Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: UK, Oldest, Harwell, Computer, WITCH | Themes: Desktop Computers, Business
The world's first electronic computer, the Colossus Mk II, will finally get a neighbor as work will begin this week to restore the oldest "original functioning electronic stored program" computer, the historic Harwell / WITCH computer. Volunteers of The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) will move the beast to the museum grounds and restore it to its full working condition according to this press release.
TNMOC, a registered charity, is asking members of the public and industry to donate funds to the year-long restoration project by purchasing one of 25 shares at £4500 each (roughly $7400 USD). TNMOC will use the funds to not only restore the computer, but extend the "ever-expanding" museum. Insight Software has already signed on as the project's first sponsor.
According to the PR, the Harwell Computer dates back to its original inception in 1949. The machine was intended to automate the calculations performed by a team of graduates using mechanical calculators. Rather than built for fast processing, the Harwell Computer was designed to be simple, reliable, and attendant free. The computer originally booted up in 1951, and remained operational until 1957.
"The machine was a relay-based computer using 900 Dekatron gas-filled tubes that could each hold a single digit in memory--similar to RAM in a modern computer--and paper tape for both input and program storage," explained Kevin Murrell, a director and trustee of TNMOC. "Its promises for reliability over speed were certainly met – it was definitely the tortoise in the tortoise and the hare fable. In a race with a human mathematician using a mechanical calculator, the human kept pace for 30 minutes, but then had to retire exhausted as the machine carried on remorselessly. The machine once ran for ten days unattended over a Christmas/New Year holiday period."
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But can it run Crysis?
seriously... This guy only had stamina enough to use a calculator for 30 mins?
"In a race with a human mathematician using a mechanical calculator, the human kept pace for 30 minutes, but then had to retire exhausted as the machine carried on remorselessly."
Recycle that old POS, build 10000 new PC cases from it.
But can it run Crysis?
lol... um no.
It can hardly calculate the tax for the purchase of the game.
It is very nice as an antique, but putting all that money to revive it is a complete waste!
Lol, I knew someone would ask something about Crysis.
But can it run Crysis?
Hell, it can't even SPELL Crysis. Still, it's kinda cool to keep stuff like this running for posterity. As fast as the computer is evolving, it would be like going to a museum and seeing an exhibit with actual, living neaderthals.
OMFG i am soooo overclocking that shit!
I'm impressed it could run for 10 days. I doubt the average user's Windows install can last that long without a reboot.
seriously... This guy only had stamina enough to use a calculator for 30 mins?"In a race with a human mathematician using a mechanical calculator, the human kept pace for 30 minutes, but then had to retire exhausted as the machine carried on remorselessly."Recycle that old POS, build 10000 new PC cases from it.
He's using a mechanical calculator (they didn't have those fancy pocket calculators at the time), working furiously to keep up. And I think that even if he could keep going another half hour, there was little reason to do so, the conclusions would be the same.
It is very nice as an antique, but putting all that money to revive it is a complete waste!
Agreed. Also I don't even want to know how much power that thing must consume.
Agreed. Also I don't even want to know how much power that thing must consume.
If I owned it... it would be a Case mod for my more modern super computer/main-frame. I would show people the beast and then wow them when they see it run Crysis
I applaud the preservation of our digital heritage!
But can it run Crysis?
Even if it did have the processing power, playing on ticker tape would prove rather difficult. I mean, my graphing calculator would be 100 times more suited for Crysis! At least it has some form of screen...
Someday Crysis-ready computers will be a waste and we will see some of our modded computers in a museum. There's gonna be other people in that year and they will ask ( Can it play some badass-uber demanding graphics game?). Hell our computers are going to be total joke.
Super computers from 10 years ago are a joke compared to what sit on our desktop, for that matter even the iphone.
They should move that computer from museums to museums so the people and children could see what computers are like years before they are born.
Hell, it can't even SPELL Crysis. Still, it's kinda cool to keep stuff like this running for posterity. As fast as the computer is evolving, it would be like going to a museum and seeing an exhibit with actual, living neaderthals.
Guys, the "Can it run Crysis" thing is a joke. Chill down a bit, no need to take it so seriously and literally.
So... If its running, what would it be calculating? Museum attendance?
Yeah it can run Crysis, i just tested it with windows `51
Just put a glowing soft light bulb behind the panel. for the oooh ahhh effect.
I wonder where the ENIAC (first fully Turing-complete) vacuum-tube computer is nowadays... It took up the space of a small gym and used 150KW of power, and a speed of something like 5000 instructions per second. In contrast, the Intel 8088 used just a few watts and could execute over 330K IPS.
But IIRC the ENIAC was by far the biggest leap forward of all time - something like a thousand times the performance of its immediate predecessor which used electro-mechanical relays instead of vacuum tubes.
Sweet keep it going....
I get putting it in a museum. But why restore it to working function. It has no function anymore, even if lights flash and wheels twirl, it still has no function if its 'working' or not.
I get putting it in a museum. But why restore it to working function. It has no function anymore, even if lights flash and wheels twirl, it still has no function if its 'working' or not.
It has plenty of function, granted it's not usable in scociety today as mroe than a nostalgia , epice , but it can alwasy go fort eh world's largest calculator
i ran crysis on it. at the highest res too.
Well demon.. They think of history as you so obviously think of english.
Super computers from 10 years ago are a joke compared to what sit on our desktop, for that matter even the iphone.
Not really. I remember about 15 years ago when I was visiting an Amiga computer club where they got heaps of old supercomputers and workstations. One thing that impressed me was that a computer from the beginning of the '80s was as fast as a modern Pentium MMX 200MHz. During the early '90s MIPS released 64-bit superscalar CPUs known as R10000 featuring up to 4MB cache per core, which were found in $500000 Silicon Graphics workstations. And I'm quite sure DEC and SUN released some quite impressive CPUs by that time (such as SPARC and Alpha). And we all know how long it has taken before the 64-bit architecture reached the consumer market.
Maybe the 10-years-old hardware doesn't compete with the top-of-the line gadgets we have today but they sure ain't a joke. As a matter of fact you can buy those million dollar servers second-hand for a price that matches the price of new hardware with similar performance minus tear and wear, and they sure ain't cheap although they don't cost millions as they used to.
LETS TROW AWAY MONEY INTO OLD TECHNOLOGY FOR USELESSNESS FUCKS
FUCK YEAH AMERIKKKA
I think an Atom CPU is more energy efficient
There is always a debate about how many resources we put into keeping our history alive.
I think an Atom CPU is more energy efficient
maybe a little