Volunteers aid pioneering Edsac computer rebuild

7th December 2015
 
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Think of a shed and objects like spades, forks and compost in a wooden hut at the end of the garden come to mind.
 
However, in the UK, some very old hardware is being brought back to life in some of those scruffy, but often well-organised, workspaces. In them, a group of veteran engineers is toiling to help recreate the pioneering Edsac computer.
 
Designed by Sir Maurice Wilkes, Edsac first ran in 1949 and was made to serve scientists at the University of Cambridge. It helped them push the boundaries of their disciplines by giving them a tool that could crunch numbers faster than they could ever manage.
 
"The problems they were tackling were not practical using hand-based calculation methods," said James Barr, one of the veterans reconstructing the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator.
 
Edsac quickly proved its usefulness and helped two Cambridge scientists win Nobel prizes.
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34996402