Oldest machine

[Brent Hilpert]

...not the earliest, but just for the record:
 
 HP 2116C (1969/70)

Hardware is all functioning and I've written some programs and a monitor/system for
it but I'd like to find original (period) software to run on it.


Jules Richardson wrote:
> I suppose I'm just curious as to what systems from the 1940's to 1970's have
> survived, as most of the talk on here seems to be of more recent (1970's and
> 1980's) hardware and very little gets said about the earlier stuff.

This is partly why I collect 60s-era calculators. They are examples of complex digital
systems (ALU,memory,I/O,control - everything but the general-purpose/stored-program),
available in discrete and SSI implementations, but more available and manageable
(size/weight/power) than full computer systems of the era.

Digital frequency counters from the 50s/60s also provide examples of early
digital technology, constructed using the same sorts of circuitry and
techniques as computers of the same era). I keep a couple of vacuum-tube-based
digital counters around, along with discrete-transistor and SSI versions, as comparable
examples of the generations of digital electronics.
HP tube counters seem to still be around in some quantity (vacuum-tube counters
and logic,
not just NIXIE displays).