Let's build a Babbage

摘要

In 1837 British mathematician Charles Babbage described a mechanical computer that later became known as the Analytical Engine. Calling it a computer is nc stretch: the Analytical Engine had a central processing unit and memory and would have been programmed with punched cards Parts of the Analytical Engine were built in the 1800s and are on display in the Science Museur in London along with a stack of punched cards. But Babbage never completed the project. The computer was an extension of his well-known Difference Engine, which was designed to calculate tables of numbers such as logarithms.