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Harwell CADET
The Harwell CADET was the first fully transistorised computer in Europe, and may have been the first fully transistorised computer in the world. The electronics division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, UK built the Harwell Dekatron Computer in 1951, which was an automatic calculator where the decimal arithmetic and memory were electronic, although other functions were performed by relays. By 1953, it was evident that this did not meet AERE's computing needs, and AERE director Sir John Cockcroft encouraged them to design and build a computer using transistors throughout. E. H. Cooke-Yarborough based the design around a 64-kilobyte (65,536 bytes) magnetic drum memory store with multiple moving heads that had been designed at the National Physical Laboratory, UK. By 1953 his team had transistor circuits operating to read and write on a smaller magnetic drum from the Royal Radar Establishment. The machine used a low clock speed of only 58 kHz to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atomic Energy Research Establishment
The Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) was the main centre for atomic energy research and development in the United Kingdom from 1946 to the 1990s. It was created, owned and funded by the British Government. A number of early research reactors were built here starting with GLEEP in 1947 to provide the underlying science and technology behind the design and building of Britain's nuclear reactors such as the Windscale Piles and Calder Hall nuclear power station. To support this an extensive array of research and design laboratories were built to enable research into all aspects of nuclear reactor and fuel design, and the development of pilot plants for fuel reprocessing. The site became a major employer in the Oxford area. In the 1990s demand for government-led research had significantly decreased and the site was subsequently gradually diversified to allow private investment, and was known from 2006 as the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. Founding In 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchester Computers
The Manchester computers were an innovative series of stored-program electronic computers developed during the 30-year period between 1947 and 1977 by a small team at the University of Manchester, under the leadership of Tom Kilburn. They included the world's first stored-program computer, the world's first transistorised computer, and what was the world's fastest computer at the time of its inauguration in 1962. The project began with two aims: to prove the practicality of the Williams tube, an early form of computer memory based on standard cathode-ray tubes (CRTs); and to construct a machine that could be used to investigate how computers might be able to assist in the solution of mathematical problems. The first of the series, the Manchester Baby, ran its first program on 21 June 1948. As the world's first stored-program computer, the Baby, and the Manchester Mark 1 developed from it, quickly attracted the attention of the United Kingdom government, who contracted the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One-of-a-kind Computers
One of a Kind may refer to: Film and television * ''One of a Kind'' (film), a 2013 French film * ''One of a Kind'' (game show), a 1958–1959 Canadian panel show * ''One of a Kind'' (TV series), a 1978 Canadian children's series * "One of a Kind" (''Brandy & Mr. Whiskers''), a television episode * "One of a Kind" (''Danny Phantom''), a television episode Music Albums * ''One of a Kind'' (Bruford album) or the title song, 1979 * ''One of a Kind'' (Dave Grusin album), 1977 * ''One of a Kind'' (Moe Bandy album) or the title song, 1979 * ''One of a Kind'' (Pandora album) or the title song (see below), 1993 * ''One of a Kind'' (Tammy Wynette album) or the title song (see below), 1977 * ''One of a Kind'' (G-Dragon EP) or the title song (see below), 2012 * ''One of a Kind'' (Monsta X EP), 2021 * ''One of a Kind'', by Della Reese, 1978 * ''One of a Kind'', by Orleans, or the title song, 1982 Songs * "One of a Kind" (G-Dragon song), 2012 * "One of a Kind" (Pandora song), 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transistors
upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electrical power, power. The transistor is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminals for connection to an electronic circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Some transistors are packaged individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits. Austro-Hungarian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld proposed the concept of a field-effect transistor in 1926, but it was not possible to actually construct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferranti Mercury
The Mercury was an early commercial computer from the mid-1950s built by Ferranti. It was the successor to the Ferranti Mark 1, adding a floating point unit for improved performance, and increased reliability by replacing the Williams tube memory with core memory and using more solid-state components. The computer had roughly 2000 vacuum tubes (mostly type CV2179/A2134 pentodes, EL81 pentodes and CV2493/ECC88 double triodes) and 2000 germanium diodes. Nineteen Mercuries were sold before Ferranti moved on to newer designs. Predecessor: Mark I When the Mark I started running in 1951, reliability was poor. The primary concern was the drum memory system, which broke down all the time. Additionally, the machine used 4,200 thermionic valves, mostly EF50 pentodes and diodes that had to be replaced constantly. The Williams tubes, used as random-access memory and registers, were reliable but required constant maintenance. As soon as the system went into operation, teams started looking at s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Numerical Analysis
Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of numerical methods that attempt at finding approximate solutions of problems rather than the exact ones. Numerical analysis finds application in all fields of engineering and the physical sciences, and in the 21st century also the life and social sciences, medicine, business and even the arts. Current growth in computing power has enabled the use of more complex numerical analysis, providing detailed and realistic mathematical models in science and engineering. Examples of numerical analysis include: ordinary differential equations as found in celestial mechanics (predicting the motions of planets, stars and galaxies), numerical linear algebra in data analysis, and stochastic differential equations and Markov chains for simulating living cells in medicine a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Flowers, Baron Flowers
Brian Hilton Flowers, Baron Flowers FRS (13 September 1924 – 25 June 2010) was a British physicist, academician, and public servant. Early life and studies The son of the Rev. Harold Joseph Flowers and Mrs Marian Flowers, Brian Hilton Flowers was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. He was educated in Swansea at Bishop Gore School, where a teacher, Mr Foukes, encouraged his interest in physics. He went on to study at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was graduated Master of Arts, and afterwards at the University of Birmingham, where he gained a Doctor of Science degree. Career Flowers worked on the Anglo-Canadian Atomic Energy Project Tube Alloys from 1944 to 1946, he researched in nuclear physics and atomic energy at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) from 1946 to 1950 and was member of the department of mathematical physics at the University of Birmingham from 1950 to 1952. In 1952, he became the head of the theoretical physics division at AERE, hol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IBM 608
The IBM 608 Transistor Calculator, a plugboard-programmable unit, was the first IBM product to use transistor circuits without any vacuum tubes and is believed to be the world's first all-transistorized calculator to be manufactured for the commercial market. Announced in April 1955, it was released in December 1957. The 608 was withdrawn from marketing in April 1959. History The chief designer of the circuits used in the IBM 608 was Robert A. Henle, who later oversaw the development of emitter-coupled logic (ECL) class of circuits. The development of the 608 was preceded by the prototyping of an experimental all-transistor version of the 604. Although this was built and demonstrated in October 1954, it was not commercialized. To spur the adoption of transistor technology, shortly before the first IBM 608 shipped, Tom Watson directed that a date be set after which no new vacuum-tube-based products would be released. This decision constrained IBM product managers, who otherwise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vacuum Tubes
A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. The type known as a thermionic tube or thermionic valve utilizes thermionic emission of electrons from a hot cathode for fundamental electronic functions such as signal amplification and current rectification. Non-thermionic types such as a vacuum phototube, however, achieve electron emission through the photoelectric effect, and are used for such purposes as the detection of light intensities. In both types, the electrons are accelerated from the cathode to the anode by the electric field in the tube. The simplest vacuum tube, the diode (i.e. Fleming valve), invented in 1904 by John Ambrose Fleming, contains only a heated electron-emitting cathode and an anode. Electrons can only flow in one direction through the device—from the cathode to the an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TRADIC
The TRADIC (for TRAnsistor DIgital Computer or TRansistorized Airborne DIgital Computer) was the first transistorized computer in the USA, completed in 1954. The computer was built by Jean Howard Felker of Bell Labs for the United States Air Force while L.C. Brown ("Charlie Brown") was a lead engineer on the project, which started in 1951. The project initially examined the feasibility of constructing a transistorized airborne digital computer. A second application was a transistorized digital computer to be used in a Navy track-while-scan shipboard radar system. Several models were completed: TRADIC Phase One computer, Flyable TRADIC, Leprechaun (using germanium alloy junction transistors in 1956) and XMH-3 TRADIC. TRADIC Phase One was developed to explore the feasibility, in the laboratory, of using transistors in a digital computer that could be used to solve aircraft bombing and navigation problems. Flyable TRADIC was used to establish the feasibility of using an airborne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breadboard
A breadboard, solderless breadboard, or protoboard is a construction base used to build semi-permanent prototypes of electronic circuits. Unlike a perfboard or stripboard, breadboards do not require soldering or destruction of tracks and are hence reusable. For this reason, breadboards are also popular with students and in technological education. A variety of electronic systems may be prototyped by using breadboards, from small analog and digital circuits to complete central processing units (CPUs). Compared to more permanent circuit connection methods, modern breadboards have high parasitic capacitance, relatively high resistance, and less reliable connections, which are subject to jostle and physical degradation. Signaling is limited to about 10 MHz, and not everything works properly even well below that frequency. History In the early days of radio, amateurs nailed bare copper wires or terminal strips to a wooden board (often literally a bread cutting board) and solde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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