6 ms·

How the World’s First Computer Was Rescued From the Scrap Heap

64 points by ghosh 12y ago

snooze82 12y ago
ENIAC? Zuse Z3!
- frtab 12y ago
  Zuse Z3? Babbage's Analytical Engine!
  - VLM 12y ago
    "Babbage's Analytical Engine!" First computer not first vaporware
  - Hermel 12y ago
    The Z3 was the first operational turing-complete computer (May 1941, a few years before ENIAC). Babbage's analytical engine was never actually built.
    - CmonDev 12y ago
      For me, as a software developer, it's about detailed design rather than implementation. 1837-s design is much more impressive than 1941-s implementation (100+ years later - you'd better build something with all that time).
- cabalamat 12y ago
  I thought it would be about the Analytical Engine.
  - Malic 12y ago
    Funny, I was expecting the Antikythera mechanism.
    - CmonDev 12y ago
      Antikythera is not Turing-complete unlike the brain. So which prehistoric creature did they resurrect?
joe_fishfish 12y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer
- tankenmate 12y ago
  An although it is only a replica the Colossus at Bletchley Park actually functions, unlike the ENIAC restoration. Also of note is that by the end of the war the GC&CS had 10 working Colossi.
  - rst 12y ago
    And the same museum at Bletchley Park (there are two) is building a functioning replica of the EDSAC, one of the first programmable, fully electronic computers: http://www.tnmoc.org/special-projects/edsac http://www.tnmoc.org/special-projects/edsac (Whether EDSAC was "the first" depends on how you define "computer", and what you think it means for a machine to be in operation, among other things, but it's one of several plausible claimants. The Z3, cited elsewhere here, was a programmable computer, but not fully electronic -- there was a lot of relay circuitry, which kept the clock rate down to about 10 Hz.) From the title, I was honestly expecting the article to be about this project instead.
onestone 12y ago
Atanasoff-Berry computer (1939) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_comput...
aidos 12y ago
Nice! Slightly OT but reminded me of an article from HN from a couple of years ago about old(er) computers that are still in operation so I've reposted it [0] for those who missed it last time around. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8657823 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8657823
davidw 12y ago
> Gleason realized early on that he couldn’t make his portion of ENIAC run actual calculations—such an endeavor would require all 40 panels, not to mention thousands of new components and technical know-how that had long been forgotten. But he resolved to make the computer at least appear like it was hard at work figuring out the best flight paths for howitzer shells. That's a bit disappointing. I guess it's nice you can at least see it though.
bachback 12y ago
Time to correct the record: the World's first electronic, programmable computer was build by a German by the name of Konrad Zuse in May 1941 [1] called Z3 [2]. He designed a language for it called Plankalkül [3]. Eniac was announced in 1946. Incidentally Turing wanted to be build one in 1945, called Electronic Brain. His paper "on computable numbers" was published in 1936. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_%28computer%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_%28computer%29 [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl
- bachback 12y ago
  see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculating_Space http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculating_Space http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/digitalphysics.html http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/digitalphysics.html
- 1ris 12y ago
  The German wikipedia has a nice overview over early compuers. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC#Vergleich_mit_anderen_fr.C3.BChen_Computern https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC#Vergleich_mit_anderen_fr... Name operating since Floating Point Binary Eletric Programmable Turingcomplete Zuse Z3 May 1941 yes yes no yes yes Atanasoff-Berry Summer 1941 no yes yes no no Colossus 1943 no yes yes with rewiring no Mark I 1944 no no no punch cards yes Zuse Z4 March 1944 yes yes no punch cards yes ENIAC 1946 no no yes with rewiring yes ENIAC 1948 no no yes with a resistor matrix yes
- masklinn 12y ago
  The Z3 was electromechanical (it used relays) not electronic.
- 12y ago
rootbear 12y ago
I just saw some ENIAC panels at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA and I'm hoping to visit the Moore School of Engineering in Philadelphia soon to see the parts they have. Now I'll have to visit Oklahoma and see the restored portion they have. (I've also got cousins there, so that's another reason to go.) I'm a big fan of ENIAC and the other early computers. As for "first", I don't think any computer should be called out as the first, each of them contributed something to the machines we have today.
flurdy 12y ago
Eniac? Z3? It was Baby! http://www.computer50.org/mark1/new.baby.html http://www.computer50.org/mark1/new.baby.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Mark_1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Mark_1 Disclaimer: University of Manchester Alumni
- mnw21cam 12y ago
  It is no small source of acrimony in the University of Cambridge that Manchester beat them to the first stored-program computer by one month with the Baby. However, once the Baby had been demonstrated, it was promptly dismantled, leaving Cambridge's EDSAC with the title of the world's first practical stored-program computer. The EDSAC was then used for nine years at the Mathematical Laboratory before being shut down in favour of the EDSAC 2. Back when I was doing my degree, the 50th anniversary of the EDSAC came around, and we were given a project of creating a simulator for the machine. This we did, even including the rather interesting sound that the original machine made from a loudspeaker connected across the main mercury delay line. Yes, RAM was implemented as a long tube of mercury with sound pulses travelling down it and fed back into the beginning again.
  - hga 12y ago
    The Whirlwind Project seriously considered using a microwave "delay line", a round trip microwave connection a long distance across the state of Massachusetts. Ended up using Williams tubes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube) as did the Mark 1 and a number of other early computers (their random access had an advantage over delay lines), and eventually invented 3D magnetic core memory.
    - Someone 12y ago
      It has also been proposed to use a laser and one of the reflectors on the moon. That would give you a 300,000 km storage line. That proposal wasn't serious, though, if only because it is a challenge to keep that reflector in your field of view. Another impractical delay line, but with variable delay, is the internet. You can hide some bits in a DNS request or in a Google search.
arethuza 12y ago
I always thought that the first machine that was really a "computer" in the modern sense (i.e. stored program) was the Manchester "Baby": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Small-Scale_Experimental_Machine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Small-Scale_Experime...
BuildTheRobots 12y ago
Sorry for not joining the positivity parade, but taking the control panels, repainting them and then wiring up the lights to blink in pretty ways seems substantially wrong in a number of ways... I guess "resurrected" is being used in the "brain dead and slightly rotten body" zombie sense of the word :(
troymc 12y ago
It seems we've unearthed a good nerd-sniping [1] question for readers of HN: "What was the first computer?" [1] http://xkcd.com/356/ http://xkcd.com/356/
userbinator 12y ago
If anyone is interested in the workings of ENIAC at the circuit level this is an interesting read: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Knuth_Don_X4100/PDF_index/k-8-pdf/k-8-r5367-1-ENIAC-circuits.pdf http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Knuth_Don_...
ChuckMcM 12y ago
A front panel from a computer with artificially animated lights is the 'taxidermy deer head on a plaque' of the old computer world.
Animats 12y ago
The ENIAC panels at the Smithsonian were at one time powered up, with a functional counter. There was a little control box on a stand where you could push some buttons and watch it count. But they had to power it down decades ago. For the fiftieth anniversary, they powered it up briefly.

64 points by ghosh 12y ago

snooze82 12y ago

ENIAC? Zuse Z3!

frtab 12y ago
Zuse Z3? Babbage's Analytical Engine!
- VLM 12y ago
  "Babbage's Analytical Engine!" First computer not first vaporware
- Hermel 12y ago
  The Z3 was the first operational turing-complete computer (May 1941, a few years before ENIAC). Babbage's analytical engine was never actually built.
  - CmonDev 12y ago
    For me, as a software developer, it's about detailed design rather than implementation. 1837-s design is much more impressive than 1941-s implementation (100+ years later - you'd better build something with all that time).
cabalamat 12y ago
I thought it would be about the Analytical Engine.
- Malic 12y ago
  Funny, I was expecting the Antikythera mechanism.
  - CmonDev 12y ago
    Antikythera is not Turing-complete unlike the brain. So which prehistoric creature did they resurrect?

joe_fishfish 12y ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer

tankenmate 12y ago
An although it is only a replica the Colossus at Bletchley Park actually functions, unlike the ENIAC restoration. Also of note is that by the end of the war the GC&CS had 10 working Colossi.
- rst 12y ago
  And the same museum at Bletchley Park (there are two) is building a functioning replica of the EDSAC, one of the first programmable, fully electronic computers: http://www.tnmoc.org/special-projects/edsac http://www.tnmoc.org/special-projects/edsac (Whether EDSAC was "the first" depends on how you define "computer", and what you think it means for a machine to be in operation, among other things, but it's one of several plausible claimants. The Z3, cited elsewhere here, was a programmable computer, but not fully electronic -- there was a lot of relay circuitry, which kept the clock rate down to about 10 Hz.) From the title, I was honestly expecting the article to be about this project instead.

onestone 12y ago

Atanasoff-Berry computer (1939) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_comput...

aidos 12y ago

Nice! Slightly OT but reminded me of an article from HN from a couple of years ago about old(er) computers that are still in operation so I've reposted it [0] for those who missed it last time around. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8657823 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8657823

davidw 12y ago

> Gleason realized early on that he couldn’t make his portion of ENIAC run actual calculations—such an endeavor would require all 40 panels, not to mention thousands of new components and technical know-how that had long been forgotten. But he resolved to make the computer at least appear like it was hard at work figuring out the best flight paths for howitzer shells. That's a bit disappointing. I guess it's nice you can at least see it though.

bachback 12y ago

Time to correct the record: the World's first electronic, programmable computer was build by a German by the name of Konrad Zuse in May 1941 [1] called Z3 [2]. He designed a language for it called Plankalkül [3]. Eniac was announced in 1946. Incidentally Turing wanted to be build one in 1945, called Electronic Brain. His paper "on computable numbers" was published in 1936. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_%28computer%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_%28computer%29 [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl

bachback 12y ago
see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculating_Space http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculating_Space http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/digitalphysics.html http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/digitalphysics.html
1ris 12y ago
The German wikipedia has a nice overview over early compuers. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC#Vergleich_mit_anderen_fr.C3.BChen_Computern https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC#Vergleich_mit_anderen_fr... Name operating since Floating Point Binary Eletric Programmable Turingcomplete Zuse Z3 May 1941 yes yes no yes yes Atanasoff-Berry Summer 1941 no yes yes no no Colossus 1943 no yes yes with rewiring no Mark I 1944 no no no punch cards yes Zuse Z4 March 1944 yes yes no punch cards yes ENIAC 1946 no no yes with rewiring yes ENIAC 1948 no no yes with a resistor matrix yes
masklinn 12y ago
The Z3 was electromechanical (it used relays) not electronic.
12y ago

rootbear 12y ago

I just saw some ENIAC panels at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA and I'm hoping to visit the Moore School of Engineering in Philadelphia soon to see the parts they have. Now I'll have to visit Oklahoma and see the restored portion they have. (I've also got cousins there, so that's another reason to go.) I'm a big fan of ENIAC and the other early computers. As for "first", I don't think any computer should be called out as the first, each of them contributed something to the machines we have today.

flurdy 12y ago

Eniac? Z3? It was Baby! http://www.computer50.org/mark1/new.baby.html http://www.computer50.org/mark1/new.baby.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Mark_1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Mark_1 Disclaimer: University of Manchester Alumni

mnw21cam 12y ago
It is no small source of acrimony in the University of Cambridge that Manchester beat them to the first stored-program computer by one month with the Baby. However, once the Baby had been demonstrated, it was promptly dismantled, leaving Cambridge's EDSAC with the title of the world's first practical stored-program computer. The EDSAC was then used for nine years at the Mathematical Laboratory before being shut down in favour of the EDSAC 2. Back when I was doing my degree, the 50th anniversary of the EDSAC came around, and we were given a project of creating a simulator for the machine. This we did, even including the rather interesting sound that the original machine made from a loudspeaker connected across the main mercury delay line. Yes, RAM was implemented as a long tube of mercury with sound pulses travelling down it and fed back into the beginning again.
- hga 12y ago
  The Whirlwind Project seriously considered using a microwave "delay line", a round trip microwave connection a long distance across the state of Massachusetts. Ended up using Williams tubes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube) as did the Mark 1 and a number of other early computers (their random access had an advantage over delay lines), and eventually invented 3D magnetic core memory.
  - Someone 12y ago
    It has also been proposed to use a laser and one of the reflectors on the moon. That would give you a 300,000 km storage line. That proposal wasn't serious, though, if only because it is a challenge to keep that reflector in your field of view. Another impractical delay line, but with variable delay, is the internet. You can hide some bits in a DNS request or in a Google search.

arethuza 12y ago

I always thought that the first machine that was really a "computer" in the modern sense (i.e. stored program) was the Manchester "Baby": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Small-Scale_Experimental_Machine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Small-Scale_Experime...

BuildTheRobots 12y ago

Sorry for not joining the positivity parade, but taking the control panels, repainting them and then wiring up the lights to blink in pretty ways seems substantially wrong in a number of ways... I guess "resurrected" is being used in the "brain dead and slightly rotten body" zombie sense of the word :(

troymc 12y ago

It seems we've unearthed a good nerd-sniping [1] question for readers of HN: "What was the first computer?" [1] http://xkcd.com/356/ http://xkcd.com/356/

userbinator 12y ago

If anyone is interested in the workings of ENIAC at the circuit level this is an interesting read: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Knuth_Don_X4100/PDF_index/k-8-pdf/k-8-r5367-1-ENIAC-circuits.pdf http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Knuth_Don_...

ChuckMcM 12y ago

A front panel from a computer with artificially animated lights is the 'taxidermy deer head on a plaque' of the old computer world.

Animats 12y ago

The ENIAC panels at the Smithsonian were at one time powered up, with a functional counter. There was a little control box on a stand where you could push some buttons and watch it count. But they had to power it down decades ago. For the fiftieth anniversary, they powered it up briefly.