webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) (06/20/88)
In article <17496@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>, jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) writes: > > I'd like to encourage people to write simulators for one or two of the > early machines, as a way of keeping the history alive. The ENIAC was > plugboard-programmed, so it is not an enormously interesting machine to > simulate. But simulating IAS, or Binac, or Whirlwind, would be a useful > exercise. Especially if some original software could be found and brought > back to life. Actually the ENIAC is quite fascinating to simulate. It has the most important feature a computer can have -- a neon bulb for each flip flop (connection machine -- eat your heart out). Also, it was only plugboard-programmed until 1948 at which time it became the first stored-program computer (although the store was read-only). Prior to 1948, it was a parallel computer so there are doubtless many who wouldn't want to simulate it due to the difficulty of matching it's speed. The biggest problem in simulating it is getting suitable documentation. All the ``good stuff'' never made it to the journals, but lies buried in various technical reports (mostly from the Moore School at U Penn and BRL at Aberdeen). Of course, with a little imagination one can get fairly close. The earliest electronic stored-program computers that are well-documented in the public literature seem to be the EDVAC (proposal in Von Neumann's collected papers as well as significant discussion in the Moore School Lectures reprinted by MIT Press) and the ACE (Turing's proposal reprinted by MIT Press -- which differs from the machines actually built under that name). A number of ISP descriptions of slightly more recent machines are available in Siewiorek, Bell, and Newell's (1982 successor to 1971 Bell and Newell) Computer Structures - Principles and Examples. I have also heard that some other author did a book of ISP descriptions, but I haven't seen that book. ----- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber)
lisper-bjorn@CS.YALE.EDU (Bjorn Lisper) (06/21/88)
In article <Jun.20.04.49.43.1988.3576@porthos.rutgers.edu> webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) writes: >In article <17496@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>, jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) writes: >> I'd like to encourage people to write simulators for one or two of the >> early machines, as a way of keeping the history alive.... >The earliest electronic stored-program computers that are >well-documented in the public literature seem to be the EDVAC >(proposal in Von Neumann's collected papers as well as significant >discussion in the Moore School Lectures reprinted by MIT Press) and >the ACE (Turing's proposal reprinted by MIT Press -- which differs >from the machines actually built under that name). What about the early German computers? The Z-1 was built in 1941 or so and the Germans claim that this is the first electronic computer. The man who constructed it (I think his name was Zuse) wrote an autobiography where his creations apparently have a big role. I haven't read it, though, so I can't tell how technical it gets. Bjorn Lisper
bct@its63b.ed.ac.uk (B Tompsett) (06/23/88)
In article <Jun.20.04.49.43.1988.3576@porthos.rutgers.edu> webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) writes: >[....] Also, it was only plugboard-programmed until >1948 at which time it became the first stored-program computer (although >the store was read-only). Prior to 1948, it was a parallel computer [....] >----- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber) Correction: the Manchester Mark I was the first stored-program computer. It first ran on 21st June 1948. This week marks the 40th aniversary of that event which is being celebrated at Manchester. Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, unveiled a plaque to mark the anniversary at the place the original event took place at the precise time of the anniversary. This is not a situation (like the World Series, for example) where No. 1 in the USA is the same as No. 1 in the World. Edinburgh has recently celebrated 25 years of computing which does not quite match Manchesters 40! Brian. -- > Brian Tompsett. Department of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh, > JCMB, The King's Buildings, Mayfield Road, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland, U.K. > Telephone: +44 31 667 1081 x2711. > JANET: bct@uk.ac.ed.ecsvax ARPA: bct%ed.ecsvax@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk > USENET: bct@ecsvax.ed.ac.uk UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!ed.ecsvax!bct > BITNET: ukacrl.earn!ed.ecsvax!bct or bct%ed.ecsvax@uk.ac
farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) (06/24/88)
webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) writes: >Actually the ENIAC is quite fascinating to simulate. It has the most important >feature a computer can have -- a neon bulb for each flip flop. Nope, the most important feature is that found in the Sperry NAVDAC, used on Polaris submarines once upon a time. That machine used gas-discharge triodes for its accumulator, so the lights you saw WERE the register. Not only did you have less propagation delay, since the lights didn't have to be connected to the flip-flops with wires, the lights were also a very pretty color of blue. -- Michael J. Farren | "INVESTIGATE your point of view, don't just {ucbvax, uunet, hoptoad}! | dogmatize it! Reflect on it and re-evaluate unisoft!gethen!farren | it. You may want to change your mind someday." gethen!farren@lll-winken.llnl.gov ----- Tom Reingold, from alt.flame
scc@cl.cam.ac.uk (Stephen Crawley) (06/25/88)
In article <1496@its63b.ed.ac.uk> bct@ecsvax.ed.ac.uk (B Tompsett) writes: > > Edinburgh has recently celebrated 25 years of computing which does not quite >match Manchesters 40! > Mere stripplings! The Cambridge University Computer Laboratory (ne the Mathematical Laboratory), celebrated its 50'th aniversary last year. BTW: the CUCL Library has an extensive archive of material from the early days. -- Steve