Retro delight: Gallery of early computers (1940s – 1960s)

“Below we have listed as many as 19 examples of computers from
the early days, pioneering efforts that although cutting edge in
their day now look lovingly retro.

“These computers didn’t use the same kind of components as
we do today. The computers in the 1940s and 1950s were mostly based
on vacuum tubes. Transistors showed up late in the game, and
integrated circuits were just a distant dream and didn’t
start showing up in computers until the 1960s, and then in very
limited capacity. How tempting it would be to travel back in time
and show the engineers of these computers a normal modern-day PC,
just to see their reaction.

“We have listed the completion year for each computer, although
often work on them had begun several years earlier (they were huge
projects). We’ve arranged them in chronological order, oldest
first. Please note that these are just a sample, there are plenty
we didn’t include (in order to make this a blog post and not
a book 🙂 ).”

Complete Story