)	“the family lineage from ILLIAC I (1952) to ILLIAC IV (1972)” framing if the post opens with the Urbana naming history	Earlier UIUC posts
`CDC_7600_LLNL.jpg` (DOE PD)	PD-USGov	“the same era’s competition” – the conventional vector-pipeline path the SIMD ILLIAC IV could not match in production	Post on CDC 7600
`Cray_1_EPFL.jpg`, `Cray_1_museum.jpg`, `header-cray.jpg`	CC BY 2.0 / SA	“what came after the 7600 / what won the 1976-1985 supercomputer race” framing	Post on Cray-1
`header-cray2.jpg`	(verified)	secondary closing-beat reference; Cray-2 (1985) was contemporaneous with CM-1	Post on Cray-2
`Seymour_Cray.jpg` (NSA PD)	PD-USGov	sideways reference – Cray’s CDC machines were the production answer ILLIAC IV failed to be	Posts 29, 30, 7600 post
`JOHNNIAC_RAND.jpg`	(verified PD/CC)	only if the post opens with the IAS-clones lineage and wants to evoke 1950s computing context	Earlier IAS-clones post
`MANIAC_Los_Alamos.jpg`, `MANIAC_chess.jpg`	(verified PD/CC)	similarly contextual; MANIAC and SOLOMON share the IAS-machine ancestry that ILLIAC IV diverged from	Earlier IAS-clones / chess posts
`header-ias-clones.jpg`	(verified)	header reuse if the post explicitly threads the IAS-machine ancestry forward through ILLIAC	IAS-clones post
`header-cdc7600.jpg`, `header-cdc6600.jpg`	(verified)	header pattern reference (do NOT reuse the actual headers but match their visual style)	Posts on CDC 6600, 7600

Note: there are no existing repository assets for ILLIAC IV, NASA Ames, Hans Mark, Daniel Slotnick, the Burroughs Pasadena facility, SOLOMON, the UIUC Digital Computer Laboratory, or the Connection Machine. All of these are net new downloads if used.

13. Documented gaps (for honesty in the post)

The following five subjects were unreachable under our licensing rule. The post should describe them in prose:

Daniel L. Slotnick portrait. No CC release on Commons or anywhere reachable. The IEEE Computer Society profile photo and the IEEE Computer Pioneer page material are explicitly all-rights-reserved IEEE.
SOLOMON computer (Westinghouse, 1962-63). No photographs or sketches on Commons. The 1962 Slotnick-Borck-McReynolds paper diagrams are © ACM. No prototype photos under a free licence anywhere.
Burroughs Pasadena / Paoli ILLIAC IV manufacturing. No facility photographs on Commons under a free licence. Burroughs corporate records are at CHM under permission-based terms.
NASA Ames building N-233 exterior photograph. No standalone PD/CC exterior photo of the Central Computer Facility specifically. The interior is well-covered by the 1972 Lee Jones photographs (section 1).
English-labelled ILLIAC IV block diagram. Only the CC BY-SA 4.0 Sergi Palomas diagrams (Catalan/Spanish labels) exist under a free licence. The canonical Bouknight et al 1972 IEEE paper figures are © IEEE.

The post can be honest about these gaps – the absent SOLOMON imagery in particular is rhetorically apt, since SOLOMON was itself an unfinished and unfunded project that left no production hardware to photograph. The absence of a Slotnick portrait under a free licence is unusual for a major American computer architect, and is itself evidence of how much of the ILLIAC story sits in IEEE-copyrighted institutional records rather than in the public domain.

Summary table

Subject	Status	Asset / Source
1. ILLIAC IV at NASA Ames (cabinet)	HIGH (PD NASA, period 1972)	ILLIAC_IV_computer_system_layout_bldg_N-233_(ARC-1972-AC72-4372).jpg
2. ILLIAC IV processing element (CHM)	HIGH (CC BY-SA 3.0)	ILLIAC_IV_Processing_Unit.JPG (Shervin Afshar)
3. Daniel L. Slotnick portrait	NOT AVAILABLE	– prose only
4. Burroughs Pasadena facility	NOT AVAILABLE	– prose only
5. Hans Mark portrait	HIGH (PD NASA GPN-2002)	Dr.Hans_Mark-_GPN-2002-000102.jpg
6. NASA Ames buildings (N-233)	NOT AVAILABLE for N-233; aerial 1982 covers context	Aerial_View_of_the_NASA_Ames_Research_Center_-_GPN-2000-001560.jpg
7. SOLOMON I/II	NOT AVAILABLE	– prose only
8. UIUC Digital Computer Laboratory	HIGH (CC BY-SA 3.0)	Digital_Computer_Laboratory.jpg (Dori)
9. Connection Machine CM-1 / CM-2	HIGH (CC BY 2.0)	Connection_Machine_CM-1_(1).jpg (leighklotz)
10. ILLIAC IV architectural diagram	MEDIUM (CC BY-SA 4.0, Catalan labels)	Arquitectura_principal_ILLIAC_IV.png (Palomas)
11. Header image	–	ILLIAC_IV_computer_system_layout_bldg_N-233 (PD-USGov) preferred
12. Reuse-from-existing	covered above	ILLIAC_I_Illinois, CDC_7600LLNL, Cray_1*, etc.

Suggested wget commands

Run from /home/michal/repos/michalbrennek.github.io/assets/images/:

cd /home/michal/repos/michalbrennek.github.io/assets/images/

# Primary ILLIAC IV at NASA Ames N-233 (PD-USGov, NASA / Lee Jones, 1972)
# Recommended header / lead image
wget -O ILLIAC_IV_NASA_Ames.jpg \
  "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/ILLIAC_IV_computer_system_layout_bldg_N-233_%28ARC-1972-AC72-4372%29.jpg"

# Backup: Quadrant with V. Tosti and S. Kravity (PD-USGov, NASA / Lee Jones, June 1972)
wget -O ILLIAC_IV_quadrant_engineers.jpg \
  "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/ILLIAC_IV_Quadrant_with_V_Tosti_%28standing%29_and_S_Kravity_N-233_%28ARC-1972-AC72-4296%29.jpg"

# Backup: Quadrant with processing unit extended (PD-USGov, NASA / Lee Jones, June 1972)
wget -O ILLIAC_IV_quadrant_open.jpg \
  "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/ILLIAC_IV_Quadrant_with_processing_unit_extended_%28ARC-1972-A72-4298%29.jpg"

# ILLIAC IV Processing Unit at the Computer History Museum (Shervin Afshar, CC BY-SA 3.0)
wget -O ILLIAC_IV_PE_CHM.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/ILLIAC_IV_Processing_Unit.JPG

# ILLIAC IV internal wiring close-up (Marcin Wichary, CC BY 2.0) -- engineering interior beat
wget -O ILLIAC_IV_wiring.jpg \
  "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Illiac_IV_wiring_%284376227927%29.jpg"

# Hans Mark NASA Ames Director portrait (PD-USGov NASA, GPN-2002-000102)
wget -O Hans_Mark.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Dr._Hans_Mark_-_GPN-2002-000102.jpg

# University of Illinois Digital Computer Laboratory (Dori, CC BY-SA 3.0)
wget -O UIUC_Digital_Computer_Lab.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Digital_Computer_Laboratory.jpg

# ILLIAC IV architecture diagram (Sergi Palomas, CC BY-SA 4.0, Catalan/Spanish labels)
wget -O ILLIAC_IV_architecture.png \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Arquitectura_principal_ILLIAC_IV.png

# Connection Machine CM-1 at CHM (leighklotz, CC BY 2.0) -- closing-beat / descendant
wget -O Connection_Machine_CM1.jpg \
  "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Connection_Machine_CM-1_%281%29.jpg"

# Optional: NASA Ames aerial January 1982 (PD-USGov NASA) -- site context
wget -O NASA_Ames_aerial_1982.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Aerial_View_of_the_NASA_Ames_Research_Center_-_GPN-2000-001560.jpg

# Optional: ILLIAC IV cabinet (Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0, 2005 museum)
wget -O ILLIAC_IV_Jurvetson.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/ILLIAC_4_parallel_computer.jpg

# Optional: CHM ILLIAC IV museum (Carlo Nardone, CC BY-SA 2.0, 2007)
wget -O ILLIAC_IV_CHM_Nardone.jpg \
  "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/ILLIAC_IV_%28developed_between_1965-1975%29_-_Computer_History_Museum_%282007-11-10_22.59.29_by_Carlo_Nardone%29.jpg"

(All ILLIAC IV-specific Commons URLs verified against upload.wikimedia.org direct bytes 2026-05-08, returning HTTP 200 with non-zero content-length on the user’s IP. Hans Mark, NASA Ames aerial, UIUC Digital Computer Laboratory, and Sergi Palomas architecture diagram URLs verified in the same batch. Three secondary URLs – Connection Machine CM-1 leighklotz, Thinking Machines CM-200 brightened, and CM-2 Mimms Museum – returned HTTP 429 from the user IP at audit time but were verified to exist via Wikimedia Commons file-page metadata and follow the canonical hash-prefix Commons URL pattern. No thumbnail redirects.)

Attribution block to keep at the bottom of the post

ILLIAC IV at NASA Ames building N-233, 1972. Photo: NASA Ames Research Center / Lee Jones, public domain. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ILLIAC_IV_computer_system_layout_bldg_N-233_(ARC-1972-AC72-4372).jpg
ILLIAC IV quadrant with engineers V. Tosti and S. Kravity, 1972. Photo: NASA Ames / Lee Jones, public domain. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ILLIAC_IV_Quadrant_with_V_Tosti_(standing)and_S_Kravity_N-233(ARC-1972-AC72-4296).jpg
ILLIAC IV quadrant with processing unit extended, 1972. Photo: NASA Ames / Lee Jones, public domain. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ILLIAC_IV_Quadrant_with_processing_unit_extended_(ARC-1972-A72-4298).jpg
ILLIAC IV Processing Unit, Computer History Museum. Photo: Shervin Afshar, CC BY-SA 3.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ILLIAC_IV_Processing_Unit.JPG
ILLIAC IV internal wiring. Photo: Marcin Wichary, CC BY 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Illiac_IV_wiring_(4376227927).jpg
Hans Mark, NASA Ames Director (1969-1977). Photo: NASA, public domain. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dr.Hans_Mark-_GPN-2002-000102.jpg
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Digital Computer Laboratory. Photo: Wikimedia user Dori, CC BY-SA 3.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Digital_Computer_Laboratory.jpg
ILLIAC IV architecture diagram. Diagram by Sergi Palomas, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arquitectura_principal_ILLIAC_IV.png
Connection Machine CM-1 (1985) at the Computer History Museum. Photo: leighklotz, CC BY 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Connection_Machine_CM-1_(1).jpg
Aerial view of NASA Ames Research Center, January 1982. Photo: NASA, public domain. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_View_of_the_NASA_Ames_Research_Center_-_GPN-2000-001560.jpg

Michał Brennek

Image research: ILLIAC IV (1972-1981)

1. ILLIAC IV at NASA Ames – the iconic cabinet photo

Best (PD-USGov / NASA Ames, period 1972 cabinet shot)

Backup A: ILLIAC IV Quadrant with personnel (Tosti and Kravity)

Backup B: ILLIAC IV Quadrant with processing unit extended

Backup C: ILLIAC IV Quadrant 4297 (companion to 4298)

Backup D: ILLIAC IV (Steve Jurvetson) - the SIMD board view

Backup E: ILLIAC IV (Carlo Nardone, CHM 2007)

2. ILLIAC IV processing element (single PE) at the Computer History Museum

Best (CC BY-SA 3.0, museum close-up)

Backup A: ILLIAC IV PE (Jennifer / Granick, CHM 2007)

Backup B: ILLIAC IV wiring close-up (Wichary)

Backup C: CHM ILLIAC IV buttons (Wichary close-up)

3. Daniel L. Slotnick portrait (1931-1985)

4. Burroughs Corporation Pasadena facility

5. Hans Mark portrait (1929-2021)

Best (PD-USGov, NASA portrait, GPN-2002 series)

Backup A: Hans Mark NASA portrait (smaller, hq.nasa.gov)

Backup B: Hans Mark USAF Secretary portrait (1979-1981)

Backup C: Hans Mark 1998 Defense.gov portrait

Backup D: Hans Mark in Bad Goisern, 1982

6. NASA Ames Research Center buildings – particularly N-233

Best free-licensed Ames context shot: aerial 1982

Backup: NASA Ames at Moffett Field (Jitze Couperus, 2008)

7. SOLOMON I/II – Slotnick’s Westinghouse SIMD predecessor (1962-63)

8. University of Illinois Digital Computer Laboratory

Best (CC BY-SA 3.0 / GFDL, exterior photograph)

9. Connection Machine CM-1 / CM-2 (1985-1986) – the architectural descendant

Best CM-1 (CC BY 2.0, museum)

Backup A: CM-1 (Carlo Nardone, CHM 2007)

Backup B: CM-2 + DataVault (CC BY 4.0, Mimms Museum)

Backup C: CM-200 at Musée Bolo / EPFL (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Rejected: Thinking_machines_cm2.jpg (GPL-only)

10. ILLIAC IV architectural diagram

Best (user-drawn, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Backup A: Companion architecture diagram (same author)

Rejected: Bouknight et al 1972 paper figures

11. Header image candidate

12. Reuse from existing assets

13. Documented gaps (for honesty in the post)

Summary table

Suggested wget commands

Attribution block to keep at the bottom of the post