Ferranti Atlas: Britain's first supercomputer


Think today's computing industry moves fast? Try that of decades past. Moore's Law predicts that processor power will double every couple of years or so, but on December 7, 1962, the scientific computing power of the entire UK is said to have doubled in a single day.

That was the day they switched on the original Ferranti Atlas, the UK's first supercomputer – and for a time one of the fastest machines in the world – which celebrates its 50th birthday on Friday.