On 25 May 2001 13:52:42 +0100 Iggy Drougge
<optimus_at_canit.se> wrote:
> jkunz skrev:
> >On 24 May, Iggy Drougge wrote:
> >> I agree, but what about the Baby machine at Manhcester?
> >Baby machine? Do you mean the machines of Charles Babbage? As I know
> >these machines were not programmable.
>
> No, it was a very small (compared to its contemporaries) machine, built at (I
> think) the university of Manchester in the forties or early fifties. ISTR that
> it used mercury memory.
No, the National Physical Laboratory's machine, the Pilot
ACE, used mercury delay lines, as did Cambridge Uni's
EDSAC. But the Manchester machines used CRT (Cathode-Ray
Tube) memory, also generically known as electrostatic
memory. The CRTs were standard World War II surplus units,
and I think you can see one in the Science Museum's display
nowadays.
The memory was also the only output device in the "Baby",
since the CRTs had normal phosphor coating and the bits
glowed. Programs would halt, and the results would be read
from the CRT face.
--
John Honniball
Email: John.Honniball_at_uwe.ac.uk
University of the West of England
Received on Fri May 25 2001 - 08:56:23 BST