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EDSAC Computer To Be Rebuilt
nk497 writes with this bit from PCPro: "The first working stored-program computer is set to be rebuilt at Bletchley Park, home to the UK's National Museum of Computing. The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator ran its first programme in 1949, and was two metres high. Its 3,000 vacuum tubes took up four metres of floor space, and it could perform 650 instructions per second. All data input was via paper tape. The EDSAC used mercury-filled tubes for memory, but in the interests of safety, the replica will use an alternative non-toxic substance. Rebuilding it will take four years, and the public can visit to watch the work as it happens."
Can in run Linux???
Or Linux for that matter...
The war will have been lost to Jerry by then!
I dunno, but in 1949 they were already ... half a dozen at least that would fit into this characteristic.
The oldest coming into my mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z1_(computer)
while mechanical and being a bit unreliable due to being handmade from scrap metal... still fits into the description.
Mark I and others also should be noted, in 1949 it was definitely not the first...
Should have been enough for anybody. I bet it could calculate my tax return in the time it takes me to log in to gnome.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
In fact Alan Turing himself pointed out that a mixture of alcohol and water would do the job as well as mercury (he wanted to use gin.) Perhaps "Mercury delay line" just sounded more techie to the Civil Service.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
The first stored program computer was the Manchester Baby
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Small-Scale_Experimental_Machine
Actually the code that is run on the minimalistic instruction set reminds more to BrainFuck then to anything resembling a OS.
I was at Bletchley Park a couple of months ago and by chance the National Museum of Computing was open that day. They've got some interesting displays of old computers, and their goal is to get them all running again. They cover everything between EDSAC and modern computers. Their oldest computer is a Harwell WITCH from 1951 (a decimal computer), this is being restored at the moment. Other fun stuff includes a collection of calculators, and a BBC micro with a working BBC Domesday Project laserdisc installation.
It's a separate museum on the Bletchley Park grounds, and its opening times are a bit limited (esp. in winter), so check before you go.
... the rebuilding of the rebuilding of the Mark 1: http://www.computer50.org/mark1/index.html
:)
There's a simulator here if you want to do some old-school coding http://www.davidsharp.com/baby/
(The whole abortion was replaced with a small PCB containing mercury-wetted relays, which contain only tiny amounts of mercury - the electrician who built the panel didn't know the difference when he resd the spec.)
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
A GIGO story that RISKS readers may find interesting...
A couple months ago, FedEx failed to deliver a package to my house three
times in a row because no one was home.
Using the door tag they left for us, I contacted them and asked them to hold
the package at a FedEx location near my office.
I went there with a picture ID and asked for the package. The told me, "That
package isn't addressed to [my house number] [my street]. It's addressed to
[my house number+1] [my street], and the name on it doesn't match your ID."
Yes, that's right, the FedEx driver had attempted to deliver the package to
the wrong house three times in a row. I pointed out the erroneous delivery
attempts and told him he'd better make sure the package was redelivered to
the correct address. He said he'd take care of it.
Meanwhile, the intended recipient of the package called FedEx to find out
what had happened to her package. They informed her that they had made three
failed delivery attempts, followed by an attempt to hold the package for
pickup which failed because the person who came to get it did not have a
valid picture ID, so they had no choice but to return the package to its
sender. The fact that the delivery attempts were made to the wrong house was
not mentioned.
She argued at length with several people, telling each of them that there
had been no delivery attempts to her house, that she had not asked for the
package to be held anywhere, and that if she had, she would have had a valid
picture ID, so clearly whoever asked for the package to be held wasn't
her. They all insisted they could not deliver the package, but she did
finally convince one of them to give her the phone number of the person who
made the hold request (i.e., me).
We are passing acquaintances, so she recognized my phone number. She called
me and asked what was up, and I told her what had happened.
Armed with that additional information, she called FedEx back. She spoke to
several people who were apologetic and sympathetic and yet at the same time
insistent that there was nothing they could do. Since the computer said
there were three failed delivery attempts and a failed hold attempt, they
simply could not redeliver the package. No one seemed to have any idea how
to tell the computer that the delivery attempts had been to the wrong
address. Either that, or they were unwilling to do so (didn't want to get a
driver in trouble? didn't want to damage the performance statistics for
their location?).
Finally, she got a supervisor to agree to deliver the package. He brought it
over to her house in his own car, out of uniform, late that night, i.e.,
completely outside the system. One cannot help but wonder what FedEx's
computer says about the package now. Alas, I neglected to save the tracking
number so I can't find out.
A possibly related fact is that when the package was finally delivered, it
was all beaten up and had been broken open and patched up in transit,
despite the fact that it was in a brand new box when sent.
I contacted FedEx's executive complaints office by email several weeks ago
and asked them to comment on how this happened and whether supervisors
delivering packages late at night in their own cars is standard operating
procedure for FedEx. I got no response.
The geek in me says this is a cool project. The realist in me says there is not much gained here by making the machine fully functional and the money for four years of work could be used to work on something more valuable. Is there really anything to learn here other than how good the machinists were back in the day?
AC for Karma preservation.
At a guess, finding enough of the required types of valves (aka "tubes" in other languages) is a time consuming activity
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
I love the fact that there is a common desire to preserve our historic technological achievements.
Working reproductions of dying / dead machines are a great learning tool -- We are all truly standing on the shoulders of giants today.
I feel that efforts such as rebuilding the EDSAC are in the same vein as those that would create emulators for our out of production computers and video game systems as a cheap way to preserve the past.
What good is the EDSAC or an Emulator without a sampling of the programs the systems used to run? Surely different people would attribute different degrees of importance to different programs -- Thankfully digital storage is abundant and cheap enough that we are capable of preserving entire catalogs of programs.
Notice however, that the more relevant, beneficial and useful a replica or emulator is, the more illegal it is to produce due to patents and copyrights.
I fear that if the current copyright laws could be enforced absolutely, we stand to loose important parts of our history and culture for no other reason but greed. Given the long terms of copyright, it's a safe assumption that much of our digital heritage could decay and be lost before it's legal to reproduce it -- Even under good conditions CDs, Magnetic and Solid State Drives will all fail before 70 years after the author's life has elapsed.
I'm very wary of DRM and the DMCA -- Today we can recreate past works to better understand the significance of the shoulders on which we stand; Tomorrow we may find ourselves searching for footing that has long since crumbled away.
In fact Alan Turing himself pointed out that a mixture of alcohol and water would do the job as well as mercury (he wanted to use gin.) .
Turing failed to include a dash of Angostura . . . with enough alcohol, the computer can shoot shit out, but everyone is too trashed to give a damn.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
The method of storage in the Baby - a static charge used to represent 1 or 0 - proved to be the most effective form of storage for RAM (as static and dynamic CMOS) and is becoming more and more of a competitor for hard drives. Though CRT memory was short lived, in the long run Williams proved to be right. The Baby was prescient.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
"The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator ran its first programme in 1949, and was two metres high"
Which also happens to be the height of a killer robot. Coincidence? I don't think so.
they have an app for that.
Barely.
We'd have the mind-numbing processing power to get my garage door open, and one less US state.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
It's great to see that EDSAC will be rebuilt! I wonder if Maurice Wilkes, the project leader, was told before he passed away just this last November? He was probably the last of the "first generation" computer pioneers to pass away. Several slashdot stories of his passing were submitted, but I don't think it ever made the main page. At least he can get his props here now.
Can no one look up and confirm well-known facts? Heck, this stuff is still within living memory. The article claims that EDSAC was the "first working stored-program computer" and that is just wrong.
The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine [often known as "Baby"] was the first stored-program computer, not EDSAC. Baby was operational on June 1948; EDSAC didn't run anything until May 1949. Please don't play semantics with the word "working"; Baby worked, and in any case, all of these early computers were wimpy if you measure by storage or speed. EDSAC is important in computer history - don't take anything away from THAT - but let's get the facts right.
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
So.... hamsters?
Anybody want a peanut?
I'm guessing the decision was not based on safety but practicality.
A sealed tube of mercury is not a significant safety hazard in a one off application like this machine. There are an awful lot of wall thermostats out there with sealed glass bulbs of mercury in them.
The EU has regulations on RoHs (Reduction of Hazardous substances) that apply to electronics. It's likely it just would have been too much paperwork hassle to get an exception.
I'll bet for similar reasons the solder they use in connecting it will be lead free.
Besides, if they used gin, like Turing wanted, it'd definitely be extra geek points.
... since LEO, the first commercial business computer, was based on the EDSAC design. Amazingly LEO computers were still in use in 1981. Check out the LEO Computers Society.
Andrew Yeomans
Edsac was not the first stored program digital computer.
Konrad Zuse's Z3 was running in 1941... turing complete, vacuum tubes, and all.
Stupid safety theater. People all over the world sit RIGHT UNDERNEATH mercury-filled tubes. They're called fluorescent lighting.
Do these tubes explode spontaneously or something? Maybe they should give everyone eye protection and breathing apparatuses.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
As mentioned elsewhere, the Baby was the testbed for EDSAC -- you could think of it as "EDSAC Lite". but it WAS a computer in its own right, so let's keep shaming the submitter and editors ;)
Also of interest is the 1949 CSIR Mark 1 (CSIRAC), which is held at the Museum of Victoria in Melbourne (unfortunately no longer on display). Because of its historical value, there is no intention to restore it to working order.
I'd love to visit Bletchley Park one day though if I'm ever on that side of the world.