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The National Museum Of Computing
The National Museum of Computing is a museum in the United Kingdom dedicated to collecting and restoring historic computer systems. The museum is based in rented premises at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and opened in 2007. The building — ''Block H'' — was the first purpose-built computer centre in the world, hosting six Colossus computers by the end of World War II. The museum houses a rebuilt Mark 2 Colossus computer alongside an exhibition of the most complex code cracking activities performed at the Park, along with examples of machines continuing the history of the development of computing from the 1940s to the present day. The museum has a policy of having as many of the exhibits as possible in full working order. Although located on the Bletchley Park "campus", The National Museum of Computing is an entirely separate registered charity with its own fund-raising and separate entrance/ticketing. TNMOC receives no public funding and relies on the g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Museum Of Computing
The Museum of Computing in Swindon, England is dedicated to preserving and displaying examples of early computers. It was the first United Kingdom museum exclusively dedicated to the history of computing and opened in February 2003. Aims It aims to preserve the history of computing, to be used as a valuable educational resource and as an information repository for historians, collectors and the media, and to illustrate this history in an entertaining way. Exhibits The Museum includes working machines and interactive activities. The exhibitions have included the '' Pong to PlayStation'' exhibition. More than thirty computers were lent to Gordon Laing, a former editor of '' Personal Computer World'' magazine, in connection with the writing of his 2004 book ''Digital Retro''. Notable events The exhibition "''Calculators from the Abacus to the Microchip''", was launched by Sir Clive Sinclair in March 2006. In April 2007, the Museum was honoured by a visit from HRH Prince ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marconi Transistorised Automatic Computer (T
The Marconi Transistorized Automatic Computer was the first all-transistor computer built by Britain's Marconi Company. It was designed and manufactured from around 1959. The computer employed germanium transistors which by this time were sufficiently reliable in room temperatures kept below about 23 degrees C. The type S3301 was a 500 kHz clocked, 20-bit word machine with two Mullard core memory stores providing 4k of 20-bit data. The internal CPU logic was synchronised to even and odd clock signals and special signals generated via microinstruction diode boards. The memory logic had slow and fast loops to speed the transfer of sequential data bursts. A facility was provided to microstep through instructions to help with fault-finding. Processor status bits were provided, with machine instructions being decoded from 6 bits in the current address memory word. Double word data had the MSB designated a sign bit, coded as binary fractions (-1 to +1), for the square root, multi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slide Rules
The slide rule is a mechanical analog computer which is used primarily for multiplication and division, and for functions such as exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is not typically designed for addition or subtraction, which is usually performed using other methods. Maximum accuracy for standard linear slide rules is about three decimal significant digits, while scientific notation is used to keep track of the order of magnitude of results. Slide rules exist in a diverse range of styles and generally appear in a linear, circular or cylindrical form, with slide rule scales inscribed with standardized graduated markings. Slide rules manufactured for specialized fields such as aviation or finance typically feature additional scales that aid in specialized calculations particular to those fields. The slide rule is closely related to nomograms used for application-specific computations. Though similar in name and appearance to a standard ruler, the slide rule is no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electronic Calculators
An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized devices became available in the 1970s, especially after the Intel 4004, the first microprocessor, was developed by Intel for the Japanese calculator company Busicom. Modern electronic calculators vary from cheap, give-away, credit-card-sized models to sturdy desktop models with built-in printers. They became popular in the mid-1970s as the incorporation of integrated circuits reduced their size and cost. By the end of that decade, prices had dropped to the point where a basic calculator was affordable to most and they became common in schools. Computer operating systems as far back as early Unix have included interactive calculator programs such as dc and hoc, and interactive BASIC could be used to do calculations on most 1970s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mechanical Calculator
A mechanical calculator, or calculating machine, is a mechanical device used to perform the basic operations of arithmetic automatically, or (historically) a simulation such as an analog computer or a slide rule. Most mechanical calculators were comparable in size to small desktop computers and have been rendered obsolete by the advent of the electronic calculator and the digital computer. Surviving notes from Wilhelm Schickard in 1623 reveal that he designed and had built the earliest of the modern attempts at mechanizing calculation. His machine was composed of two sets of technologies: first an abacus made of Napier's bones, to simplify multiplications and divisions first described six years earlier in 1617, and for the mechanical part, it had a dialed pedometer to perform additions and subtractions. A study of the surviving notes shows a machine that would have jammed after a few entries on the same dial, and that it could be damaged if a carry had to be propagated ov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Drayton
West Drayton is a suburban town in the London Borough of Hillingdon. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and from 1929 was part of the Yiewsley and West Drayton Urban District, which became part of Greater London in 1965. The settlement is near the Colne Valley Regional Park and its centre lies north of Heathrow Airport. Traditionally the Parish of West Drayton covers . In 1901 the population of the civil parish was 984. In the 2011 Census 14,370 people were living in the West Drayton electoral ward. The ward has three councillors in the Hillingdon Borough Council.838 acres. 'Table of population, 1801-1901', in ''A History of the County of Middlesex'': Volume 2, General ed. William Page (London, 1911), pp. 112-120. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol2/pp112-120 ccessed 25 May 2018 The vast majority of the housing in West Drayton is mid-20th century. Toponymy In 939 the area was known as ''Draegtun''. Tun/ton is cognate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Terminal Control Centre
The London Terminal Control Centre (LTCC) was an air traffic control centre based in West Drayton, in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England, approximately north of London Heathrow Airport. Operated by National Air Traffic Services (NATS) it provided air traffic control services to aircraft arriving and departing from six London airports, one Royal Air Force station, plus en-route services to other aircraft that entered its airspace. Internally within NATS it is usually known by the initials ''TC''. The civilian part of the West Drayton site closed in November 2007, when its functions moved to Swanwick, Hampshire. 'TC' and 'AC' ( London Area Control Centre) remain separate organisations but now share the same site. Unlike New York TRACON, LTCC uses Class A airspace. Therefore, VFR operation is prohibited. History The centre was opened as RAF West Drayton, a military air traffic control facility, located roughly midway between the then London airport (now London Heathro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Traffic Control
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airspace. The primary purpose of ATC worldwide is to prevent collisions, organize and expedite the flow of air traffic, and provide information and other support for pilots. Air traffic controllers monitor the location of aircraft in their assigned airspace by radar and communicate with the pilots by radio. To prevent collisions, ATC enforces traffic separation rules, which ensure each aircraft maintains a minimum amount of empty space around it at all times. In many countries, ATC provides services to all private, military, and commercial aircraft operating within its airspace. Depending on the type of flight and the class of airspace, ATC may issue ''instructions'' that pilots are required to obey, or ''advisories'' (known as ''flight info ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PDP-11
The PDP-11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, making it one of DEC's most successful product lines. The PDP-11 is considered by some experts to be the most popular minicomputer. The PDP-11 included a number of innovative features in its instruction set and additional general-purpose registers that made it much easier to program than earlier models in the PDP series. Further, the innovative Unibus system allowed external devices to be easily interfaced to the system using direct memory access, opening the system to a wide variety of peripherals. The PDP-11 replaced the PDP-8 in many real-time computing applications, although both product lines lived in parallel for more than 10 years. The ease of programming of the PDP-11 made it very popular for general-purpose computing uses a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PDP-8
The PDP-8 is a 12-bit minicomputer that was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the first commercially successful minicomputer, with over 50,000 units being sold over the model's lifetime. Its basic design follows the pioneering LINC but has a smaller instruction set, which is an expanded version of the PDP-5 instruction set. Similar machines from DEC are the PDP-12 which is a modernized version of the PDP-8 and LINC concepts, and the PDP-14 industrial controller system. Overview The earliest PDP-8 model, informally known as a "Straight-8", was introduced on 22 March 1965 priced at $18,500 (). It used diode–transistor logic packaged on flip chip cards in a machine about the size of a small household refrigerator. It was the first computer to be sold for under $20,000, making it the best-selling computer in history at that time. The Straight-8 was supplanted in 1966 by the PDP-8/S, which was available in desktop and rack-mount models. Using a one-bit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Retrocomputing
Retrocomputing is the use of older computer hardware and software in modern times. Retrocomputing is usually classed as a hobby and recreation rather than a practical application of technology; enthusiasts often collect rare and valuable hardware and software for sentimental reasons. However, some do make use of it. Historical retrocomputing A more serious line of retrocomputing is part of the history of computer hardware. It can be seen as the analogue of experimental archaeology in computing. Some notable examples include the reconstruction of Babbage's Difference engine (more than a century after its design) and the implementation of Plankalkül in 2000 (more than half a century since its inception). "Homebrew" computers Some retrocomputing enthusiasts also consider the "homebrewing" (designing and building of retro- and retro-styled computers or kits), to be an important aspect of the hobby, giving new enthusiasts an opportunity to experience more fully what the early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Analogue Computer
An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities (''analog signals'') to model the problem being solved. In contrast, digital computers represent varying quantities symbolically and by discrete values of both time and amplitude ( digital signals). Analog computers can have a very wide range of complexity. Slide rules and nomograms are the simplest, while naval gunfire control computers and large hybrid digital/analog computers were among the most complicated. Complex mechanisms for process control and protective relays used analog computation to perform control and protective functions. Analog computers were widely used in scientific and industrial applications even after the advent of digital computers, because at the time they were typically much faster, but they started to become obsolete as early as the 1950s and 1960s, although they rem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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