Analytical Engine (nonfiction)

The Analytical Engine, invented by Charles Babbage. Only part of the machine was completed before his death in 1871. This is a portion of the mill with a printing mechanism.

The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage.

It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, a design for a mechanical computer.

The Analytical Engine incorporated an arithmetic logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops, and integrated memory, making it the first design for a general-purpose computer that could be described in modern terms as Turing-complete.

In other words, the logical structure of the Analytical Engine was essentially the same as that which has dominated computer design in the electronic era.

Babbage was never able to complete construction of any of his machines due to conflicts with his chief engineer and inadequate funding.

It was not until the 1940s that the first general-purpose computers were actually built, more than a century after Babbage had proposed the pioneering Analytical Engine.

In the News

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  Smile on Babbage indicates confidence in future, says new Babbage simulator.

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  Ada Lovelace will write unit tests for Babbage simulator, confirms Babbage.

Fiction cross-reference

• Babbage simulator

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Charles Babbage (nonfiction)
• Computation (nonfiction)
• Ada Lovelace (nonfiction)

External links:

• Analytical Engine @ Wikipedia