OMG. Cool. 2X5 weave cipher. Kryptos link. In a way thats what they did along with a cryptic pipeline of a type. I was wondering with the 5's comming up. The weave of cipher. 2 sides. Very cool. Thank you for sharing the rich history.
Today, with modern computers storing their programming in memory, few people realize that early computers used hard wired programming. I remember, back in the 1960s, my mother, who was a registered nurse, decided to study computer programming because she realized that in the future medical records would be computerized. The first machines she learned on still used hard wired programming on boards which had jumper wires. Later she studied FORTRAN, which was an early memory stored programming language.
I am an a retired Analog IC designer but cannot see a parallel to what we consider a computer today. The function of the Collossus could be done with a very few digital components today and appears to have almost no intelligence or much flexibility. Maye we should call a valve (vacuum tube) a computer because it turns on and off with an grid input. I think the abacus is then the first computer or even a slide rule (slip stick). A dedicated machine that looks at two inputs and puts out the exclusive "OR" is just a combinational logic machine, not a computer. The Collosus has no arithmetic capability so it really does not "compute" anything; it just has a little combinational logic to produce a result. Colossus was a great machine for it's purpose and it saved many thousands of lives but I wouldn't call it a computer. It does have an input and an output and was great for it's purpose, even at 5 Kc (notice the old abbreviation). I used a lot of combinational logic in mixed signal Analog circuits that I designed but I would never call them "computers" even if they did some "ORing", shifting, and counting to work as a "system".
What do you call the "first" computer than? I'm just curious! Btw this old abbreviation "kc" would mean nothing to anybody outside the USA since they never adopted it, we used meters in the Old Country! 🙂 Back to the computers: there is some truth to what you say. For "fun" I'm designing a tube-based calculator-machine, and I wonder where it stops being a calculator and starts being a full-fledged computer... I think the meaning of the word has simply evolved over time too! The reason they dubbed these machines "computers" was apparently because the job of doing hand-calculations was called "computing". So these machines automated this process. Anyways would love to hear your opinion on this. Regards, Thomas PS. Bear in mind please that I come from analog tube-based electronics, not from the digital world hehe.
OMG. Cool. 2X5 weave cipher. Kryptos link. In a way thats what they did along with a cryptic pipeline of a type. I was wondering with the 5's comming up. The weave of cipher. 2 sides. Very cool. Thank you for sharing the rich history.
Today, with modern computers storing their programming in memory, few people realize that early computers used hard wired programming. I remember, back in the 1960s, my mother, who was a registered nurse, decided to study computer programming because she realized that in the future medical records would be computerized. The first machines she learned on still used hard wired programming on boards which had jumper wires. Later she studied FORTRAN, which was an early memory stored programming language.
What about COBOL and RPG, early business programs.
On this theme is it possible to go into greater detail on 'The Tunny Machine'? (Sorry I am not on Twitter)
Look it up on Wikipedia
I am an a retired Analog IC designer but cannot see a parallel to what we consider a computer today. The function of the Collossus could be done with a very few digital components today and appears to have almost no intelligence or much flexibility. Maye we should call a valve (vacuum tube) a computer because it turns on and off with an grid input. I think the abacus is then the first computer or even a slide rule (slip stick). A dedicated machine that looks at two inputs and puts out the exclusive "OR" is just a combinational logic machine, not a computer. The Collosus has no arithmetic capability so it really does not "compute" anything; it just has a little combinational logic to produce a result. Colossus was a great machine for it's purpose and it saved many thousands of lives but I wouldn't call it a computer. It does have an input and an output and was great for it's purpose, even at 5 Kc (notice the old abbreviation). I used a lot of combinational logic in mixed signal Analog circuits that I designed but I would never call them "computers" even if they did some "ORing", shifting, and counting to work as a "system".
W
ANKER
What do you call the "first" computer than? I'm just curious! Btw this old abbreviation "kc" would mean nothing to anybody outside the USA since they never adopted it, we used meters in the Old Country! 🙂 Back to the computers: there is some truth to what you say. For "fun" I'm designing a tube-based calculator-machine, and I wonder where it stops being a calculator and starts being a full-fledged computer... I think the meaning of the word has simply evolved over time too! The reason they dubbed these machines "computers" was apparently because the job of doing hand-calculations was called "computing". So these machines automated this process.
Anyways would love to hear your opinion on this.
Regards,
Thomas
PS. Bear in mind please that I come from analog tube-based electronics, not from the digital world hehe.