CCS Projects

All of the practical work organised by the society is through project groups. Below is a list of the current projects, and a short summary of the sort of work they are undertaking.

Currently Active Projects

Group Name Summary   Based at Chair
Manchester Baby The project to build, demonstrate and maintain a replica of the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM)- the world's first computer.
For more see the the SSEM volunteers’ website. You may also find some webpages about the project at Rebuilding the Baby  		   Science & Industry
Museum Manchester		 Chris Burton
 
     
Bombe Rebuild Project The rebuilt machine is operational and can currently be seen at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. The Bombe’s website is at bombe.org.uk.   TNMoC John Harper
 
     

Elliott

 This project team is responsible for a collection of Elliott 803, 903 and 905 computers. The TNMOC 803 and 903 machines can be seen working most weekends.   TNMoC Terry Froggatt
 
     
The Harwell Dekatron Computer aka The WITCH Computer

This CCS project has restored the original Harwell computer (now the oldest working electronic computer in the world) to working order, and maintains it on display to the public at the National Museum of Computing. See www.computerconservationsociety.org/witch.htm

  TNMoC Delwyn Holroyd
 
     
ICL 2966 The project team has restored an ICL 2966 mainframe and maintains it on display to the public at TNMOC.   TNMoC Delwyn Holroyd
 
     
ICT/ICL 1900

This project is concerned with preserving and cataloguing extant 1900 Series hardware and software, and the development of accurate emulators.

   N/A Delwyn Holroyd
 
     
EDSAC Replica

This is a CCS project team set up to build a replica of the original Cambridge University EDSAC computer
See www.edsac.org for more information

   TNMoC Andrew Herbert
 
     
Software Conservation The mission is the preservation of historic software in machine readable form, ideally along with execution capability. The focus is on long-term preservation rather than special effects on a PC. 
See Software Conservation and Emulation for more detail.		   N/A David Holdsworth
 
     
Bloodhound Missile/Ferranti Argus The centrepiece of this project is a Ferranti Argus computer installed as part of a missile control installation. Happily, there is no actual missile!

   RAF Neatishead Peter Harry
 
     
IBM Hursley Museum A large collection of IBM artifacts, many of them under restoration at IBM’s Hursley House location and manned by volunteers. More details on the  UK Computer Museums webpage

  IBM Hursley Peter Coghlan
 
     
Babbage Analytical Engine Babbage’s Analytical Engine, had it ever been built, would have had many of the characteristics of a modern computer. This project is attempting to unravel the documents that Babbage left behind with a view to creating a design which would be capable of being built.   N/A Doron Swade
 
     
Delilah Delilah was Turing’s project to create a usable telephone “scrambler’ towards the end of WW2 but was not fully realised. The project is attempting to build a system to Turing’s design.   Haslope Park John Harper
 
     
Data Recovery A project specialising in rescuing data and software from obsolete media.   TNMoC Delwyn Holroyd
 
     
         
Previous restoration and preservation projects
         
ICT 1301 An original 1961 machine is being brought back to life - see the ICT 1301 Resurrection web site for more details.   Currently in store awaiting
a new home at TNMoC		 Rod Brown
 
     
Babbage Difference Engine Babbage’s unrealised mechanical calculator has been built by a team from the London Science Museum.   Science Museum Doron Swade
 
     
Mil-DAP Distributed Array (Parallel) Processor
See www.computerconservationsociety.org/wg-mildap.htm 		     
 
     
Ferranti Pegasus

The Pegasus computer at the Science Museum was, for many years, the oldest extant working electronic computer in the world and was maintained and regularly demonstrated by a team of CCS members.. Since sustaining an electrical fault in 2009, Pegasus has not been demonstrated. The Science Museum authorities have now decided to retire it permanently and it has now been put into off-site storage.
Thanks are due to members of the CCS Project Team who have toiled valliantly to bring this venerable machine back to life and keep it that way for so long.

  Science Museum
(in storage)
 
     
Elliott 401 The CCS was restoring an Elliott 401 computer. This machine is now on view (albeit not working) at the Science Museum in London.
The project has been abandoned for the time being. 		  Science Museum Rod Brown
 
     
The Hartree Differential Analyser The Hartee Differential Analyser is a mechancal analogue calculator, built in the 1930s to solve partial differential equations. A small project team was working towards restoring this machine to full working order. It was regularly demonstrated and, although only half the machine is present (the other half is on display in the London Science Museum), is still viable.
Sadly the project was terminated by the machine’s owners the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester as it no longer accords with their development plans and they can no longer afford the curatorial time to deal with the project. An associated project to re-activate the peripherals of a second Pegasus in the Museum and connect them to an emulator for the purposes of demonstration was terminated at the same time. 		  Science & Industry
Museum Manchester
 
     
DEC The DEC project team has restored a desktop 'straight' PDP8, the PDP11 Blacknest system, and the last remaining PDP11 based air traffic control system from LATCC, West Drayton.
See The National Museum of Computing for more details		   TNMOC Kevin Murrell
 
     
Colossus Rebuild Project See the www.codesandciphers.org.uk for more details.   TNMoC Phil Hayes
 
     
IBM 360/20 This team was attempting to bring the most junior member of the iconic IBM System 360 range back to life.
Sadly this project is ‘on hold’ for the forseeable future for reasons of team availability.
See www.ibms360.co.uk for more detrail.		   Creslow Park Adam Bradley
 
     
         
Interesting ”External” Projects
         
Creating simh tapes images from real tapes See the simh.htm for more details.   N/A Kevin Murrell
 
     
The HEC 1 computer See the HEC1.htm for more details.   TNMoC Kevin Murrell
 
     
The Alvey ANSA Project From this link you can find an archive of documents arising from the Alvey ANSA (Advanced Networked Systems Architecture) Project and its successors that ran from 1985-99, and which was influential in the early development of distributed computing technology and standards. For a long time the content was available at www.ansa.co.uk, but the site was lost several years ago.   N/A Andrew Herbert