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Inside out computing

April 2006

Digi-Comp v2.0

Cardboard computer
Price: US$66 (including international delivery)
Inside out computing

Back in the 1960s computers were massive. It was not uncommon to find a single computer occupying an entire room, with a legion of assistants tending to its every vacuum-tube-blowing need. Yet 1968 also saw the release of the Digi-Comp. It was a humble looking little device intended for kids to play with. Little did its inventors know it was to spark a love of computers in a whole generation of kids who are now creating some of the world's most advanced technology. The original Digi-Comp was simply a collection of plastic plates and metal rods which, when assembled, could perform basic binary calculations using Boolean logic. Even today's multi-gigahertz processors still run using exactly the same principles. This led to Tim Walker recreating the Digi-Comp for today. Made in the image of the original, the Digi-Comp v2.0 gives you a chance to see how a computer really works - from the inside out.