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50 Year Old Computer Still Going
The Angry Mick writes "Geek.com is running a blurb on a 50 year old CSIRAC computer that is apparently still functional, if lurking in an Australian museum. Sporting a whopping 2K of RAM and screaming along at a blistering 300 khz(!) it proves the adage that they really don't make 'em like they used to . . ." Yes, because if they did, they'd be really, really slow.
...30 more years and my Apple //e will have been running for 50 years! Woohoo!
// Agent Green (Ian / IU7 / KB1JQO)
// IEEE 802.3: All 10base Are Belong To Us
A Beowuld cluster of- oh never mind, where would you fit it?
Information doesn't want to be anthropomorphized anymore.
Although I have the advantage of having a whopping 64k of ROM. I only have to use the RAM for my data. I would expect that computer also has to store the program binary in the 2k. Overlays, anyone?
Lately I've been finding it worth my time to spend a few hours recoding some functions in order to shave just a few bytes off their stack usage.
Kids these days, assuming everyone's got 128 megabytes for their application. They just don't code 'em like they used to.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
"A lot of its components would not stand having voltages applied to them again," says Thorne. "I think it would probably catch fire."
Reminds me of some of the old linux kernel code, and thinking its good to have a sense of humor.
Trying to get a printer working and getting a kernel message saying Lpt:1 on fire!
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
- Sporting a whopping 2K of RAM and screaming along at a blistering 300 khz(!)
At that speed one could sniff the data with a simple old LW/MW radio.
I just hope the feds won't arrest Aunt Mary for having a hacking/terrorist device in her kitchen.
300kHz may not sound like much, but with overclocking and a decent watercooling setup you could crank it as high as 334kHz!
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
When I'm at my wittiest, she just sort of rolls her eyes, groans, and goes back to whatever she was doing.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
running the search engine on Sourceforge, right?
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
It's not about quality. This baby had to have tons of valves replaced constantly just to keep it running. And that was when it was NEW!
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
Who's there?
*60 second pause....*
CSIRAC!
Yeah? Well at least you HAD ones. We had to make do with zeros. Ever code in unary?
On one occasion, they gave a demo to an organisation called the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE), but apparently a memory error occurred and the thing printed "CSIRAC welcomes the members of the IRA) :)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
You had zeros? The luxury! Back in my day all we had was the empty set -- and we liked it!
One of my neighbours helped to build CSIRAC. My guess is the computer looks better than he does.
Great old guy. His wife does a great pumpkin scone.
Must be running their web server too.
The coolest voice ever.
"Which, by my calcuations, would be 1000 hertz or 1 kilohertz. "
With a clockspeed of 1000 hertz you'd actually be able to hear the thing go "OOOOOOOUUUUUOOOOUOOUUUUOOOOOUUUOUOUOOOOOO".
Man that !has! to have sucked completely to be a developer back then: "WATCHA SAYIN'?? I GOTTA WHAT??? CHANGE THE POINTER?? I !CAN'T! !HEAR! YA!!"
naah sig schmig
Let's see... [slashdot math] That would require replacing all the IDE drives over 300 times! Also, it's too bad there's only one, because otherwise we could, y'know, build a... Oh, nevermind.
Lets see even the best programmers used to point and drool GUI interfaces and hand holding wizards try and do that in 2K now using little more than paper tape! The people who designed, built and programmed these machines REALLY knew what they were doing and probably forgot more about efficient programming and code compression than todays "top" coders ever knew in the first place.
I remember the good ol' days before lawn mowers were invented. We would stoop over the lawn for weeks with tweezers in hand. Each grass blade was skillfully cut by a true craftman. Now your "best" lawn mowers simply buzz through a yard, never even seeing individual grass blades.
Table-ized A.I.
Where can I go to buy one of these. I need to heat by back alley. I'll strech the power from the warehouse, nice and toasty cardboard box.
So might your Athlon, son... So might your Athlon.
That is all.
With a 50 year ceiling fan. Probably similar to the ones in those old barber shops.
Haven't been married before have you? (Pictures of ex wife seeing my junky old 486 sitting in the corner and exclaiming, "What's that???" flash through my mind) Basically you can kiss anything over 10 years old goodbye (with the possible exception of family heirlooms studded with diamonds).
I Am My Own Worst Enemy