So you think your computer is old? Ha!
Over sixty years young: the Dekatron.
Meet the Harwell Dekatron. It’s world’s oldest programmable digital computer and the UK’s National Museum of Computing has revived it.
The Dekatron was created in the early 1950s for the UK Atomic Energy Research Establishment. And unlike today’s computers, the Dekatron was built to last: it did its thing for 20+ years.
You’ve probably noticed that computers keep shrinking as they get more powerful. Well, here’s where it all started — this big clunker is about the size of a Hummer and has all the juice of a pocket calculator.
We’ve come a long way, baby.
godspeed 