Synergy User Manual and Tutorial. - THE CORE MEMORY

Synergy User Manual and Tutorial
more robust than any
predecessor. This machine was
improved and produced for
decades. Other models, designed
by competitors, eventually
entered the marketplace.
In 1786, J. H. Mueller, of the
Hessian army, conceived the
“Difference Engine” but could
not raise the funds necessary for
its construction. This was a
special purpose calculating
device that, given the differences between certain values where the polynomial is
uniquely specified, can tabulate the polynomial values. This calculator would be useful
for functions that can be approximated polynomially over certain intervals. The
realization of the Difference Engine’s mechanical computer prototype design would not
occur until 1822, when conceived by
Charles Babbage (1792 - 1871). In
1832, Babbage and Joseph Clement
built a scaled-down prototype that could
perform operations on 6-digit numbers
and 2 nd order or quadratic polynomials.
A full-sized machine would be as big as
a room and able to perform operations
on 20-digit numbers and 6 th order
polynomials. Babbage’s Difference
Engine project was eventually canceled
due to cost overruns. In 1843, George
Scheutz and his son Edvard Scheutz, of
Stockholm, produced a 3 rd order engine
with the ability to print its results. From
1989-91, a team at London's Science
Museum built a fully functional
Difference Engine based on Babbage’s
latest (1837), improved and simpler
design, using modern construction
materials and techniques. The machine
could successfully operate on 31-digit numbers and 7 th order differences.
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