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 University of Manchester Computing Museum 
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Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2015 6:13 pm
Posts: 7
I had a meeting at the University of Manchester computing department last week and I took the opportunity to visit their 'computer museum' which is spread out across the Kilburn building, there are some fine exhibits in there.

I took photos on my phone but they aren't great but I did find it facinating particularly the Atlas built in conjunction with Ferranti. In 1962 it had 48bit word size and 24 million word address bus!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_%28computer%29

There were also parts of 'Baby' which was built in 1948
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Small-Scale_Experimental_Machine

I've attached a few photos of the Atlas ROM. For an idea of scale this is a 2 metre high cabinet.

I hope I'm not breaking some post rule attaching the photos.

Regards,

Chris


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Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:56 pm
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Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2013 6:54 pm
Posts: 1780
Thanks for the trip report! I've been considering a trip to MOSI, where they have some computing exhibits (Hartree analyser and a replica Baby), but this sounds like a different place presumably nearby.
The Atlas is described as the first supercomputer - "The Atlas was 100x faster than its predecessors, and the deployment of the first Atlas increased the compute power in the UK by a factor of six." There are some relevant posts including some videos over at
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities ... 53/s/atlas


Tue Jun 16, 2015 5:18 am
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Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2015 6:13 pm
Posts: 7
Thanks for the link Ed I'll take a look.

I found it fascinating that they used a group of weavers to make the wiring mesh but I guess it was taking advantage of an existing skill set just using the medium of wire instead of yarn, an idea that is quite innovate in its own right.


Tue Jun 16, 2015 8:56 am
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