The Largest Computer Ever Built

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What was as big as a building, weighed 300 tons and had less computing power than an old 386 computer? The largest computer ever built, that's what.

Each of the 27 computers that made up the system was a dual core 32 bit CPU made of 60,000 vacuum tubes 175,000 diodes, and 12,000 of those newfangled transistors. Memory: 256k of magnetic core RAM (invented for this project) clocking in every 6 microseconds. These things weighed 300 tons, consumed 3 megawatts of electrical power and ran a blistering 75,000 operations per second.
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its the WOPR?!
 
I bet it could play the hell out of "Global Thermo-nuclear War"
 
It is precisely things like this that give Al Gore such a swelled head about the internet.
 
This is one of the arguments i use for military spending. Sure, it cost a lot, and looks somewhat stupid by todays standards. But at the time it was cutting edge. And the technology that was pioneered building this expensive outdated as soon as it was build boondogle, sure as hell filtered down into the computers we sue today.

Research has to be paid for. Private companies don't invest in "blue sky" research, so that leaves the government. I wish the old bell lads were still around, that place was a hotbed of pure research. And paid for by a government supervised monopoly. But the research was golden. Look at what came out of bell labs in the glory days. We're still using tech that was developed back then.
 
spugnor said:
This is one of the arguments i use for military spending. Sure, it cost a lot, and looks somewhat stupid by todays standards. But at the time it was cutting edge. And the technology that was pioneered building this expensive outdated as soon as it was build boondogle, sure as hell filtered down into the computers we sue today.

Research has to be paid for. Private companies don't invest in "blue sky" research, so that leaves the government. I wish the old bell lads were still around, that place was a hotbed of pure research. And paid for by a government supervised monopoly. But the research was golden. Look at what came out of bell labs in the glory days. We're still using tech that was developed back then.
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:)
 
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