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Comments: 153 +- Hardware: UK's Oldest Computer To Be "Rebooted" on Thursday September 03, @08:40AM
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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When first built the 2.4m x 5m computer was state-of-the-art, although it was superseded by transistor-based systems.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."
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obligatory Simpsons quote (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory Bill Gates misquotation (Score:2, Funny)
64 vacuum tubes ought to be enough for anyone.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm more interested in having it emulated in MESS [mess.org].
One word (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:One word (Score:5, Funny)
With apologies to john Lennon
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Who modded this offtopic? Stonehenge is seriously claimed by some to be the UK's oldest computer.
...finally! (Score:4, Funny)
hindsight (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:hindsight (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:hindsight (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd say the biggest change since those days boils down to a single word....price. My first computer was a VIC20 [mainbyte.com] which as you can see by the specs had a whopping 5k of RAM, and a whole 1MHz CPU. With the addons I paid close to $600 for it, and just recently I built a new machine for myself with dual 2500! MHZ CPUs, 8Gb of RAM (which is bigger than my first 4 HDDs put together) and nearly 1Tb of storage, all for a little less than I payed for the VIC. Even the smallest convenience store has computerized checkouts, and checking out of Walgreen's the other day I noticed they had MP3 players with larger storage than my first 2 HDDs for a whopping $15.
When you add to this the lifespan of computers nowadays (I am typing this on a circa 2000 1.1GHz Celery Win2K PC that I use as a netbox) it has made truly incredible amounts of computing available to the masses. The rise of "cheap computing" has done more to shake things up than any particular CPU or other hardware released IMHO. Just the sheer amount of power folks get today is just insane, and the ability for anyone, no matter how much or little they make, still just blows my mind. Anyone today can have a PC powerful enough for desktop publishing, running mailing lists, pretty much any job the average Joe would ever care to do for little to no money (I often refurb older machines to give away and have a couple of 500Mhz boxes running mailing lists for local churches) has really changed things.
In my youth computers were strictly for the hackers and those with the serious cash required to buy something with a GUI. Machines were expensive, proprietary as hell, hard to use, and often had to be programmed from scratch. Now even my nearly 70 Luddite father uses a laptop so he can "read the paper" using the wireless network I set up for him while he watches his NCIS from the couch. The amount of freeware and FOSS out there is just astounding, and there are literally thousands upon thousands of choices, from software to hardware, hell thanks to Linux and the BSDs even OSes. Maybe I'm just getting old and easily impressed in my advancing years, but if you would have told me that I'd have my oldest designing new levels for three dimensional video games on my hand me downs back then I'd have told you that you were insane, not just because of the kid. The amount of processing power we take for granted today or even pass down to our relatives when we get new toys to play with is just unreal, and that I think has changed the way we live more than anything else IMHO.
Parent
Vaccum Tubes? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Vaccum Tubes? (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Parent
Re:Vaccum Tubes? (Score:5, Funny)
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. ;-)
Parent
Re: (Score:3)
Sure, once the tubes are at operating temperature...
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
There are still plently of places in the UK that make these, admittedly most of the ones i know are hand-made for guitar amplifiers but they most certainly are made in the UK.
Re:Vaccum Tubes from Russia (Score:2)
Better watch out for trojans and backdoors in those tubes put there by the Russians, in case this computer were ever to be used against them in a war.
Re: (Score:2)
How much will they cost?
There is no greater wealth than wisdom, no greater poverty than ignorance; no greater heritage than culture and no greater support than consultation
Re:Vaccum Tubes? (Score:5, Interesting)
the thing uses dekatrons (ten cathode tube where pulse on guide electrode next to a cathode makes conduction jump to next cathode), which though not produced anymore are widely available. A computer made from them is much like a mechanical cash register with counting wheels. they are used by many hobbyists for clocks and other counting applications. no problem getting them
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Shutting down older hardware... bad idea. (Score:5, Informative)
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.
You are entirely correct (Score:5, Informative)
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?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
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?
Pedant note: The term "cypher" is not a meaningful synonym for argot, cliche, neologism, colloquialism, expression, jargon, localism, newspeak, parlance, phrase, or vernacular (among others).
That's not to say slipping in other people's mud isn't forgivable. ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
This was rediscovered by the US (ENIAC) in 1946 , those people at Bletchley Park discovered this and built a computer using the idea of not turning them off in 1943 ...Wartime Official secrets stopped them telling anyone ....
The hardware people who discovered this were the Post Office (Telecoms) who used tubes for switching and knew the pitfalls ...
A joke my Dad told... (Score:5, Funny)
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:A joke my Dad told... (Score:5, Insightful)
A: They couldn't figure out a way to make it leak oil.
And that's a bad thing?
My first car was a 2-seater Triumph convertible. It suffered from electrical system problems, leaking hydraulics, and when it rained, the top would leak (even if you managed to snap all the buttons downs correctly). But was it fun! Wind through my hair, wet shoulders, the smell of hydraulic fluid dripping on my left shoe, being pulled over and cited for "overcrowding" when I had more than 3 passengers in the car ...
The cars I've owned since have all been what you'd call dependable if not "top of the line", but I can't remember a single interesting about them.
Parent
Re:A joke my Dad told... (Score:4, Interesting)
My mother owned a Jaguar X-type from 2002 or so. I once read a review of it (this one [automotive.com], I think) and they made exactly this point:
There was a time not long ago when Jaguars were stunningly beautiful, fantastic driving cars that were known to be fragile and unreliable. Jaguars were sexy but leaked oil. Jaguars were luxurious and emotional, but their windows often failed to go up or down. Jaguars were invigorating to drive but could leave you stranded on a cold morning.
This Jaguar, the X-Type, is the opposite of those great Jags of the past. This car trades those wonderful qualities that made Jaguars cars to lust after and has replaced them with the bland reliability that makes Toyotas cars to lust after....
Maybe we'd like it better if it leaked.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Are there really people here who don't get the joke?
Yes. But don't worry: I'm getting off your lawn.
UK's oldest computer? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:UK's oldest computer? (Score:5, Informative)
The Harwell is still in one piece, the Colossus no longer exists (the Colossus at Bletchly is a replica). Also, the Harwell is a stored program computer (like all modern computers), Colossus isn't.
Parent
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Original Punch Cards too? (Score:2, Interesting)
For many of the younger generations of developers who don't know anything about these machines, it would be quite something to show them how the original developers used to work. It will also show how far we have advanced.
primitive pr0n (Score:3, Interesting)
We didn't think we were doing anything pioneering at the time
Yeah, that's what the ASCII art inventors and the creators of GIF at CompuServ said.
What? (Score:2)
UK's Oldest Computer To Be "Rebooted"
Although not the first computer built in the UK
How could it be the UK's oldest computer if it wasn't the first computer built in the UK?
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe the older ones are "dead"
Re:What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oldest surviving computer, perhaps ?
Parent
Re:What? (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Parent
Re:What? (Score:4, Informative)
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
Parent
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Because "One of UK's oldest" or "UK's second oldest" just aren't sexy enough for headlines.
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The "older" computers have all been dismantled and the ones in museums are all replicas
the Colossus MkI was upgraded to MkII
All the MkII's were deliberately destroyed, except one, and that was thrown away by the secret services (who were using it)
the Manchester M1's were all dismantled years ago.
Nobody thinks heritage is important until it is old, and these early computers did not survive being obsolete long enough to get old and thought to be worth keeping, the ENIAC was for years thought to the the worlds
Modern Times (Score:4, Funny)
"[...] 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.
computer, versus stored program computer, versus.. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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I don't care. Cold-cathode Dekatrons are how everything should be stored!
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WEll, I agree, they're cool looking. But to have your computing speed be limited by the de-ionization time of a gas is less than thrilling. You think a VAX-750 with ten users was slow.... :)
Re: (Score:2)
Given enough tape and enough time it is a universal Turing machine, so it can emulate any computer ... slowly ....
Even ENIAC was a Turing machine and so could run anything ....it would be even slower and more cumbersome but could still run Linux!
If you read the details then you will see that they left it running unattended over Christmas and the New year once and it did a lot of calculations in that time ... not just a "simple" loop ...
Any machine that is Turing complete is a computer,
Turing (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, it's funny how that happens when you persecute your best people.
I guess this was '49. But still. These guys are getting media attention while Turing rots in his grave.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
He's in a grave. Is he not supposed to rot?
Live in the past.. (Score:2)
It's cheaper!
And besides, the red Chinese invented the computer 3,000 years ago.
Mathematical Calculations? No way! (Score:2)
From the summary:
Is there any computer that was designed to do anything else?
Well, yes (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
On a related note... (Score:2, Funny)
Micro$oft recently released Harwell OS 7, which uses all of the available registers to create a waving M$ flag using the Harwell's front panel lights. Unfortunately, it has since been determined that the new OS really requires two Harwell computers wired in a parallel configuration to perform adequately. The M$ product manager for the Harwell OS stated: "The hardware requirements on the side of the box clearly state that one Harwell computer is the MINIMUM requirement, not the optimum configuration."