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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When first built the 2.4m x 5m computer was state-of-the-art, although it was superseded by transistor-based systems.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."
"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
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.
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This is why the article we had yesterday, which argued that technological growth is slowing down, was a total hogwash. Technological growth is speeding up! What is constant is our inability to recognize great technological advancement except in hindsight.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
The article is extremely light on details. Where are they going to get vaccum tubes or other antiquated apparatuses from? How much will they cost?
I've found that for older hardware that is running fine 24x7, the worst thing is to shut it down. It invariably fails to start up again.
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).
I thought that Colossus would take this title? Not only is it older and British, but it's also (I'm told) the World's oldest electronic computer.
"[...] 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.
AT &F1DT0,T0800665544 - Real men, real help desk support.
Oldest surviving computer, perhaps ?
Squirrel!
It seems to be predated in the UK by at least ENIAC, EDSAC and Baby, though not by a long time.
I can't find anything written about it that implies anything particularly special about it that would allow it to be "first" in a given area.
There's the problem of deciding what's a real computer-- do you include things that can crunch numbers, but have a hard-wired program, or have a program, but it's on a loop of paper tape, or have a program, but it's wired onto a plugboard. The Harwell machine is programmable, but the program is on a loop of paper tape, making anything other than one simple loop very problematical.
Also its data storage is in a few cold-cathode Dekatrons, which are basically overachieving neon lights. They limit the counting-up speed to about 20,000 increments per second, just barely in the electronic realm, and much slower than anything using real vacuum tubes. And it uses a lot of mechanical relays, further limiting its speed and making it a very marginal computer in any modern sense of the word.
With apologies to john Lennon
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Pedant note: although "all the time" or "always on" have more letters than "24x7", they are quicker to say and more meaningful. Why do we have this horrible cypher?
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Early data processing machines (like Hollerith card analysers) were designed to perform select and sort operations which they did using logical functions, but they did not do calculations. You wanted to know who in a brigade had a particular skill, you fed in the punched cards for the brigade, and the output stack delivered the ones whose holes coincided with the setup. Colossus was intended to do code breaking by high speed (for the time) data processing, but it did not do general purpose calculation. So yes, this is a meaningful distinction.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
It was built in 1951 and used for teaching until 1973, and then donated to a museum, it is the earliest surviving British computer
All the earlier ones (Colossus, Manchester M1 etc.. ) were destroyed, dismantled, or lost, just like their American counterparts (ENIAC etc ..)
The earlier ones you can see in museums are all only parts, or reconstructions, this is a complete and when restored potentially working computer
Puteulanus fenestra mortis