
Early British Computers (1980) - omnibrain
http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/EarlyBritish.html
======
fit2rule
One of my favourite things to hack around with a few decades back was the
EDSAC emulator written in BCPL:

[http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/BCPL/bcplprogs/edsac/](http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/BCPL/bcplprogs/edsac/)

(EDSAC:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Delay_Storage_Automa...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Delay_Storage_Automatic_Calculator))

It was great to be playing with BCPL to emulate these old machines because its
so weird - but everything you need to know to write a machine emulator is in
this funky language from the past .. and was quite approachable.

So one time for fun I ported the BCPL compiler to the GP2X portable gaming
console, just so I could boot up an EDSAC on it and say 'I have one of the
oldest computers in the world in my pocket' .. this before the days of iPhones
and supercomputers in ones pocket, of course.

Well as a result I was lucky enough to have attracted the attention of Mr.
Martin Richards as a result of that port - which I turned over to him after
introducing him to the GPX, and consequently spent a few weeks back and forth
with him talking about the 'golden age of computing' .. what a blast to have
had direct contact with one of the early scientists who brought so much to
this industry.

And nowadays I'm still blown away, even though its 'normal' now, at the sheer
power of emulation that is occurring.. the folks who bring old architectures
to new platforms really get my respect. Nothing like knowing there's a dynarec
going on underneath the layers of the toys that my kids are booting up first
thing in the morning ..

------
agumonkey
Less old, and a little less british: the linn rekursiv was an odd case.
[http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/rekursiv/](http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/rekursiv/)

------
KaiserPro
Both my parents worked on this computers:
[http://ict1301.co.uk/1301ccsx.htm](http://ict1301.co.uk/1301ccsx.htm)

One day, when they stop dicking about at bletchley my daughter will be able to
program it.

