The restoration of 'Flossie'

[Skywave]

For vintage computer fans:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-20031487

When I first saw the picture, I though it was an analogue computer - remember those?
Apparently it isn't . . . . .

Al.

[pwdrive]

Interesting Al.

At tech. in the 60' there was a Heathkit analogue computer, can't remember which model though.

Lawrence.

[Yorkie]

I note the comment that Flossie originally cost £250,000 to build in 1962, the equivalent of £4.2m today.

It has 100,000 punch cards and 27 reels of magnetic tape, both to record data, and its 12 kilobytes of memory alone weigh half a tonne.

Such puny computing power at such a great cost back then is testament to how far computing has progressed in the last half century.

All that engineering, bulk and collosal cost for just a fraction of the computing power of a modern smartphone.

I noted this comment too:

"You have to remember that file reels in those days were multi-reel, so at 10 meg a reel, 27 reels, we're up to a quarter of a megabyte - and 50 years ago that was a lot of data."

Hmm, it may have been a lot back then, but even an obsolete 3.5" floppy disc - which were commonplace only 20 years after Flossie was buit - would store 1.2MB.

A CD will store 700 MB, a DVD 4.7gB and a memory stick in the palm of your hand will store from from 1gB to 64gB and more.

The mind boggles!

[Skywave]

The mind boggles indeed David! If we could 'fast forward', say 100 years from now, I suspect we would be overwhelmed to the point of incomprehensibility of what we would find in computing. I know that current research in computing technology is aiming at the 'one electron = 1 bit' scenario (or something similar), but I believe that the future of computing lies outside of electronics: possibly light or even chemical / biological structures; maybe a combination of both.

Al.

[Skywave]

At tech. in the 60' there was a Heathkit analogue computer, can't remember which model though.
Lawrence.

In many senses, the 'analogue computer' of yesteryear has become the operational amplifier of today that we all take very much for granted.

Al.