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A fun thing about this computer is that you see it (for free) every time you're in the Science Center at Harvard. You don't have to go to some special museum.

• sandworm101 7y ago
  But it wasn't actually a computer. It was technically just a calculator. The way it was designed meant that it was not the Turing-complete and/or von Neutmann-type machine that we now describe as a computer. It did some things very very well, but was not a general purpose machine capable of running any program asked of it.
  • commandlinefan 7y ago
    Well, it was still more than a calculator, since it was programmable: a calculator can add or subtract, but can't be instructed to do one and then the other without human intervention.
    • sandworm101 7y ago
      Yes and no. It is a programmable calculator, but it cannot run an unending program. It doesn't have the "go to X" functionality to bounce back and forth along a long tape of instructions. It can run a sequence of tasks, much like a player piano can, but eventually gets to the end of the program and is therefore limited. A proper computer can calculate anything. It might take trillions of years to complete some tasks, but a proper "computer" can run programs with no defined end. Calculators can only run sequences.
  • csours 7y ago
    You may know this, but for others: In the 1940s the word 'computer' would be more associated with a human performing computations (aka calculations) [0] 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_(job_description)#Wartime_computing_and_electronics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_(job_description)#War...
  • Finnucane 7y ago
    That does not compute.