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Simon (computer)
Simon was a relay-based electromechanical computer, described by Edmund Berkeley in a series of thirteen construction articles in '' Radio-Electronics'' magazine, from October 1950. Intended for the educational purpose of demonstrating the concept of a digital computer, it could not be used for any significant practical computation since it handled only 2-bit numbers (values 0 through 3) and had only 32 bits (16 2-bit registers) of memory. A working model was first built by two graduate students at Columbia University for less than US$300 ($ in 2022 dollars) in parts. Some have described it as the "first personal computer", at ''Blinkenlights Archaeological Institute''. Accessed: March 15, 2008. although its extremely limited capacity and its unsuitability for use for any purpose other than as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Relay
A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch. It has a set of input terminals for one or more control signals, and a set of operating contact terminals. The switch may have any number of contacts in multiple contact forms, such as make contacts, break contacts, or combinations thereof. Relays are used to control a circuit by an independent low-power signal and to control several circuits by one signal. They were first used in long-distance telegraph circuits as signal repeaters that transmit a refreshed copy of the incoming signal onto another circuit. Relays were used extensively in telephone exchanges and early computers to perform logical operations. The traditional electromechanical relay uses an electromagnet to close or open the contacts, but relays using other operati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Arithmetic Logic Unit
In computing, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) is a Combinational logic, combinational digital circuit that performs arithmetic and bitwise operations on integer binary numbers. This is in contrast to a floating-point unit (FPU), which operates on floating point numbers. It is a fundamental building block of many types of computing circuits, including the central processing unit (CPU) of computers, FPUs, and graphics processing units (GPUs). The inputs to an ALU are the data to be operated on, called operands, and a code indicating the operation to be performed (opcode); the ALU's output is the result of the performed operation. In many designs, the ALU also has status inputs or outputs, or both, which convey information about a previous operation or the current operation, respectively, between the ALU and external status registers. Signals An ALU has a variety of input and output net (electronics), nets, which are the electrical conductors used to convey Digital signal (electroni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Electro-mechanical Computers
Electromechanics combine processes and procedures drawn from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Electromechanics focus on the interaction of electrical and mechanical systems as a whole and how the two systems interact with each other. This process is especially prominent in systems such as those of DC or AC rotating electrical machines which can be designed and operated to generate power from a mechanical process (Electric generator, generator) or used to power a mechanical effect (Electric motor, motor). Electrical engineering in this context also encompasses electronic engineering, electronics engineering. Electromechanical devices are ones which have both electrical and mechanical processes. Strictly speaking, a manually operated switch is an electromechanical component due to the mechanical movement causing an electrical output. Though this is true, the term is usually understood to refer to devices which involve an electrical signal to create mechanical mov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Charles Babbage Institute
The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, it advises historians, promotes collaboration among academic organizations and museums, and assists IT corporations in preparing and archiving their histories for future studies. Activities The IT History Society provides background information to those with an interest in the history of Information Technology, including papers that provide advice on how to perform historical work and how historical activities can benefit private sector organizations. It tracks historical projects seeking funding as well as projects underway and completed. It maintains online, publicly available, lists of events pertaining to IT history, IT history resources, an IT Honor Roll acknowledging more than 700 individuals who have made a noteworthy contribution ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Greater Than
In mathematics, an inequality is a relation which makes a non-equal comparison between two numbers or other mathematical expressions. It is used most often to compare two numbers on the number line by their size. The main types of inequality are less than and greater than (denoted by and , respectively the less-than and greater-than signs). Notation There are several different notations used to represent different kinds of inequalities: * The notation ''a'' ''b'' means that ''a'' is greater than ''b''. In either case, ''a'' is not equal to ''b''. These relations are known as strict inequalities, meaning that ''a'' is strictly less than or strictly greater than ''b''. Equality is excluded. In contrast to strict inequalities, there are two types of inequality relations that are not strict: * The notation ''a'' ≤ ''b'' or ''a'' ⩽ ''b'' or ''a'' ≦ ''b'' means that ''a'' is less than or equal to ''b'' (or, equivalently, at most ''b'', or not greater than ''b''). * The not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Computer Data Storage
Computer data storage or digital data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and Data storage, recording media that are used to retain digital data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers. The central processing unit (CPU) of a computer is what manipulates data by performing computations. In practice, almost all computers use a storage hierarchy, which puts fast but expensive and small storage options close to the CPU and slower but less expensive and larger options further away. Generally, the fast technologies are referred to as "memory", while slower persistent technologies are referred to as "storage". Even the first computer designs, Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine and Percy Ludgate's Analytical Machine, clearly distinguished between processing and memory (Babbage stored numbers as rotations of gears, while Ludgate stored numbers as displacements of rods in shuttles). This distinction was extended in the Von Neumann archite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Front Panel
A front panel was used on early electronic computers to display and allow the alteration of the state of the machine's internal CPU register, registers and computer memory, memory. The front panel usually consisted of arrays of electric light, indicator lamps, digit and symbol displays, toggle switches, dials, and push-button, push buttons mounted on a sheet metal face plate. In early machines, Cathode-ray tube, CRTs might also be present (as an oscilloscope, or, for example, to mirror the contents of Williams tube, Williams–Kilburn tube memory). Prior to the development of CRT system consoles, many computers such as the IBM 1620 had console typewriters. Usually the contents of one or more hardware registers would be represented by a row of lights, allowing the contents to be read directly when the machine was stopped. The switches allowed direct entry of data and address values into registers or memory. Details On some machines, certain lights and switches were reserved f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Keypunch
A keypunch is a device for precisely punching holes into stiff paper cards at specific locations as determined by keys struck by a human operator. Other devices included here for that same function include the gang punch, the pantograph punch, and the stamp. The term was also used for similar machines used by humans to transcribe data onto punched tape media. For Jacquard looms, the resulting punched cards were joined together to form a paper tape, called a "chain", containing a Program (machine), program that, when read by a loom, directed its operation.Bell, T.F. (1895) '' Jacquard Weaving and Designing'', Longmans, Green And Co. For Unit record equipment, Hollerith machines and other Unit record equipment, unit record machines the resulting punched cards contained Data (computing), data to be processed by those machines. For computers equipped with a punched card input/output device the resulting punched cards were either data or programs directing the computer's operation. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Processor Registers
A processor register is a quickly accessible location available to a computer's processor. Registers usually consist of a small amount of fast storage, although some registers have specific hardware functions, and may be read-only or write-only. In computer architecture, registers are typically addressed by mechanisms other than main memory, but may in some cases be assigned a memory address e.g. DEC PDP-10, ICT 1900. Almost all computers, whether load/store architecture or not, load items of data from a larger memory into registers where they are used for arithmetic operations, bitwise operations, and other operations, and are manipulated or tested by machine instructions. Manipulated items are then often stored back to main memory, either by the same instruction or by a subsequent one. Modern processors use either static or dynamic random-access memory (RAM) as main memory, with the latter usually accessed via one or more cache levels. Processor registers are normally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Edmund Berkeley
Edmund Callis Berkeley (March 21, 1909 – March 7, 1988) was an American computer scientist who co-founded the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in 1947. His 1949 book ''Giant Brains, or Machines That Think'' popularized cognitive images of early computers. He was also a social activist who worked to achieve conditions that might minimize the threat of nuclear war. Biography Berkeley attended St. Bernard's School and Phillips Exeter Academy. He received a BA in Mathematics and Logic from Harvard in 1930. He pursued a career as an insurance actuary at Prudential Insurance from 1934–1948, except for service in the United States Navy during World War II. Berkeley saw George Stibitz's calculator at Bell Laboratories in 1939, and the Harvard Mark I in 1942. In November 1946 he drafted a specification for "Sequence Controlled Calculators for the Prudential", which led to signing a contract with the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in 1947 for one of the first UNI ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Punched Tape
file:PaperTapes-5and8Hole.jpg, Five- and eight-hole wide punched paper tape file:Harwell-dekatron-witch-10.jpg, Paper tape reader on the Harwell computer with a small piece of five-hole tape connected in a circle – creating a physical program loop Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data storage that consists of a long strip of paper through which small holes are punched. It was developed from and was subsequently used alongside punched cards, the difference being that the tape is continuous. Punched cards, and chains of punched cards, were used for control of looms in the 18th century. Use for telegraphy systems started in 1842. Punched tapes were used throughout the 19th and for much of the 20th centuries for programmable looms, teleprinter communication, for input to computers of the 1950s and 1960s, and later as a storage medium for minicomputers and Numerical control, CNC machine tools. During the Second World War, high-speed punched tape systems using opti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |