Britain’s Oldest Working Computer


	Britain’s Oldest Working Computer

EddieIsSteady

9-6-2009 4:19 PM

194 views

tags:

computers, technology, britain

1 Comment |

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9-6-2009 8:29 PM

lollipop10

Not exactly a laptop! That thing was a monster.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color:#ffff00;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/8e568f6c-64ec-4d09-b87f-55ca279fdc84/8E6793EA-D04B-49E9-B7FE-D010773A3D83/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/britan-oldest-computer/" href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/britan-oldest-computer/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.wired.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/britan-oldest-computer/">Britain’s Oldest Working Computer Roars to Life</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/britan-oldest-computer/"><DIV class="entryDescription"><UL><LI class="entryCategories"><A rel="category tag" title="View all posts in R&D and Inventions" href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/category/rd_and_inventions/"></A>                    </LI>
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				<P><A href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/09/harwell-witch-pb-s.jpg"><IMG width="660" height="512" alt="harwell-witch-pb-s" src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/09/harwell-witch-pb-s.jpg" title="harwell-witch-pb-s" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-23627" /></A></P></DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/britan-oldest-computer/"><P>The oldest original working computer in the U.K., which has been in storage for nearly 30 years, is getting restored to its former glory.</p> <P>The Harwell computer, also known as WITCH, is getting a second lease on life at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. The machine is the oldest surviving computer whose programs, as well as data, are stored electronically, according to the museum.</p> <P>The <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WITCH_%28computer%29">Harwell WITCH</A> is a relay-based machine that used 900 Dekatron gas-filled tubes, each of which could hold a single digit in memory. It has paper tape for both data input and program storage. The computer was used in the design of Britain’s first nuclear reactors. (Read more about the <A href="http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acl/literature/reports/p009.htm">computers used at Harwell in the 1940s and 1950s</A>.)</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/britan-oldest-computer/">Its promises for reliability over speed were certainly met</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/britan-oldest-computer/">The machine once ran for ten days unattended over a Christmas and New Year holiday period.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/britan-oldest-computer/"><P>
<A href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/09/witch-full.jpg"><IMG width="660" height="458" alt="witch-full" src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/09/witch-full.jpg" title="witch-full" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-23628" /></A></p> <P><A href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/09/witch-section.jpg"><IMG width="660" height="740" alt="witch-section" src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/09/witch-section.jpg" title="witch-section" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-23629" /></A></p> <P><A href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/09/witches.jpg"><IMG width="660" height="562" alt="witches" src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/09/witches.jpg" title="witches" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-23645" /></A></P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/britan-oldest-computer/">The picture above was taken in1964.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/britan-oldest-computer/"><A href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8236968.stm">video of the Harwell computer</A></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/8E6793EA-D04B-49E9-B7FE-D010773A3D83/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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