Sixty years ago the modern computer was born in a lab in Manchester.

fiaz · on June 20, 2008

The room-sized computer's ability to carry out different tasks - without having to be rebuilt - has led some to describe it as the "first modern PC".

Definitely a landmark achievement for humanity, but hardly a "personal computer".

r7000 · on June 20, 2008

This is for a lay-audience.

jamesbritt · on June 21, 2008

How does using "PC" help the lay audience? Would simply using the word "computer" been confusing?

Now the lay audience goes away with false understanding. Who wins with that?

ajross · on June 20, 2008

It's a little spun, I think. Clearly there were earlier computers (like ENIAC and Colossus, which the article mentions) that also pioneered critical innovations. Equally clearly, there were many more inventions to come. The article seems to pick out "program stored in volatile memory" (ENIAC, at least, was hand-programmed offline. I'm not sure about Colossus) as the defining characteristic of the "modern computer".

Meh. I might argue that CMOS VLSI process technology was actually more important, being the biggest "hard part" of figuring out how to manufacture the actual computers we use in modernity. But whatever, everyone has their own favorites I'm sure: do we all get to write articles for the BBC?

_hgt1 · on June 20, 2008

Last weekened I visited my aunt who lives round the corner from the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchetster - it's well worth a visit if you're in the area. http://www.msim.org.uk/