Old Computer Technology

• Description of the Elliot 405 series computers, sophisticated computers from 1952-58.
  The actual run-times quoted in the original paper on Quicksort were taken from tests on an Elliott 405.
  
  
• Specifications of a Magnetic Drum storage device from 1957, some Univac drums, and a well-used drum without its clothes on.
  
  
• Specifications of a Disc Drive from 1965, with pictures.
  
  
• Pictures of magnetic core memory at various degrees of magnification, up to 20,000 pixels per inch: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
  
  
• Pictures of Magnetic Tape drives: one close up, a room full of them.
  
  
• Pictures of Mercury Delay Line storage devices: just the tubes, a whole assembly.
  
  
• A picture of a Nickel Delay Line storage device
  
  
• Pictures of Colossus, the world's first real computer, operational in 1943.