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Cyhist Apr 25 1997 C
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Date: Fri, 25 Apr 1997 15:32:40 -0400
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: "A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security"
<PADGETT@HOBBES.ORL.MMC.COM>
Subject: CM> "That is I think we disagree" (was reconstructing Colossus)
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
>Mike O'Brien's interesting posting re Colossus made me think a bit about the "first electronic digital computer." Personally, I can't buy the idea that a special-purpose machine qualifies.
A lot of the early computers had programs "stored" on plugboards. Many today are "special purpose". If you think og the logic as the "microcode" and the tape being operated on as the "program" then clearly the Colossus could run many "programs".
>From that standpoint, the use of punched tape storage certainly made it
equivalent to the computers of the sixties/seventies such as the PDPs. *And for them you had to toggle in a bootstrap before the tape would load.*
Or as another example consider the IBM PC: It is a "fixed program" as far as the BIOS is concerned - at the bottom level all current computers are fixed operation, is really the definition of a state machine.
Anyone care to wager that a "program" could not be developed in which Colossus would resolve the values "one" and "three" and produce "four" ?
Warmly,
Padgett
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: "A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security"
<PADGETT@HOBBES.ORL.MMC.COM>
Subject: CM> "That is I think we disagree" (was reconstructing Colossus)
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
>Mike O'Brien's interesting posting re Colossus made me think a bit about the "first electronic digital computer." Personally, I can't buy the idea that a special-purpose machine qualifies.
A lot of the early computers had programs "stored" on plugboards. Many today are "special purpose". If you think og the logic as the "microcode" and the tape being operated on as the "program" then clearly the Colossus could run many "programs".
>From that standpoint, the use of punched tape storage certainly made it
equivalent to the computers of the sixties/seventies such as the PDPs. *And for them you had to toggle in a bootstrap before the tape would load.*
Or as another example consider the IBM PC: It is a "fixed program" as far as the BIOS is concerned - at the bottom level all current computers are fixed operation, is really the definition of a state machine.
Anyone care to wager that a "program" could not be developed in which Colossus would resolve the values "one" and "three" and produce "four" ?
Warmly,
Padgett
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