The first device we would now call a computer was the steam-powered Analytical Engine, designed by British mathematician Charles Babbage in 1837.
But the first practical ELECTRONIC computer was the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) which was built at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in 1949.
It occupied 215 sq ft of floor space and could perform a then mind-boggling 650 commands a second. Nowadays, though, we laugh at such a figure as even the humble modern PC can perform 30 million calculations in the same space of time.
Now a replica of the EDSAC is to be built. The £250,000 replica will take up to four years to build at the museum in Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, the place which led the world in computer technology in the 1940s (the Japanese, Germans and Yanks would eventually catch up) and where the British decrypted the German Enigma and Lorenz machines during the War.
Memory space ... device needed own room
By RYAN SABEY
Published: 15 Jan 2011
The Sun
BOFFINS will rebuild the "great-grandad" of computers - a 6ft 6in British whopper 50,000 times slower than today's PCs.
The original 1949 machine could handle a revolutionary 650 commands a second.
Modern personal computers process around 30 million in the same time. But the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator solved maths problems 1,500 times faster than a desk-top calculator of the time and saved weeks of data entry. National Museum of Computing Director Kevin Murrell said: "This was Adam as far as modern computers are concerned - it was their great-grandfather.
"Most things in modern computers come from designs like EDSAC."
It occupied 215sq ft of floor space and used 3,000 valves - equivalent to one transistor. Modern laptops contain hundreds of millions of transistors.
But Stephen Fleming, of the Computer Conservation Society, said: "By performing 650 commands a second, EDSAC revolutionised computing."
It was created by a team led by Cambridge University Prof Sir Maurice Wilkes and first used on May 6, 1949, It was dismantled after nine years to make space for the much faster EDSAC 2. The £250,000 replica will take up to four years to build at the museum in Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire.
Making the modern world
Here's a list of the things GREAT Britain gave to the world: the tin can, Cat's Eyes for roads, cordite, the computer, corkscrews, crossword puzzles, depth charges, electromagnet, electric motor, fax machine, the world's first iron bridge, the jet engine, the kaleidoscope, the Kelvin scale, the lawnmower, the light bulb, logarithms, penicillin, periscope, pneumatic tyres (Dunlop), polyester, the postage stamp, powered flight (Percy Pilcher, 1899, four years before the Wright Brothers), radar, the rubber band, the practical screw propellor, the seed drill, the seismograph, the seismometer, the sewing machine, the steam engine, the thermos, the television, the telephone, the train, the ultrasound scanner, the US Navy (and the US itself), and the World Wide Web.
-r.sabey@the-sun.co.uk
thesun.co.uk
But the first practical ELECTRONIC computer was the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) which was built at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in 1949.
It occupied 215 sq ft of floor space and could perform a then mind-boggling 650 commands a second. Nowadays, though, we laugh at such a figure as even the humble modern PC can perform 30 million calculations in the same space of time.
Now a replica of the EDSAC is to be built. The £250,000 replica will take up to four years to build at the museum in Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, the place which led the world in computer technology in the 1940s (the Japanese, Germans and Yanks would eventually catch up) and where the British decrypted the German Enigma and Lorenz machines during the War.
Memory space ... device needed own room
By RYAN SABEY
Published: 15 Jan 2011
The Sun
BOFFINS will rebuild the "great-grandad" of computers - a 6ft 6in British whopper 50,000 times slower than today's PCs.
The original 1949 machine could handle a revolutionary 650 commands a second.
Modern personal computers process around 30 million in the same time. But the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator solved maths problems 1,500 times faster than a desk-top calculator of the time and saved weeks of data entry. National Museum of Computing Director Kevin Murrell said: "This was Adam as far as modern computers are concerned - it was their great-grandfather.
"Most things in modern computers come from designs like EDSAC."
It occupied 215sq ft of floor space and used 3,000 valves - equivalent to one transistor. Modern laptops contain hundreds of millions of transistors.
But Stephen Fleming, of the Computer Conservation Society, said: "By performing 650 commands a second, EDSAC revolutionised computing."
It was created by a team led by Cambridge University Prof Sir Maurice Wilkes and first used on May 6, 1949, It was dismantled after nine years to make space for the much faster EDSAC 2. The £250,000 replica will take up to four years to build at the museum in Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire.
Making the modern world
Here's a list of the things GREAT Britain gave to the world: the tin can, Cat's Eyes for roads, cordite, the computer, corkscrews, crossword puzzles, depth charges, electromagnet, electric motor, fax machine, the world's first iron bridge, the jet engine, the kaleidoscope, the Kelvin scale, the lawnmower, the light bulb, logarithms, penicillin, periscope, pneumatic tyres (Dunlop), polyester, the postage stamp, powered flight (Percy Pilcher, 1899, four years before the Wright Brothers), radar, the rubber band, the practical screw propellor, the seed drill, the seismograph, the seismometer, the sewing machine, the steam engine, the thermos, the television, the telephone, the train, the ultrasound scanner, the US Navy (and the US itself), and the World Wide Web.
-r.sabey@the-sun.co.uk
thesun.co.uk