13 Feb
2008
13 Feb
'08
4:54 p.m.
Jason McBrien wrote:
Digital, electronic, stored program, Turing-complete. I could even be
convinced to say just digital and electronic. If there is a Zuse machine
or something out there, I am curious about it.
Operational seems pretty clear to me, but a front panel wired to a light
blinker does not count. Lets put the bar at the level of the PDP-1 at
the CHM.
-chuck
On Wed, Feb 13, 2008 at 7:26 PM, Fred Cisin <cisin
at xenosoft.com> wrote:
This is a tough group... :-)
We can argue about that when we have some examples.
On Wed, 13 Feb 2008, Charles H Dickman wrote:
The earliest created. It's birthday is the moment it first calculated
something, or the day it went on sale.
So what is the oldest computer still operational?
Meaningless question, until you DEFINE:
"Oldest"
"computer"
A machine that can (theoretically) automatically solve any arbitrary
problem, with input, storage, and output. I think the term is pretty well
defined. Not a tabulator, or calculator, or punch-card time tracking
machine, or programmable loom.
"operational"
Still performs to original specs. Lights light up, results are accurate,
etc...