Computing

摘要

Although it looks nothing like today's desktop PC, an analytical engine-designed more than 170 years ago by British mathematics professor Charles Babbage-anticipated the first general-purpose computers by about 100 years.The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., is now displaying a prototype of Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2, which is said to be one of the earliest designs of an automatic computing engine.Babbage first described his machine in 1837, but continued to work on the design until his death in 1871. Because of financial, political, and legal issues, the engine was never actually built during his lifetime.