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==Exhibits==
The exhibits on display in the museum represent only a fraction of the collection, but are chosen to tell the story of computing developments in Britain. There are a number of galleries which can be visited in a broadly chronological sequence, starting with the working replicas of WWII machines that were developed and used by Bletchley Park codebreakers.
===Bombe Gallery===
[[File:RebuiltBombeFrontView.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7
|Rebuilt Bombe]]
This gallery tells the story of [[Cryptanalysis of the Enigma]]. [[Enigma machine]]s were used by the Germans before and during WWII for sending secret messages. [[Alan Turing]] further developed, and [[Gordon Welchman]] enhanced, an idea implemented by Polish codebreakers, of a machine to assist in decrypting Enigma messages.<ref>{{citation | last = Welchman | first = Gordon | author-link = Gordon Welchman | origyear = 1982 | year = 1984 | title = The Hut Six story: Breaking the Enigma codes | publication-place = Harmondsworth, England | publisher = Penguin Books | isbn = 0-14-00-5305-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/hutsixstorybreak00welc }}</ref> This gallery houses a fully working replica of a [[Bombe]] machine, a working replica Enigma and various related artefacts.
The replica Bombe was built by a team led by [[John Harper (computer engineer)|John Harper]] following the release in 1995 to the [[Bletchley Park Trust]] of some 2,000 [[British Tabulating Machine Company|BTM]] documents and drawings relating to the Bombes that they had built during the war.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://bombe.org.uk/the-rebuild-project/| title = The Turing Bombe: The History of the Rebuild Project| date = 2024| access-date = 13 September 2024 }}</ref> The replica is owned and managed by the Turing-Welchman Bombe Rebuild Trust, which provides and trains the volunteers who run and demonstrate the machine to visitors on a regular basis.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://bombe.org.uk/| title = The Turing Welchman Bombe Rebuild Project| last = Harper| first = John| date = 2020 | access-date = 16 August 2024}}</ref>
===Tunny and Colossus Galleries===
[[File:LorenzSZ42at TNMOC.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Lorenz SZ42 cipher machine]]
[[Image:ColossusRebuild 11.jpg|thumbnail|upright=0.7|[[Tony Sale]] supervising the breaking of an enciphered message using the completed Colossus rebuild.]]
Separate from the Enigma story is the less well-known endeavour of the [[Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher|diagnosing and deciphering]] of messages produced by the more secure [[Lorenz cipher|12-rotor Lorenz SZ]] teleprinter cipher attachments, which is told in these two galleries.<ref>{{citation | editor-last = Copeland | editor-first = B. Jack | editor-link = Jack Copeland | title = Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers | place = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2006 | pages = 1-6 | isbn = 978-0-19-284055-4 }}</ref> The Tunny galley exhibits one of the very few Lorenz SZ42 machines still in existence — something that nobody in the [[Allies of World War II|Allied side]] saw until after Nazi Field Marshal [[Albert Kesselring]] surrendered in May 1945, shortly before [[VE-day]].
'Tunny' was the name given to the messages, to the unseen cipher machine and to the British-built emulator of it. The gallery contains a reproduction of part of the original Lorenz listening station at [[Knockholt]] in Kent, with its multiple [[RCA]] AR-88 radio receivers,<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.museumoftechnology.org.uk/objects/_expand.php?key=544| title = Military Comms: WWII Military Receiver RCA AR88| date = 2007| publisher = The Museum of Technology, The Great War and WWII| access-date = 13 September 2024 }}</ref> [[Chart recorder|pen recorders]] (undulators) and the sort of [[paper tape]] and [[teleprinter]] equipment that was used to record the messages and transmit them to Bletchley Park. Also on display is a working replica of a British Tunny machine that exactly emulated the Lorenz machine and a working replica of the [[Heath Robinson (codebreaking machine)|Heath Robinson machine]], the forerunner of [[Colossus computer|Colossus]].
The Colossus gallery houses the fully working rebuild of a Colossus Mark 2. During his work to save Bletchley Park, Tony Sale recognised the pioneering nature of the ten Colossus machines that had been designed and built during WWII to assist in breaking messages enciphered by the Lorenz machines.<ref>{{citation | last = Sale | first = Tony | author-link = Tony Sale | title = The Colossus Computer 1943–1996 and how it helped to break the German Lorenz cipher in WWII | place = Cleobury Mortimer | publisher = M & M Baldwin | year = 2004 | origyear = 1998 | isbn = 0-947712-36-4 }} </ref> He and his team spent 14 years from 1993 in building this machine.<ref>{{Citation | title = Colossus – The Rebuild Story | publisher = The National Museum of Computing | url = http://www.tnmoc.org/colossus-rebuild-story | access-date = 13 May 2017 | archive-date = 18 April 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150418230306/http://www.tnmoc.org/colossus-rebuild-story | url-status = dead }}</ref> With its 2,420 [[Vacuum tube|valves]] (vacuum tubes) and its [[Computer program|programmability]] by switches and patch leads, it is a reproduction of what is arguably the world’s first large-scale, programmable electronic computer.
There are a number of related artefacts in this gallery.
===First Generation Gallery===
This gallery continues the story of valve or tube-based computers and exhibits three large machines and many other related items. The three unique large machines are:
* [[EDSAC]] – a replica nearing completion. The machine is owned and managed by the EDSAC Replica Project,<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.tnmoc.org/edsac| title = EDSAC - Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator| website = The National Museum of Computing| access-date = 16 August 2024 }}</ref> which provides and trains the volunteers who are building it and, eventually, will run and demonstrate it.
:The original EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) was constructed by the [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] Mathematical Laboratory under Sir [[Maurice Wilkes]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Wilkes, W. V. |author-link=Maurice Wilkes |author2=Renwick, W. |title=The EDSAC (Electronic delay storage automatic calculator) |journal=Math. Comp. |year=1950 |volume=4 |issue=30 |pages=61–65 |url=https://www.ams.org/journals/mcom/1950-04-030/S0025-5718-1950-0037589-7/ |doi=10.1090/s0025-5718-1950-0037589-7 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Wilkes had read [[John von Neumann]]'s seminal paper ''[[First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC]]'' and attended the [[Moore School Lectures]] in Summer 1946. Starting in 1947, he designed and built the machine to serve a user community from many different departments of the university. The EDSAC ran its first programs on 6 May 1949 and is therefore claimed to be be the first practical general-purpose [[stored-program computer|stored-program]] electronic computer.
:The vast increase in computing power that EDSAC and its successor [[EDSAC 2]] supplied, contributed to the winning of three [[Nobel Prize]]s – John Kendrew and Max Perutz (Chemistry, 1962) for the discovery of the structure of myoglobin, Andrew Huxley (Medicine, 1963) for quantitative analysis of excitation and conduction in nerves and Martin Ryle (Physics, 1974) for the development of aperture synthesis in radio astronomy. All acknowledged EDSAC in their Nobel Prize speeches.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/news/70-years-first-computer-designed-practical-everyday-use| title = 70 years since the first computer designed for practical everyday use| last = Goddard| first = Jonathan| date = 3 May 2019| website = | publisher = [[University of Cambridge]]: Department of Computer Science and Technology
| access-date = 13 September 2024 }}</ref>
[[File:Harwell-dekatron-witch-computer-under-resotoration-2010-03-13.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7
|Harwell dekatron WITCH computer under resotoration in 2010]]
* [[Harwell computer|Harwell Dekatron]]<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acl/literature/reports/p009.htm |title=Computing at Harwell: 25 years of Theoretical Physics at Harwell: 1954–1979 | authorlink = Jack Howlett | first = John ‘Jack’ | last = Howlett | year= 1979 | accessdate= 30 May 2009}}</ref> (aka the WITCH) from 1951. The world’s oldest original working digital computer.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/106144-oldest-working-digital-computer| title = Oldest working digital computer| date = 2012| publisher = Guiness World Records| access-date = 16 August 2024 }}</ref> Planned in 1949 to automate the tedious work performed by teams of bright young graduates using mechanical calculators. Simplicity, reliability and unattended operation were the design priorities. Speed was a lesser consideration. This pioneering computer first ran in 1951 and by 1952 was using 828 Dekatron tubes for program and data storage, relays for sequence control and valve-based electronics for calculations. When it was pitched against a human mathematician to check the machine’s operation, the human kept up with it for 30 minutes, but then retired exhausted as the machine carried on remorselessly. It once ran unattended for ten days over a Christmas/New Year holiday period.
:It was used at [[Atomic Energy Research Establishment|AEA Harwell]] until 1957, when a competition was held for colleges to see who could make best use of it. The competition was won by Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Technical College (later becoming Wolverhampton University) and they gave it its second name of the WITCH (Wolverhampton Instrument for Teaching Computation from Harwell). The WITCH was used in computer education for over 15 years until 1973.
:For a while the machine was on display at Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry, following which it was disassembled and put into storage at Birmingham City Council Museums’ Collection Centre. In 2009 the machine was spotted by TNMOC volunteers who recognised what it was, and made a plan to bring it to TNMOC for restoration in full public view. This was completed in 2012.<ref>{{cite news|last=Ward|first= Michael ‘Mike’ |title=Technology Correspondent| location = UK | newspaper= News| publisher = BBC | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20395212 | accessdate= 20 November 2012 |date=19 November 2012}}</ref>
* [[Hollerith Electronic Computer]] (HEC 1) from 1951 ({{As of |2024|September}} temporarily away from the museum). A relatively recent arrival, nearly as old as the WITCH, but not working.<ref>{{cite book| last = Murrell| first = Kevin| title = Adapt and Survive: A Lesson from History in Positioning in the Computing Industry| publisher = The National Museum of Computing| date = 2016| isbn = 978-0956795649 }}</ref>
:HEC was based on an original design by Andrew Booth of Birkbeck College, London University.<ref>{{Citation | last = Bird | first = Raymond 'Dickie' | title = BTM's First Steps into Computing | journal = Resurrection: The Bulletin of the Computer Conservation Society | volume = 22 | date = Summer 1999 | url = http://www.computerconservationsociety.org/resurrection/res22.htm#c | issn = 0958-7403 }}</ref> His design for a small scientific computer was adapted by Raymond Bird at BTM in 1951 to become a prototype commercial computer designed to work with the punched card equipment familiar to BTM's customers. The first production machine was delivered early in 1955, and the subsequent 1200 series of computers were highly successful.
The HEC and EDSAC had a huge bearing on the development of computing in the UK. In particular, EDSAC led directly to [[LEO (computer)|LEO]], the world’s first computer to run a business. The WITCH had less influence on the development of computers but in the 1960s and 1970s, and again now, is a great educational tool.
Among the smaller items are several from the productive partnership between the [[Victoria University of Manchester]] and the [[electrical engineering]] company [[Ferranti]]. These include:
*A [[Williams tube|Williams–Kilburn tube]] the first [[random-access memory]] device that gave rise to the world's first [[stored program]] computer, the [[Manchester Baby]].<ref name=Resurrection>{{citation |last=Enticknap |first=Nicholas |title=Computing's Golden Jubilee |journal=Resurrection |issue=20 |publisher=The Computer Conservation Society |date=Summer 1998 |url=http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/CCS/res/res20.htm#d |issn=0958-7403 |access-date=19 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120109142655/http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/CCS/res/res20.htm#d |archive-date=9 January 2012 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref>
*Parts from both a [[Manchester Mark 1]] computer and an [[Atlas (computer)|Atlas]] supercomputer which was a world first with [[virtual memory]] and which, for a time was the world's most powerful computer.<ref>{{citation |last=Lavington |first=Simon |title=Early British Computers |year=1980 |publisher=Manchester University Press |page= 34 |isbn=0-7190-0803-4}}</ref>
===Large Systems Gallery===
This gallery contains many machines of the 1960s, -70s and -80s and one or two from the 1990s. Many machines are in working order and include:
[[File:Marconi Transistorised Automatic Computer control desk.JPG|thumb|upright=0.7|TAC control desk]]
* [[Marconi Transistorised Automatic Computer|Marconi TAC]].<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://marconiradarhistory.pbworks.com/w/page/32076760/TAC%20and%20PANIC| title = TAC and PANIC| last = Hartley-Smith | first = Alan | access-date = 3 September 2024}}</ref> Designed in 1959/60 this was one of the first transistorised computers made in the UK. The machine on show was one of a pair of machines that were used as a monitoring system for the [[Wylfa nuclear power station]] on [[Anglesey]].<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://www.scilit.net/publications/dd3703fe7350498ecf68f04ba5b676fc| title = Alarm analysis and display at Wylfa nuclear power station| last = Welbourne| first = D. | date = 1 January 1968| publisher = Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)| access-date = 3 September 2024| quote = }}</ref> They ran live [[24/7 service|24/7]] from 1968 to 2004.
* [[Elliott 803]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dhk9wHXfQMkC&pg=PA211 |title=Moving Targets: Elliott-Automation and the Dawn of the Computer Age in Britain, 1947–67 |last=Lavington |first=Simon |date=2011-05-19 |publisher=[[Springer Science & Business Media]] |isbn=9781848829336 |pages=662}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| last = Johnstone| first = Adrian | title = The Young person's Guide to... The Elliott 803B| journal = Resurrection (Bulletin of the [[Computer Conservation Society]]) | volume = 1| issue = 3| date = Spring 1991| url = https://www.computerconservationsociety.org/resurrection/res03.htm| issn = 0958 - 7403| access-date = 3 September 2024}}</ref> one of the first UK all transistor machines from around 1962. Despite having spent about 15 years in a farm barn, it was restored to working order and it is now demonstrated playing music, drawing graphs on a [[Calcomp plotter]] and solving mathematical problems.
* [[Elliott Brothers (computer company)|Elliott]] 903<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/32480/Elliott-903| title = Elliott 903| publisher = Centre for Computing History| access-date = 3 September 2024 }}</ref> which first came into production in 1965. It is an 18 bit discrete component machine, typically equipped with 8 or 16K of core store memory. As a desk-sized machine it was popular with universities and colleges as a teaching machine, with small research laboratories as a scientific processor, and also as a versatile system for use in industrial process control. The machine was usually programmed in symbolic assembly code, [[ALGOL]] or [[Fortran#FORTRAN II|FORTRAN II]]. The machine on display was donated to the museum in 2011 by the late Oliver Harlow, who had it in storage for many years, and then used it from the 1970s into the 1980s.
[[File:IBM 1130 (1).jpg|thumb|upright=0.7
|IBM 1130]]
* [[IBM 1130]]<ref>{{cite press release |last=Francis |first=C.G. |title=IBM introduces powerful small computer |date=11 February 1965 |publisher=International Business Machines (IBM) |department=Director of Information |place=[[White Plains, New York]] |url=http://www.ibm1130.net/1130Release.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190705200515/http://www.ibm1130.net/1130Release.html |archive-date=2019-07-05}}</ref> introduced in 1965. This is a rare surviving [[IBM]] computer — as most were leased, and scrapped at end of lease period. An estimated 10,000 systems are believed to have been built during a working life spanning nearly 20 years.<ref>{{cite interview | last= Utley | first= Brian | title= Guest speaker: Brian Utley | url= http://ibm1130.org/party/v03 | format= MP3 |date= Jan 2005 | access-date= 2012-01-02 }}</ref> IBM 1130s for the US market were manufactured in [[San Jose, California|San Jose]], but for the rest of the world they were manufactured in Greenock, Scotland.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ibm1130.net/1130Release.html| title = IBM Introduces Powerful Small Computer with Monthly Rental Beginning at $695| last = Francis| first = C. G. | date = 11 February 1965| access-date = 3 September 2024}}</ref>
:As well as being used in small to medium sized offices, it was marketed to price-sensitive, computing-intensive technical markets, like engineering and education, where colleges and universities used them for in both scientific and 'office' roles.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.technikum29.de/en/computer/ibm1130.php| title = IBM 1130 Computing System| website = technikum29| access-date = 10 September 2024 }}</ref>
:The machine at TNMOC is on long term loan from Liverpool University who purchased it in 1968. After a period of non-academic use it was transferred to the Nuclear Physics Department around 1982 where it was used to digitise [[bubble chamber]] trace photos produced at [[CERN]]. Before it arrived at the museum, it had been in storage for over 25 years.
* [[ICL 2900 Series|ICL 2966]] (1970s/1980s) This huge machine — occupying almost a third of the floor space of the gallery — is a true mainframe which is rare sight today. [[International Computers Limited|ICL]] was formed in 1968 from the merger of [[International Computers and Tabulators|ICT]] and [[LEO (computer)#Fate and legacy|EEC]]. It produced the [[ICL 2900 Series|2900 Series]] as a successor to the [[ICT 1900 series|1900 Series]] and System 4 ranges. The design was influenced by many sources, particularly the [[Manchester computers#MU5|Manchester University MU5]]. The system provided a Virtual Machine Environment (VME) [[operating system]] and the ability to run 1900 Series computer software.<ref>{{cite book| last = Buckle| first = J. K. | title = The ICL 2900 Series| publisher = Macmillan| series = Macmillan computer science series| date = 1978| isbn = 9780333219171 }}</ref>
[[File:ICL 2966.TNMOC.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7
|ICL 2966]]
:The museum's 2966 was donated by [[Tarmac (company)|Tarmac]] who used it as a 1900, until it was decommissioned in 1999, due in part, to fears that it would be affected by the ′[[Year 2000 problem|Millennium Bug]]′. Almost all large mainframes were broken up for scrap when they reached the end of their working lives, but Tony Sale, one of the founders of the Computer Conservation Society (CCS), who was directing the Colossus Rebuild, managed to persuade [[International Computers Limited|ICL]] to pay for its transport to Bletchley Park.
:Nearly ten years passed before The National Museum of Computing was formed and the system was taken out of storage and set up in the this gallery in 2008. Unfortunately the damp conditions in the semi-derelict buildings that the machine lived in for so many years took their toll. The long and difficult process of restoring the system to working order has been underway since its relocation. The [[Magnetic storage|magnetic disc]] units for these machines require specially filtered and temperature-controlled air which is not available in the 1944-vintage Block H building. Instead, a [[Solid-state electronics|solid-state]] device that acts as a virtual disc system was built. The configuration from Tarmac did not include any video terminals, but three original ICL terminals were acquired and restored. The machine is run as a 1900 under the [[GEORGE (operating system)#GEORGE 3 & 4|George 3]] operating system. Visitors can now use the terminals to play noughts and crosses against the computer, and to explore the twisty windy passages of the classic Colossal Cave adventure game.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.tnmoc.org/icl-2966| title = ICL 2966| access-date = 10 September 2024 }}</ref>
=== Pop-up Gallery ===
This small gallery is used for a variety short-term exhibitions. These have included:
* [[Charles Babbage]] - Who do YOU think he is?
* [[BBC]] though the decades
* [[Raspberry Pi]] 10th Anniversary
* 1980s British Home Computing
* [[Open University]] 50th Anniversary
=== Software Gallery ===
This gallery exhibits a variety of items including:<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.tnmoc.org/software| title = Software | publisher = TNMOC| access-date = 11 September 2024 }}</ref>
* A chart of [[programming language]]s covering much of one wall, which shows the ancestors of the languages used by today's programmers.
* A display demonstrating the pervasiveness of [[software]] in the home
* A ′cutaway [[Personal computer|PC]]′ showing the internal components and connections between them.
* A robotics display with a robot originally produced for the 1980's [[BBC Micro]] now powered by a more modern machine.
* A computer language database to which visitors can add.
=== PC Gallery ===
This gallery exhibits many of the familiar home and business computers of the 1980s and 1990s.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.tnmoc.org/pc-gallery| title = PC Gallery| publisher = TNMOC| access-date = 11 September 2024 }}</ref> Visitors can play some of the popular home computer games of the time as well. On show are, amongst others:
* An early desktop [[PDP-8]] from the 1960s.
* Examples of early self-build machines from [[Nascom]], [[Altair 8800|Altair]], [[Sinclair Research|Sinclair]].
* Popular home and business computers from [[IBM]], [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], [[Acorn Computers|Acorn]], [[Commodore International|Commodore]], [[Atari]] including the now famous [[NeXTcube]] similar to the one on which Sir [[Tim Berners-Lee]] developed the first web browser. This is not the actual one — which belongs to [[CERN]] — and can be seen in the [[Science Museum, London#Main Building – Level 2|Science Museum, London]].
* A display showing the evolution of portable computers, the earliest of which were described as ″Desktops with a Handle″. Examples are shown from [[Osborne 1|Osborne]], IBM, [[Kaypro|Kaypro]], [[Amstrad]] and others. These were used primarily for business applications.
* A timeline of world events contemporaneous with these developments.
===Exhibition space ===
Various substantial exhibitions reside here for periods of months or years.
* The National Air Traffic Services (NATS) Engineering Training College used to be located at Bletchley Park. It provided an exhibition in this gallery which used the actual equipment — with its panoramic three-screen display — that was used to train [[air traffic controller]]s.
* Following that there was an exhibition entitled "Flowers to Fibre" that was developed jointly by the museum and the Communications Museum Trust. Tommy Flowers — of Colossus fame — and his successors at the [[General Post Office]] (GPO) and [[BT Group|British Telecom]] (BT) worked for half a century starting in 1947 to enhance the speed and reliability of the existing [[Copper conductor|copper]] voice network. The exhibition took visitors on a journey through the story from the first pilots of the prototype digital [[Telephone exchange|exchanges]], to the planned national switch from copper to [[Optical fiber|fibre]] after 2025.
* In July 2024 an exhibition commemorating the 60th Anniversary Exhibition of Digital Equipment Corp's (DEC) presence in the United Kingdom was opened here. Their offices were in Reading and this exhibition was developed in collaboration with [[Reading Museum]], DEXODUS,<ref>{{cite web| url = https://dexodus.uk/| title = Dexodus| access-date = 12 September 2024 }}</ref> and [[DECUS]].
=== Simulation Gallery ===
This gallery covers a wide range of systems that were used in some way to simulate a reality. These include:
* A [[Cray-1]] supercomputer used to simulate weather patterns and nuclear reactions.
* [[Video game console|Games consoles]] rendering artificial virtual worlds. Using these, visitors can play early computer games, including Space Invaders.
* [[Silicon Graphics]] workstations used to view 3-D crystalline models.
* [[Analog computer|Analogue computers]] used to simulate real world actions like dampening springs in a suspension system.
=== Innovation Hub and BBC Classroom ===
These are two adjacent and interconnected education areas. The Innovation Hub was equipped by [[Fujitsu]] as part of its Education Ambassador Programme. It contains an array of Fujitsu technology including tablets, hybrid devices, laptops and desktop PCs.
Next door is the BBC Classroom which contains a large set of working vintage [[BBC Micro]] computers. This machine was the winning design for the BBC’s Computer Literacy Project<ref>{{cite web| url = https://clp.bbcrewind.co.uk/| title = BBC Computer Literacy Project 1980-1989| website = BBC Rewind| access-date = 12 September 2024 }}</ref> and was first demonstrated by [[Acorn Computers]] in 1981. The resulting series of computers became a mainstay of British schools in the 1980s. More than 1.5 million were sold, and their rugged design ensured that they survived the school environment. This classroom is used for workshops, activities and talks for a wide range of groups including school and academic groups, families and special interest groups.
=== Internet Gallery ===
This gallery was sponsored by the UK's [[National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)|National Physical Laboratory]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tnmoc.org/npl-gallery|title=Technology of the Internet|website=The National Museum of Computing|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-01-31}}</ref> It tells the story of how, in 1965, a member of the team there that was responsible for building Alan Turing's [[Automatic Computing Engine]] (ACE) — [[Donald Davies]] — thought of the idea of a network of interconnected data terminals to access it. Rather than a large number of lines each carrying only a small amount of data, his conception was for the data to be broken up into small chunks, later named ′packets′, with computers to switch them between physical circuits. These ideas of 'packet switching' were first presented in public in the US at the [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] symposium, in Gatlinburg, 1967, and in the UK at the [[International Federation for Information Processing|IFIP]] Congress, 1968, in Edinburgh. They were adopted by the US Department of Defense and incorporated into [[ARPANET]], the forerunner of the [[Internet]]. ARPANET's first link was established between the [[University of California]] and [[SRI International|Stanford Research Institute]] in November 1969, by which time the [[NPL network|NPL's packet switched network]] was already operational.
==See Also==
[[Centre for Computing History| The Centre for Computing History, Cambridge]]
[[Museum of Computing| The Museum of Computing, Swindon]]
[[Retro Computer Museum| Retro Computer Museum, Leicester]]
[[IBM Hursley| A museum at the IBM site in Hursely, Winchester]]
[[Science Museum, London]]
[[Science and Industry Museum| Science and Industry Museum, Manchester]]
== External links ==
[https://www.computermuseum.org.uk | The Computer Sheds: Jim Austin Computer Collection]
==References==
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