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Could 2,000-year-old machine from tomb in China be world’s earliest binary computer?
Silk-weaving loom dating to Western Han is world’s oldest known ‘computer hardware’ with corresponding ‘software’, China science body says
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The computer, at its core, is an input-output device: it receives instructions, executes programmes, performs calculations automatically and produces results.
By this fundamental definition, China’s ancient ti hua ji, or figured loom – dating back more than two millennia to the Western Han dynasty – may well be recognised as the world’s earliest computer, according to the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST).
Unearthed in 2012 from a tomb dated to around 150BC in Chengdu, southwestern China, this sophisticated silk-weaving machine made use of programmable computation. Its “programme” came in the form of physical pattern cards – the ancient equivalent of software – which directed the lifting of individual warp threads according to a preset design.
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A raised warp thread represented 1, while a lowered one represented 0.
It is the world’s oldest known “computer hardware”, with corresponding “software” – the figure loom programme, CAST said in a video posted on its social media account on December 27.
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CAST is China’s largest official scientific body. Its entry into the global debate over who invented the first computer, and the public endorsement of the Chengdu loom as proto-computing hardware, signals a growing momentum to rewrite technological history from a non-Western perspective.
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