Something I have always wondered...

[HunterSeeker]

Who said let's make a calculating machine as large as a storage facility? Why?

 

[KagePrototype]

It's a design choice, it was what all the kids were into at the time.

 

[kirovman]

What??? Care to elaborate? Sorry my brain is in slow mode today...:|

 

[SpuD]

the first calculator took up four rooms

 

[WhiteZero]

I believe it was first thought up for Military Purposes. To calculate trejectories.

 

[Hazar]

They used them in WW2 for breaking german codes.

 

[TinyKilbasa]

lots of big vacuum tubes

 

[kingthebadger]

haha, cant beleive it, 4 rooms? now it fits on the palm of ur hand!

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Why four rooms? Why not...one big room? I think someone was just trying to make it sounds bigger and more impressive :|

 

[WhiteZero]

haha, cant beleive it, 4 rooms? now it fits on the palm of ur hand!

Today's hand-held calculators are about 100x more powerfull than the one we're talking about.

 

[TinyKilbasa]

thats really funny....all that stuff to add 1 + 1 = 2.....

 

[AntiAnto]

Day 1:

Calculator started to calculate this equation: 2 + 5 - 9

Day 2:

It seems that the calculator is near to finish.

Day 3:

Technical problem: a bugger has entered the processor rooms and has broken processor #45.

 

[SpuD]

Why four rooms? Why not...one big room? I think someone was just trying to make it sounds bigger and more impressive :|

There were 4 different rooms, ie, processing room, entry room, etc...

 

[WhiteZero]

Also, with these really old, original computer, originated the word "debug"; due to a moth flying into one of the components, causing the machine to not work. After the removal of the fried moth and replacment of the part, the machine worked again. Thusly, debugging it.
True story.

 

[FictiousWill]

The transistor is pretty well soley responsible for the size shrinkage you see today. Able to perform the same actions as a vacuum tube without the same fragility and size limitations, the transistor is really one of the most amazing inventions of the 20th century.

The first computers were so big not because they decided ahead of time that they were going to be, but because they had to be. Also computers cost hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars to produce. There was no standard process for it. There's loads of computer history online. Honestly, you guys are laughing at machines that are younger than vinyl records, and you sure as hell know what those are!

 

[Brian Damage]

Interestingly, I once heard that vaccume tubes are still used here-and-there, because unlike transistors, VTs are EMP-resistant. Military hardware and whatnot.

Anyone here of a military background care to confirm or deny?

 

[HunterSeeker]

The first computers were so big not because they decided ahead of time that they were going to be, but because they had to be.

I know, it just puzzles me that anyone could request/get funding for sush a huge and expensive machine that performed sush a simple task as solving simple/little more then simple equotions.

In anycase we have a lot to thank these guys for, they and those who invented the microship pretty much laid the foundation for one of the most used pieaces of advanced technological equipment today.

 

[NeptuneUK]

Interestingly, I once heard that vaccume tubes are still used here-and-there, because unlike transistors, VTs are EMP-resistant. Military hardware and whatnot.

Anyone here of a military background care to confirm or deny?

doesnt matter, wouldnt the EMP screw the rest of the hardware ANYWAY? so it would still be unusable

 

[Ranga]

why did they need a calculator??? i could have told them that "when you multiply 6 by 9 you get 42."

 

[NeptuneUK]

so they could decypher codes and stuff by using simple CALCULATIONS on a computer
little timmy needs help with his maths homework in 1937
flight trajectory etc need calculations too


catcho le drifto?

 

[NASTY9k]

oh god... 6x9 is 54

 

[Ranga]

oh god... 6x9 is 54

it's douglas adams. hitch hikers guide to the galaxy. i forgive u

42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything.

they then spent years trying to work out what the question was. this culminated in the creation of the earth, the work this out. however, the earth was destroyed 5 minutes before the calculation could be completed. they worked out the question later on:

"what do you get when you multiply 6 by 9" is the product of the creation of the earth

 

[dj_flameskull]

without all these, d computer evolution woulndt have started. By now we could still be playing "Half-life 2: Rock Paper and Scissors"

 

[NASTY9k]

never seen it
my bad...

 

[Ranga]

read the book... its so funny

 

[Brian Damage]

doesnt matter, wouldnt the EMP screw the rest of the hardware ANYWAY? so it would still be unusable

Not if the rest of the stuff is resistant as well.

 

[The Monkey]

never seen it
my bad...

Don't see it, read it.

 

[Dasparov]

http://www.tscusers.org/products/first_computer_sm.gif if only i had that processor

 

[NeptuneUK]

http://www.tscusers.org/products/first_computer_sm.gif if only i had that processor

yes, we would all love a 50 hertz processor that takes up the entire house...

 

[PvtRyan]

Yeah, but in a few years/decades we'll also be asking ourselves why computers like IBM's Blue Gene were so freakin' huge compared to our sweet quantum computers that can fit in your pocket and still be faster. It's progress.

 

[Bullseye]

yes, we would all love a 50 hertz processor that takes up the entire house...

lol thats not 40 hertz.. more like between 0,5 and 1,5 hertz. funny, considering that we can have thousands the size of a pack of cards