TALLY STICK

was an ancient
memory aid device
used to record and
document numbers,
quantities, or even
messages. Tally
sticks first appear as
animal bones carved with notches, in theUpper
Paleolithic; a notable example is the Ishango Bone.
Historical reference is made by Pliny the Elder (AD 23
79) about the best wood to use for tallies, and by Marco
Polo (12541324) who mentions the use of the tally in
China. Tallies have been used for numerous purposes
such as messaging and scheduling, and especially in
financial and legal transactions, to the point of
beingcurrency.
ANTIKYTHERA

is an ancient analog
computer[1][2][3][4]designed to
predict astronomical positio
ns
and eclipses for calendrica
l andastrological purposes,
[5][6][7]
as well as
the Olympiads, the cycles
of theancient Olympic
Games.[8]
Found housed in a 340 mm 180 mm
90 mm wooden box, the device is a
complex clockwork mechanism composed of
at least 30 meshing bronzegears. Its remains
were found as 82 separate fragments, of
which only seven contain any gears or
significant inscriptions.[9][10] The largest gear
(clearly visible in Fragment A at right) is
approximately 140 mm in diameter and
originally had 223 teeth.
ZEUS Z3
In 1940 Z2 was
successfully
demonstrated to
the Deutschen
Versuchsanstalt
fr Luftfahrt and
Zuse obtained
partially funding
for the
development of
his third
computer, Z3,
which he began to
build in 1939. Z3
(see the lower photo) was ready in the spring of 1941, and in
May, 1941, it was presented to the scientists in Berlin. Z3 and
was built completely out of relays (600 for the arithmetic
unit, 1400 for the memory and 400 for the control unit). In
all other aspects it was similar to Z1 and Z2: it used binary
numeral system and floating-point numbers, a floating-point
arithmetic unit with two 22-bit registers, storage capacity of
64 words with 22 bit word length, control via 8-channel tape
(i.e., a command consisted of 8 bits). The input was via a
special keyboard. Output by displaying the results on light
stripe including the location of the decimal commas. It was a
little bit faster5,33 Hz. The principle of work of the
machine however, was improved, introducing some
parallelism: a 22-bit word of data could be moved from the
memory to the Register R1 and vice versa in one step (clock
cycle). The same holds true for the arithmetic unit, where,
amongst other things, parallel adders were used
Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine

The Manchester Small-Scale

Experimental Machine (SSEM),
nicknamed Baby, was the world's
first stored-program computer. It was
built at the Victoria University of
Manchester, England, by Frederic C.
Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff
Tootill, and ran its first program on 21
June 1948.[1]
The machine was not intended to be
a practical computer but was instead
designed as a testbed for
the Williams tube, an early form of
computer memory. Although
considered "small and primitive" by
the standards of its time, it was the
first working machine to contain all
the elements essential to a modern
electronic computer.[2] As soon as the
SSEM had demonstrated the
feasibility of its design, a project was
initiated at the university to develop it
into a more usable computer,
theManchester Mark 1. The Mark 1 in
turn quickly became the prototype for
the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first
commercially available general-
purpose computer.[3