A lovely day at Bletchley Computer Museum

[top204]

I thank you so much for yesterday Charlie, and I cannot thank Tim enough for actually driving me there.

It was a wonderful day meeting you and Ricardo and friends, and the computers there are a marvel, and show how much of a genius the people were back in the 1940s. I felt like a spoilt kid, being allowed to go inside the perimeter lines to be so close to the beautiful machines, and to actually touch some of them.

Also, thanks to Charles and his colleaques there, I actually learned quite a lot, that I thought I actually already knew. But I was wrong. Tommy Flowers and his friends were geniuses when I found out some of the electronics behind the Collossus computer, and it also gave me a different understanding of Alan Turing when I saw the Bombe machine working, and I am still trying to figure out how it worked, so I can try and create a software emulator of some kind. He and his colleaques were beyond geniuses.

Will you be creating an article on your excellent 803 emulator Charlie? Wow... The actual 803 computer, that we actually saw operating, had a working mechanism I never imagined was possible back then, and the lovely Dekatrons made it also look so beautiful. :-) A "Really Reduced Instruction Set Computer". i.e. 'RRISC' :-)

Again, many thanks Charlie for a wonderful day.

[charliecoutas]

It was an absolute pleasure Les. You were like a little boy in a wonderful toyshop, your face said it all. It was gratifying to give something back to you, because you give so much to our community.

Yes, thanks Tim for organising the trip, it was also a pleasure to meet Ricardio and his friends. It's funny, you think you know somebody from their forum activities. But (in my limited experience) to actually meet them makes it far more "real".

Don't you read this bit Les: for those of you who haven't met Les (I hadn't), he is a lovely, warm, friendly, funny guy who has the curiosity of 1000 cats. I had to drag him away from some exhibits otherwise he would still be there today. Tim took some photos and he will no doubt post some of them?

Good to have met you, at last.

Charlie

[John Drew]

What a wonderful two posts.
Thanks to Tim and Charlie for arranging the visit for our good friend Les.
I'm jealous Les, I wish I was there.
All the best
John

[charliecoutas]

G'day John

Hop on a plane and I'll show you round!!

Les: I forgot to reply about the 803 Simulator. Yes, I'll write it up. It's a big chunk of Positron but it might be of interest.

Charlie

[top204]

Don't forget to add Dekatron images spinning around on the graphic LCD part of the emulator. :-)

I look forward to seeing the code and write-up.

P.S. I didn't read that part of the above post. :-) But, those lovely words actually made my eyes glaze over with joy, and my wife Rachel thanks you and Tim for getting me out of her hair for a day (her actual words when she read your lovely email and post). :-)
Les

[top204]

Below is a link to the BBC Comedy series named "Hut 33", that I talked about Charlie, which is set at Bletchley "during the wauwer". :-) It is a very good comedy.

Hut 33

It is on the "Internet Archive " site, so it can be downloaded as MP3 files, or listend too on the site, until it is moved or removed, so I always download and store, so I can listen at any time.

Unfortunately, the MP3 files in the link and for all of the series in a single file, and not individual episodes, but they can be skipped in the player you use.

My favourite episode is called "Big Machine" and is series 2, episode 6.

[charliecoutas]

Les, you are mixing some machines up. The "spinning decatrons" are on the Witch, an electromechanical decimal computer with 9 instructions. You named it "Reduced reduced instruction set". That machine was used to calculate nuclear reactor and bomb designs at the Atomic Energy Authority at Harwell. You saw so much yesterday that I'm not surprised.

The little desktop sized emulator is my version of the Elliott 803, a very popular machine in the 60's and 70's. I can write that one up but there won't be any spinning decatrons!

Charlie

[top204]

My mistake Charlie.

Too many computers, too little time. :-)