The Witch will become the world's oldest working computer...

Thursday 10 September 2009

Ding dong, this Witch ain't dead
--------------------------------

The Witch will become the world's oldest working computer - just as soon 
as programmers have finished reinstalling its software...

Jack Schofield

Volunteers started installing what will be the world's oldest working 
computer at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park last week, 
as hundreds of people turned out to celebrate the site's wartime 
code-breaking exploits on Enigma Day. The valve-based metal monster was 
designed at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell and 
started operating in 1951, so it wasn't the UK's first electronic 
computer. However, other early machines - including Bletchley Park's 
Colossus, EDSAC at the University of Cambridge and the Manchester Baby -
were broken up. All we have now are rebuilds.

"The Harwell machine is the only complete machine from that time," says 
Kevin Murrell, director of TNMOC. "And we have absolutely everything, 
including the original spares and the circuit diagrams, and oodles and 
oodles of programs on punched paper tape. The nice thing for us - the 
amazing thing - is that the three original designers from Harwell are 
still alive, and are helping us with the project. They're in their 80s and 
90s, but they're thrilled with the idea."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/sep/09/witch-computing-enigma-code-breaking

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Technology/Pix/pictures/2009/9/9/1252508564785/Witch-computer-001.jpg

http://www.tnmoc.org/36/section.aspx/103