EDSAC to be rebuilt

[Glenn]

Bletchley Park has launched a project to rebuild one of the world's first modern computers.

The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was put together at Cambridge University in the late 1940s as a tool for researchers and scientists. The room-sized valve-based system, designed and developed by the late Sir Maurice Wilkes, first ran in 1949 and served academics faithfully for nine years until its decommission in 1958.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/13/edsac_rebuild_bletchley_park/

[Rik]

 

[john]

I saw this on the BBC News technology page earlier. It's a pity they didn't rebuild it sooner as Maurice Wilkes who designed it died only last November. I'm sure he would have liked to have been involved in the re-build.

[Rik]

They have been very slow to get around to it, haven't they.

[Technical Ben]

One problem is valves. Who would still make them? Some types of technology are lost to the ages. Like most of the techniques used to make the Pyramids.

[Rik]

Bring back slavery.