World’s oldest digital computer restarted

Fox News ^ | November 22, 2012 | (Tech News Daily)

[Olog-hai]

One of the world’s first digital computers to replace the handwritten calculations of human “computors” is getting an official reboot that could lead to a spot in the Guinness Book of Records.

The 61-year-old Harwell Dekatron—about the size and weight of an SUV—was originally hailed as a slow, steady machine capable of delivering error-free calculations while running for 90 hours a week. It has survived to become the oldest original working digital computer following the announcement of its completed restoration by The National Museum of Computing in the U.K. on Tuesday.

“In 1951, the Harwell Dekatron was one of perhaps a dozen computers in the world, and since then, it has led a charmed life, surviving intact while its contemporaries were recycled or destroyed,” said Kevin Murrell, a trustee at the museum. …

[GeronL]

kind of cool that it still works

[BipolarBob]

Yeah, but does it run Windows 8® without a hitch?

[Dr. Sivana]

Yeah, but does it run Windows 8® without a hitch?

First, develop an appliance to transcribe its output to video.

Then, recompile the code to work with its machine code.

Finally, wait about 90 years to see if it will be able to boot the code.

(cf. When HARLIE was One)

[Crooked Constituent]

Interesting. Kinda neat to read about this from my smart phone.

[max americana]

Better yet, can it still stick a 1 foot floppy disk in it?

[mylife]

Imagine the heat this thing produced!

[rockrr]

Makes my 28 year old Compaq Luggable a positive youngster by comparison.

[mylife]

It was paper tape, not disks.

Could be worse, you could be entering data manually in octal (fingerboning)

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

The Dekatron gas-filled tubes (similar to Nixies) this thing runs on fortunately consume very little power and are reasonably rugged and fail-resistant. 1500 watts is relatively nothing (though I will admit being skeptical of that low power figure) The early ENIAC and GENIAC computers which used thousands of vacuum tubes (with filaments that light up, vs gas-filled tubes) consumed astronomical amounts of power....and required techs with shopping carts filled with replacement tubes circling the things on a steady basis.

7500 6SN7's @ .6 amps filament current = 28.3 kw just to light up the filaments!

[Towed_Jumper]

This was actually IBM’s first attempt at building a laptop.

[dirtboy]

I learned to program in high school on an IBM 1620. So named because that is allegedly the year it came out.

[dirtboy]

I had one of these CPM-based beauties. Lord help your shin if a corner of that metal case banged into it while lugging the Kaypro around.

[COBOL2Java]

Oh I dunno, the dude looks pretty cool...oh, you mean the computer!

[GreyFriar]

I thought the first digital computer was the human brain linked to fingers and toes used to add things up.

Oh well, digits live forever, or until someone hits the delete button or wipes a magnet over the hard drive.

[No Truce With Kings]

Wonder how much power it drains? The old computers used so much electricity that you could hard-cook an egg at the heat exhaust.

When I was in college I had a job tending a mainframe that required a specially air-conditioned room or it would overheat — and that computer use semiconductors. The Harwell Dekatron that was restored used vacuum tubes and would generate even more heat.

Anything that puts a frown on a greenie’s face is a good thing as far as I am concerned.

[COBOL2Java]

A panorama view of the world's oldest original working digital computer at The National Museum of Computing. (Robert Dowell)

[arthurus]

On Kadena AFB in 1970 i worked in a half acre room that was 3/4 filled with computers and hard disk stacks. The whole room was kept at , I think, 50 degrees fand the thing was never turned off. So long as it ren no tubes blew.

[mylife]

Yeah we pumped 48 deg cooling water.

[Alas Babylon!]

My first, the Philco Ford 1000. Circa 1976, NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

The Philcos ran Missile Warning, Delta, 425L, Space Track and other missions (classified). We also had the bigger Philco 2000's but I can't find any pictures for them.

These were replaced with Honeywell 6080's and Level 66's starting in 1979.

Gosh, where are they all now?