> unlike most 1970's microprocessors, the 8008 uses a complex carry-lookahead circuit to increase its performance. And around 1835 (some 180 years ago!), Charl

> unlike most 1970's microprocessors, the 8008 uses a complex carry-lookahead circuit to increase its performance. And around 1835 (some 180 years ago!), Charles Babbage created a design for a fully mechanical "Analytical Engine" with the complex "Anticipating Carriage." http://robroy.dyndns.info/collier/ch3.html http://robroy.dyndns.info/collier/ch3.html "This was a most important step in the evolution of the Analytical Engine, for" "there gradually emerged the notion of a central processing section in which the various arithmetical functions were to be carried out, distinct from the area where the numbers were stored when not being manipulated. The central processing unit Babbage later came to call the "Mill," and the other number columns he called collectively the "Store," this fundamental distinction of course still exists in current computer." Not to mention that he also designed a printer(!) and the punched card readers(!) to control his machine. The video that demonstrates the mechanism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2EDE8Srdcw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2EDE8Srdcw It was made by the author of a beautiful comics about Lovelace and Babbage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thrilling_Adventures_of_Lovelace_and_Babbage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thrilling_Adventures_of_Lo... Babbage was proud of his "Anticipating Carriage" mechanism, a huge change compared to his design of "Difference Engine" which had a serial carry which can be here seen moving from the position to the position (Babbage designed the engines to calculate with a lot of decimal places): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlbQsKpq3Ak&t=15m36s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlbQsKpq3Ak&t=15m36s