UK's Oldest Computer To Be "Rebooted"

Smivs writes with this interesting piece of computer history, excerpted from the BBC: "Britain's oldest original computer, the Harwell, is being sent to the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley where it is to be restored to working order. The computer, which was designed in 1949, was built and used by staff at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell, Oxfordshire. It first ran in 1951 and was designed to perform mathematical calculations. It lasted until 1973. When first built the 2.4m x 5m computer was state-of-the-art, although it was superseded by transistor-based systems. The restoration project is expected to take a year. Although not the first computer built in the UK, the Harwell had one of the longest service lives. Built by a team of three people, the device was capable of doing the work of six to ten people and ran for seven years until the establishment obtained their first commercial computer. 'We didn't think we were doing anything pioneering at the time,' said Dick Barnes, who helped build the original Harwell computer."

Comments

obligatory Simpsons quote

[Drakkenmensch]

"In the future, I predict computers will be twice as powerful, ten times larger and be so expensive only the five richest monarchs of Europe will be able to afford them." - Professor Frink

...finally!

[Stenchwarrior]

Once the computer is in working order it will be shipped to San Fransisco where the new Systems Admin will finally be able to sniff out that backdoor appliance.

A joke my Dad told...

[MickyTheIdiot]

Okay.. I know that the premise of this joke is totally wrpng and UK scientists were computing pioneers, but it reminds me my favorite joke my father ever told me:

Q: Why didn't the British never make a computer?
A: They couldn't figure out a way to make it leak oil.

(I think the joke is incorrect... probably on both counts).

Re:Vaccum Tubes?

[value_added]

I think many vacuum tubes are being manufactured in Russia right now, I know this from buying guitar amplifier tubes so I suspect that is where they will be sourced.

That does raise the question of whether a computer built with vacuum tubes gives mp3 files a warmer sound.

Or maybe not. ;-)

Modern Times

[casals]

"[...] the device was capable of doing the work of six to ten people [...]"

Interesting to see how it changes over time. Today, considering the majority of jobs, you either cut off social networking access or you'll need six to ten people to do the work of two or three.

Re:One word

[MrKaos]

Imagine a beowulf custer, it's easy if you try Idle time available, while calculating pi Imagine all the systems, we'd cluster today Imagine there's no OS wars, It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or ps for, And no zealotry too Imagine all the systems,computing their piece Whooo Hooo You may say that I'm a schema, But I'm a zero and a one I hope someday you'll join us, And the cluster will be as one Imagine divide by zero, I wonder if you can No need for greedy matching, A motherboard that can Imagine all the processes, Sharing memory You may say that I'm a schema, But I'm a zero and a one I hope someday you'll join us, And the cluster will be as one

With apologies to john Lennon