'Modern' Computers Turn 60 Years Old

Christian Smith writes "Stored program computers are 60 years old on Saturday. The Small Scale Experimental Machine, or 'Baby,' first ran on the 21st of June, 1948, in Manchester. While not the first computer, nor even programmable computer, it was the first that stored its program in its own memory. Luckily, transistors shrank the one tonne required for this computing power to something more manageable."

No, it doesn't run Linux....

[advocate_one]

not a hope of backporting to this one...

Re:That Depends

[Anonymous Coward]

I would imagine the weight he wanted was the weight of the beetle filled to the maximum amount possible with live clowns. Sometimes the clowns are considered 'airbags' and so may qualify as safety equipment, but your mileage may vary. I don't think he was asking about how much a curb weighs though. that would probably depend on the height, width, length, and composition of the curb piece in question.

Re:No, it doesn't run Linux....

[oodaloop]

Yeah, but imagine a beowulf cluster of those. The real estate alone would be staggering.

Way to go

[Iwanowitch]

"If you give it a prime number to try then the highest factor of that is one," said Mr Burton.

First program EVER and it already had a bug in it.

Re:A tonne?

[Opportunist]

That's proof it ain't a Japanese car. Else the new one would be at the very least at factor 2. And next gen it would be 5.

Re:No, it doesn't run Linux....

[oodaloop]

I didn't get to welcome any overlords yet!

Re:Evolution

[cayenne8]

"In 60 years we've gone from computers the size of a room to a laptop computers thin enough to fit in an interoffice envelope."

Yeah...but, those old tubes used to make the data 'feel' warmer.

:-)

Re:and year . . .

[hawk]

The schools these days . . .

let's try it this way:

Mommy hippo weighs 1200 pounds.

Daddy hippo weighs a time and a half as much as Mommy.

How much does Mommy hippo weigh? :)

Hey, what gives?

[Anonymous Coward]

We invented the computer!!!

ENIAC was the first proper computer. Everyone knows the computer is an American invention, like planes and automobiles and electricity (telephone, radio and electric motors). If it wasn't for America, no one would be able to go faster than a horse's speed, or send messages thousands of miles. We'd all be stuck in the dark ages!

Re:Evolution

[kestasjk]

1. Transistors get far smaller

2. ???

3. We are slaves to robotic overlords

Maybe if you use Will Smith's humor, or a recursive time-travel paradox, to distract us from the "???" it could work as a plot.

Re:No, it doesn't run Linux....

[flnca]

Bill, is that you?