Image Credits: ARS Technica
C-Wizz, a German Redditor, captured the iconic 66-year-old computer, also known as the Librascope LGP 30 computers, with the 1970 DEC PDP-8/e computers in his Reddit post. According to the Redditor, this PC was discovered in his grandparents’ basement.
To learn more about this ancient machine, the LGP 30 was originally introduced in 1956, and it was only built in limited quantities after that. According to sources, just 45 of the LGP 30 computers were made in Europe. This machine was also referred to as “Mel.”
What is LGP 30/Mel computer all about?
Image Credits: Wikipedia
Stan Frankel created this fully functional computer at the California Institute of Technology in 1954. This computer was previously known as the LGP 30, which is also known as the Librascope General Purpose 30. This computer was released at a premium price of $47,000, which, adjusted for inflation, would be roughly $512,866 now. This computer resembles a semi-automatic washing machine and weighs roughly 800 pounds.
In today’s world, this computer may appear to be rather large and heavy. But, you should know that at the time, this computer was one of the smallest ever released, which was definitely considering the fact that earlier computers used to consume a whole room now become smaller in size and not consuming a whole need space but in fact, it only consumed a portion of the room.
Specification for LGP 30 Computer
Concerning the LGP 30, it has been stated that this computer came with a desk-like size and dimensions of around 44x33x26inches. This computer has a total of 113 vacuum tubes for its operation, as vacuum tubes were employed for computer operation at the time.
This computer also has a total of 1,450 sold state diodes linked with a spinning magnetic drum memory measuring 6.5-inch in diameter and a 7-inch long revolving tube capable of rotating at a quicker pace of 3700 RPM. With this speed, this computer could store 4069 31-bit words, which equated to 15.8 contemporary kilobytes.
C-wizz discovered a Flexowriter, a typewriter-styled console that was compatible with this LGP 30 computer so that the user could provide inputs to the system. This Flexowriter resembled a paper tape reader used for external data storage.
To let you know, after many new computers were announced in the future, there were only very few of the LGP 30 computers availed in the market and in today’s day it has become very rare and an antic piece of machine.c
