One tonne 'Baby' marks its birth

[Philip Belben]

Ray Arachelian wrote:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7465115.stm
> 
> 
> One tonne 'Baby' marks its birth
> By Jonathan Fildes
> Science and technology reporter, BBC News
> 
> Baby project team
> The four remaining members of the Baby team will be honoured in Manchester
> 
> Sixty years ago the "modern computer" was born in a lab in Manchester.
> 
> The Small Scale Experimental Machine, or "Baby", was the first to 
> contain memory which could store a program.
> 
> The room-sized computer's ability to carry out different tasks - without 
> having to be rebuilt - has led some to describe it as the "first modern 
> PC".
> 
> <snip>

Ha!

Interesting article, but I'm not convinced of its factual accuracy.

 > Electrical charges on the screen of the CRT were used to represent
 > binary information. A positive charge represented a one and a negative
 > charge a zero.
 >
 > A metal grid attached to the screen read the different charges. A
 > graphical representation - dashes for a one and dots for a zero - was
 > displayed on a second CRT wired in parallel to the memory device.

I think the point they've missed is that the two CRTs were _literally_ 
"wired in parallel".  The display of dot for zero and dash for one arose 
because that was how it was really stored.  I don't think it was 
positive and negative charges...

If you're ever in Manchester, the reconstructed Baby is in the Museum of 
Science and Industry in Manchester (MSIM), and I think it runs on Thursdays.

Philip.