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What's the oldest computer you've seen in use today?


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Wow, an actual computer with flashing lights. I wish computers had more flashing lights. Isn't it the future yet?

The lights are on the input/output boards mostly; they indicate if an input or out put in on or off. Someone familiar with this system would be able to spot an issue in the system with one look (one stuck valve that stays open or closed when it should be in the opposite state would have a light on or off when it shouldn't).

Modern PLC doesn't feature LEDS or more rarely since their processing power improved and the informations are displayed on color LCD display, or to a computer, or they send alerts on SMS/phone/email.

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Makes me wonder what is the oldest computer still operationnal, BTW.

 

One super cheat I could draw is a factory not so far of where I live - they are the only ones (according to them) to still manually work on horsehair to make fabric of various use, and their factory use 1850's ish Jacquard looms, and more exceptionnal is that they use a late 1790's machine to punch new cards for the jacquard looms. It might be the oldest punching machine still in operation as of today.

 

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Of course we're moving from computers to automated machines - but those Jacquard looms still use punched cards, so it's a kind of program.

 

Another antique factory here is the Bohin needles makers, but their machines aren't automated :D

Edited by CatPix
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Probably cheating a little but I discovered the museum ship HMS Belfast in London contains an electromechanical Fire Control Table which was used to calculate gunnery ranges. I seem to remember reading somewhere that they got it working again recently.

Many WWII ships and submarines had something similar, but I'm not sure I'd say they are still in use. :D

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Of course we're moving from computers to automated machines - but those Jacquard looms still use punched cards, so it's a kind of program.

 

When I did an Intro to Computers class in about the mid-1980s, one of the first examples presented in the textbook was a Jacquard loom. It was (and obviously still is) a programmable device. I would definitely count it.

 

While it is a modern reproduction rather than an original, there is also Charles Babbage's Difference Engine.

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When I did an Intro to Computers class in about the mid-1980s, one of the first examples presented in the textbook was a Jacquard loom. It was (and obviously still is) a programmable device. I would definitely count it.

 

While it is a modern reproduction rather than an original, there is also Charles Babbage's Difference Engine.

The Babbage machine was never finished, so I'm not sure it counts as a reproduction.

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It would be nice to have more pics.

I found another source where it said that this was in Gdansk (Poland - unless there is a Gdansk in the US? Might not be impossible).

I fidn the way the screen is a bit strange; I know that some cheap monitor displayed the picture in a bit of a crooked way, but this one does look more crooked that is should. A bit off.

Also, Ex-USSR monitors were just black and white TVs, they produced little to no green home monitors, so if should be in black and white.

 

But maybe this picture is perfectly legit and the monitor just off specs. Maybe the picture is genuine but the monitor was off when the guy took the pic and he added a green screen to make it more alive.

Tho the writing on the screen seems to be Polish. Can be perfectly legit.

Edited by CatPix
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The Babbage machine was never finished, so I'm not sure it counts as a reproduction.

True. Georg and Edvard Scheutz from Sweden though troubleshot Babbage's difference engine and produced mostly working specimens still in Babbage's lifetime, so if you like to count those together, it kind of got finished.

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http://m.ebay.com/itm/361764963369?_trkparms=pageci:017f68ea-8fad-11e6-97bb-74dbd1a00ec0%7Cparentrq:b3af41d31570a5e0b88fc251fffc40b5%7Ciid:5&_mwBanner=1

I use one of these still today. The kids always grab the laptop for simple diagnostics but I can read a engine or abs fault in 15 seconds from boot up to reading the code. They call it the gameboy and laugh but hey it works. It is cartridge based been around for at least 25 years. Have to change carts for each vehicle and different adapters for sifferent ones that look exactly the same but pins must be different. There is an adapter that you can run smaller carts on it as well. Seen the adapter on ebay for 400usd. Most likely it is 8 bit tech.

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Pretty much yeah, given the year written on the back of the label, it gotta be based on 8080/Z80 or 65c02, as they were common. It's dubious they even bothered to blow cash on a 16 bits CPU for that use.

Maybe they could have used a slower but power efficient 8 bits or 4 bits calculator CPU, or used a microcontroller such as the Intel 8048 which was hugely popular (and still appears in some appliances such as TV remotes) - it's also the brains of the Odyssey2.

 

If I were to bet, I'd go on the microcontroller way.

Awesome find, BTW. Like PLC, I'm sure there is several embedded systems around us that have been working for decades.

Edited by CatPix
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  • 6 years later...

Apparently, in the Miyama Textile company in Japan, a 40 years old Sharp MZ-80 is still used... to create punch cards for looms.

(the MZ-80 appears only in the first 2 minutes)

 

(oh, last post in 2016. Ne wonder why it took me a while to find this thread back :D )

Edited by CatPix
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  • 1 month later...
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I'm curious about the status of the various early computer systems used at Disneyland.

 

The Tiki Room, for example, was supposed to have been run via a large room filled with custom computers and special air conditioning.  I keep reading references to the computers "originally" needing an entire room and A/C unit, but I can't actually find information on when/how the original systems were replaced.

 

I'd hazard to guess that some of the older Disneyland computer-based attractions might still have SOME of their original computer systems running, but I'm not sure how to figure that out.

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On 7/26/2023 at 11:20 AM, Mtlatc said:

I use this weekly, is that weird.....

Ha1.jpg

I always wanted to pick up a model 100 and bring it to meetings at work the way others brought their laptops. Missed opportunity.  I should have picked one up, those always seemed like such cool computers.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/7/2023 at 1:12 PM, BydoEmpire said:

I always wanted to pick up a model 100 and bring it to meetings at work the way others brought their laptops. Missed opportunity.  I should have picked one up, those always seemed like such cool computers.

I used an Atari Portfolio for taking notes during meetings back around 2001.  Worked great.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 7/26/2023 at 8:20 AM, Mtlatc said:

I use this weekly, is that weird.....

Ha1.jpg

Nope.  I pull mine out from time to time and use it for notes and small programs.

 

I found a 64 character driver online a while back.  Need to run it on the real hardware  one day.

Edited by potatohead
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I realized I never posted about a pretty amazing example :

Near Moscow, there's a museum focused on Lenin, that opened in 1987. They wanted state-of-the-art technology, but no Soviet company could provide it as there was simply nothing able to sync up light, electric and electronic devices. But the British had it.
And the British company used Apple II computers. So, the Museum set up ghost companies in order to import the display tech and the Apple II computers required.
And as of 2019, the Apple II still run the show.

While for a long time the musem didn't got modernized (for lack of funding and lack of interest from the public at large) the current director said that he wanted to keep the museum as it was in 1987. A sort of museum of a museum (according to visitors, this includes the original captions with all the propaganda lies, although additionnal panels sometime reveal the lies. Sometime)

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"Magic cubes" with animatronics, lights and film projection. All driven by 5 Apple II.

 

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(no pictures of the computers or of the ES400 system themselves, even on andex, tho)

image.thumb.jpeg.5ffc884d0d05b26fee45f70ff8ee9944.jpeg

Edited by CatPix
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