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Software
Although The Computer Conservation Society has long concerned itself with the preservation
and re-creation of early computer hardware the Society’s interest in software
has developed over the years and is now one of its main concerns.
One strand of this field is the development of emulators for historic computers.
We maintain a “zoo” of emulators and this can be found
here.
The emulators, together with the preserved hardware and re-creations give us the opportunity
to undertake the same activity with software.
Each of the computers listed here has its own web page
which can be reached using links on this page.
Each machine’s web page lists one or more items of software which are available
to download so that it can be studied and run, on our collection of historic
computers or emulators.
It is useful to classify the available sofgtware into three groups –
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Authentic
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Original software which is derived from a contemoary copy – magnetic media, punched cards/paper
tape or printer listings.
A limited degree of deviation is allowable. For example, to interface with a copy of the host operating system
which has been derived form a source with a different date.
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Replica
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Modern software which has been sritten to an original specification.
As above, a limited degree of deviation from the original specification is allowable.
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New
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Modern software for which no original is known to exist but which has been written to test or
to denonstrate the host emulator or hardware.
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Manchester University/Ferranti Atlas 1
Developed by Manchester University and manufactured by Ferranti,
Atlas 1 was, for a brief while in the early 1960s, the fastest computer in the world.
Atlas 1 introduced numerous innovations, most famously the now almost universal
system of store paging.
Three Atlas 1s (and three Atlas 2s) were made.
A huge amount of material about Atlas is available
here and
here.
A serious amount of software was written for Atlas 1 both by Ferranti and by the purchasers of
the machines.
A list of some of the software which is known to run on Dik Leatherdale“s emulator
[link here] is listed here where links to downloadable
source code can be found.
More to be added.
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