Windows 7: World’s oldest original working digital computer gets a reboot

Thought this was cool. 1951.... Its even older than ME!



World

Konrad Zuse released his first computer, the Z3, in May of 1941. But I don't think that was a Supercomputer. I programmed the Z11 in 1958 at my university. Konrad Zuse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now That is very cool! My German is very rusty but 2000 watts to power it, wow is all I can say. In don't suppose you kept any of the tapes from it huh?

That is nothing short of amazing.

Yeah, that is somehow amazing. Younger people today think the world of computing started with Windows 3.1. But there was a lot of computing before that and those big systems were really something.

I had the chance to participate in operating system and data base development for 35 years. And I tell you, the problems we had were very similar to the problems of today. The main difference was that we had no screens for debugging and everything had to be printed on paper. And a core dump could be easily 10 inches high - and all in hexadecimal.

Super calculators would be a better description of the early computers long before any IBM "Think Tanks" ever came to be back in the 60s! The main purpose for the early development was for analytical purposes long before any OSs were developed even.

The description of looking like something out of an old Sci-Fi movie is about right there. Now some forty to fifty years later when you look at the first notebook on the market you might think that was a museum piece as well. Epson HX-20 Portable Computer

Besides that however I can still remember the first well not quite a desktop I used while working for one company. The monitor shown was a newer model to the old crt "VT278H" model I had to look at during auditing. DEC Pro 350

I remember seeing on TV quiz shows in the 1950's, they would wheel out the Univac computer. That thing was bigger than a refrigerator.

And what was the first actual computer tosses up a good number of oldies!

Buzzle article

As you can see that goes into the first actual and compares that to the first actual computer in desktop form. You can sure there were plenty of designs even if only one was ever made in the years between just those two.

This was definitely a 'mobile computer'. The normal systems were a LOT bigger. A normal data center would have about 10.000 sqfeet floorspace.

A tube powered mainframe would take up some factory floor space! For a look at some real oldies you might say are a museum with just a look at one of them you can browse through the photos at Mainframe

The initial uses included nuclear research labs believe it or not for the ability to do then what you would now not even give a second thought of when holding a pocket sized scientific calculator! Gee I got my solar powered Casio sitting right here in front of me that will do as much or more then a good deal of those ancients! $5 at a Walmart and millions of $$$ back in those day for developments!