"The Cray-1 is to supercomputers what Sigmund Freud is to psychiatrists. That is to say: it's likely the only one of the bunch that you've heard about, and you can feign cleverness just by dropping the name. So let's take a whack at this computer legend."
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Member since:2005-11-02
The atom bomb was designed using mechanical calculators.
Yes, they were Monroe hand driven mechanical calculators. At Los Alamos they had a very large room filled with locally hired woman operating them. Designing how the calculations were split up amongst the many operators (parallel computing?) was Nobel prizewinner to be and bongo drummer Dick Feynman. His title was "Director of Computers".
This isn't the only contribution Feynman made to computer science. Many years later when his son was working for Connection Machines he took a years sabbatical to work there. While he was there he worked out the foundational principles of quantum computing. he also solved problems in parallel processing using differential equations. No one had ever thought you could solve computer science problems using differential equations before, as they apply to continuous variables. However a continuum can be used to represent an underlying discrete substratum. If we take the idea of quantum gravity seriously, then every time we use differential equations to model physical reality we are doing just that.
Member since:2006-10-08
''Yes, they were Monroe hand driven mechanical calculators. At Los Alamos they had a very large room filled with locally hired woman operating them. [...] [Dick Feynman's] title was "Director of Computers".''
No, not operators - computers. In these days, people doing such kind of calculations were called "computer" (AE) or "computor" (BE) theirselves. "I work as a computer" has been a valid sentence. Today, we use the same term for the device that is operated, not the person who's doing it.
The term operator was present up to... hmm... let's assume 1990 - 2000 when supercomputers and mainframe installations didn't need special personnel to be maintained. The operator of today does not touch the machines anymore, he can be glad to change the paper in the printer - no comparison to the responsibilities of a former OP1 (shift supervisor) at data processing centers.
Member since:
2007-01-13
The atom bomb was designed using mechanical calculators. In the 18th century the British used savants to calculate navigation tables. They needed to be able to mentally calculate 8 figure logarithms.