THE WORLD'S oldest complete computer has been moved to the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, where volunteers plan to restore it to full working order. As the historic Harwell/WITCH computer arrived at the museum, UKAEA announced that it would take up a share in the restoration project, alongside initial sponsor Insight Software. The computer was built in 1951 at what was then the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, using electromagnetic relays, radio valves and 900 Dekatron gas-filled tubes that could each hold a single digit in memory. Programs were stored on paper tape.
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