Rail trip: Interlude - the Computer

[xenith]

When we went to the Melbourne Museum (to see the Titanic exhibition), we had time to kill beforehand so I headed off for the permanent exhibitions, muttering something about finding the computer. I seemed to remember it being in a side room over there when we visited the museum in 2005, but they've since rearranged everything. It's not exactly something that they'll stick in a back room either. But I knew it wasn't over there or up there because that's where I went last year. We looked above over there, and found some other interesting stuff, (of course, this museum is very full of interesting stuff) and I took photos of some of it.

Then we went and looked at wrecked ship artefacts.

Afterwards, I headed for some seats so I could sit down and address my postcard. (They had no Titanic postcards. I have Titanic postcards. They're not that hard to get. Maybe visitors would buy them instead of the other overpriced stuff in the exhibition gift shop, but postcards can be easily posted or stuck on walls to look, and you can't do that with anything else. The actual museum gift shop though, they have lots of interesting postcards.) Anyway, I dumped by bag on the seat and went off for a toilet break, and when I came back, mother said, "You were looking for the computer?" "Yes." "It's downstairs.

So I went downstairs, and there it was.




CSIRAC:

Australia's first computer, designed and built in Australia. [Ran its first successful test program, November 1949]

The fourth stored-program electronic computer in the world.

The only intact first generation computer left on the plants [Is it? It's the oldest existing stored-program electronic computer, but first generation?]

Also the first computer to play music. (First public performance, June 1951, Colonel Bogey)

It's not operational. I read somewhere, but can't find it now, that the museum believes the repairs required to make it operational would impact too much on its historical integrity.


(From the key)

Front row (L to R):

• Off-line paper tape preparation area (2 x dark grey)
  
• Program and data input units using paper tape (one in each colour)
  
• Operator's console (that's easy)
  
• Data output (x2)

Back row (L to R)

• Power supply
  
• CPU (3 cabinets)
  
• Memory

There's another row at the back (Power supply, disk drive control circuits, auxiliary memory and more memory) but I don't think that's visible here.

Melbourne Museum: CSIRAC 1949-1964