On 16 Jan, 2008, at 18:00, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: It is not normal to consider conception dates, neither with computers nor babies. I don't go calling my ICT 1301 a late '50s computer just because it was conceived in 1959, nor because thats when some of the technical drawings date from. Its an early '60s machine because the first one shipped in 1962, and you could even argue about that as it was actually an extra prototype which the University of London pressed ICT into supplying because otherwise there would be no undergraduate intake in 1962 as they were committed to it, having had the computer on order for a LONG time. As the factory prototypes were refined, engineers would be sent out to also modify the university's machine. At a meeting of the Computer Conservation Society, the chap in charge of the software said it was the only computer which ICT/ICT ever shipped where the system software and libraries were ready before the first machine shipped. Most of it had been hand executed to verify it apart from the real time aspects, which had been the big hold up, particularly the routine which punched one card whilst reading six cards and printing one line. For months they had been travelling from London to Coventry every night to test the next amendment of version one and failing whilst some of the programmers had been putting together a version two in their spare time. One night they rang their manager, waking him in the early hours. They said they were not getting anywhere with version one, and asked for permission to try version two. This was grudgingly given as a sop to frustration. It worked first time, and version one was abandoned and at last all the software was ready. Roger Holmes. Current custodian of the University of London machine, having bought the 200,000 pound machine for 150 pounds in 1976.