This is a classic article from New 杏吧原创鈥檚 archive, republished as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations
ON SHOW in London on 4 December, fresh from a debut in Paris, was a new American electronic digital computer, the Burroughs E 101. This machine is no bigger than a desk, and it is in fact operated by someone sitting at its keyboard. In size, cost and performance it fills a gap between the hand-operated, mechanical 鈥渁dding machines鈥� on the one hand, and the full-scale electronic computers on the other.
The instructions for any calculation are set up in the desired sequence with pegs on a panel rather like a cribbage board. The operator then 鈥渢ypes鈥� the numbers on which the machine is to do its work, and it finally prints out the answer.
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The E 101 is intended chiefly for mathematical, scientific and technical duties, rather than for business. The operator can take advantage of the semi-manual facility of the machine to stop the calculation halfway through, decide how best to continue from that stage, and carry on at once.
This article was originally published in New 杏吧原创 on 6 December 1956
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