> > IBM card machine may be
> pre-computer (programmed by plugboards, etc.).
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> WHOAH here !! Just a minute !! Are you trying to say that anything
> without a LSI chip or integrated circuit-board is a "pre-computer" ?
Eeek! What's it got to do with LSI?
Surely that just means that computers started with the Manchester Small Scale
Experimental Machine in 1948?
(For details, see
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/prog98/ )
Personally, I think that the later (Ferranti?) machines with ferrite plug
programming were also computers, but there you are...
Philip.
Received on Thu Oct 16 1997 - 08:52:00 BST