Building a 5-Ton Calculator From 19th-Century Plans

alphadogg writes "Starting in May, many will have the opportunity to see computing done the old-fashioned way: with lots of gears, a big crank, and some muscle. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, will unveil a new construction, the first in the US, of the 19th-century British mathematician Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2, an improved version of his earlier design for a mechanical digital calculator. It weighs in at two tons more than the Difference Engine built in 1991 at London's Science Museum. Microsoft millionaire Nathan Myhrvold commissioned and paid for the US model."

It's cool

[kampangptlk]

But does it run linux?

frock

[Missing_dc]

Does this mean as a sysadmin that I should start wearing my Frock and Tophat and subscribe to the local Victorian club???? :)

We'll know about four years after it's completed

[Ungrounded Lightning]

But does it run linux?

We'll know about four years after it's completed - when it gets done with the boot-up.

Improved model?

[calebt3]

Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2, an improved version of his earlier design for a mechanical digital calculator

Hence the 2...

What if...

[DigitAl56K]

What happens when you divide by zero on a calculator using a physical engine?

Does it explode? Will it create a black hole? Could this be the next doomsday device?

Re:Improved model?

[cyphercell]

were you expecting 1.9? I don't think they used the opensource versioning conventions en vogue today.

Re:It's cool

[calebt3]

Make an emulator and try it ;-}

Re:It's cool

[jellomizer]

No it if you RTFA you will see that it was sponsored by Microsoft.

Re:What if...

[jellomizer]

Being boring I would expect it would Jam. A gear may break off if you force it.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

We do what we must

Because we can.

Re:It's cool

[Waffle Iron]

But does it run linux?

Yes, but first you have to figure out how to approximate Linux as a Taylor series.

Re:What if...

[__aaclcg7560]

Universe 1.0 will come to an end. God -- or the designated higher being of your choice -- will shake His divine head, and create Universe 2.0 with better error handling routines.

You can't necessarily go by version

[Cryacin]

For example:

Windows XP
Vista

Re:Only the difference engine?

[BadAnalogyGuy]

In a nutshell, it's just an old way of saying "it runs programs".

Before we had the formal concept of "programs" (as defined and refined by Backus and Naur), computation machines calculated numbers based on information fed into them on paper tape. A full set of instructions on paper-tape was called a "tour", and while the program was running the computation machine was said to be "touring" or "turing" (Fr). When the end of the tape was reached, the computation machine was said to be in the "turing complete" state (i.e. the tour was complete).

The term "turing complete" came to mean any computer which could run any program fed into it to completion (assuming correct input, of course). We use the term "program" and "run" to talk about computer input nowadays, but we still use the term "turing complete" to describe our general purpose computation devices (computers).

The login screen

[Nimey]

    WELCOME TO THE BABBAGE ANALYTICAL TIMESHARING SERVICE

    PLEASE NOTE THAT THE INTEGRATOR IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE
    DUE TO THE WEEKLY GREASING SCHEDULE. WOULD ALL USERS KINDLY
    RETURN ANY UNUSED PLUGBOARDS, AS THE PROGRAMMING TEAM ARE
    RUNNING LOW. DIVISION UNIT 3 WILL BE OUT OF ACTION UNTIL
    THURSDAY DUE TO EMERGENCY COG REPLACEMENT - PLEASE ENSURE
    THAT YOUR PROGRAM DOES NOT ATTEMPT TO DIVIDE BY ZERO AS
    THIS CAN CAUSE SEVERE DAMAGE (INCLUDING SHAFT BREAKAGES).
.
.
SYSTEM READY.
?

Re:What if...

[eln]

I would hate to think this many bugs made it past the initial release.

I think I speak for everyone when I ask...

[ikono]

Does it blend?

Re:It's cool

[EEPROMS]

But does it run linux?

I heard they are porting Gentoo to the Babage platform (think its called Garbage), should be finished compiling the kernel in about 15 years.

Guess that's why

[Fnord666]

From the FA:

Carol gives the example of multiplying 5 by successive numbers, such as 6, 7, 8. "In simple terms, the method of differences is based on the observation that if the work has already been done to multiply 5 by 5, [then] that work can be reused to multiple 5 by 7 with the addition of another 5 into the previous total," he writes.

I guess that's why the author went into journalism instead of computers.

Re:It's cool

[cheater512]

Hmm...I wouldnt want to put Vista on it in that case.

Lucky the USA is still using obsolete units!

[Anonymous Coward]

They can use the original plans as they are, without that hassle of converting to metric! Bonus!

Re:Turing complete

[stewartjm]

Almost any machine can run that one:
Stack overflow (core dumped)

Re:Meh....

[Tablizer]

Article: Andrew Carol, an Apple software engineer who built a simpler difference engine, entirely of plastic LEGO pieces...

It appears Mr. Babbage should have invented Legos first.
       

Re:Only the difference engine?

[calebt3]

Hint: You are replying to BadAnalogyGuy

Re:What if...

[Torvaun]

Or not turn the crank at all.

GIGO

[Tablizer]

a famous quote: "On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

I remember reading that one of them was a congressman. If so, things haven't changed in 150 years.
       

Re:What if...

[Bronster]

I definitely think it's v2.0 - it shows all the hallmarks of second system syndrome - big, complicated, complete rewrite with all the lessons from the first one thrown out. Yep, v2.0 it is.

(maybe v2.1 now - there was a service pack applied a couple of thousand years ago according to some reports)

Re:It's cool

[Anonymous Coward]

The answer is no, as the Difference Engine [wikipedia.org] is not Turing complete. Charles Babbage realised the errors of his ways though. He repented, abandoned work on his difference engine and commenced work on his Analytical Engine [wikipedia.org]. This new analytical engine was Turing complete and so could run Linux. Unfortunately the desktop version of Linux was delayed until 2004. When he found out about this delay Charles Babbage was broken hearted. Disabled by grief he was unable to complete his analytical engine before his death.

Re:It's cool

[ross.w]

But how much information can it process in Libraries of Congress?

The more important question

[martinw89]

But will it blend?

Sorry, I couldn't resist (8 ton blender? Beowolf Total Blender cluster?)

Re:150 years makes quite a difference

[PCM2]

Quite impressive that in 150 years we can do with less than a gram of silicon what they tried to do with tons of gears and cranks. Makes you wonder what they're gonna be doing in 150 years from now.

Same thing they're doing right now, I expect: Decomposing.

gentoo

[Shadow-isoHunt]

And that's just getting the livecd up. We've still gotta compile everything - "Deep thought" was just throwing an error from make.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Meh....

[BorgCopyeditor]

Also, synthetic polymers and several artificial dyes.

Re:I want to know...

[BorgCopyeditor]

Simple: it's circular.

Re:I want to know...

[dbIII]

Wrong - clearly not your area.

Pi are squared :)

Re:frock

[lgw]

ask how many bits there are defined per byte when somebody counts in bytes

CHAR_BIT, of course! I'm old school enough to get annoyed when somone just assumes '8' in code. :)

Re:It's cool

[Perf]

How many operations can it do in the time it takes light to jump between my knuckles?