Please read the Notes and Credits below in order to understand the historical importance of the K-Computer As stated in the Notes and Credits, the K-Computer is a digital half adder. Click on the Green Flag to see the K- Computer. Press the Space Bar to go to the half adder. Click on the Inputs A, B and read the Sum and Carry on the right side of the circuit. Verify that the Input/Output Table is: Input A Input B Sum Carry 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1
Great discoveries and revolutions never occur in a vacuum. Numerous mathematicians and scientists, lesser known than George Boole and Claude Shannon, were also instrumental in developing the theoretical and technological basis for the digital revolution. George Stibitz was one such mathematician and early computer science pioneer. George Stibitz received a Bachelor of Science degree from Denison University in 1926 and his Ph. D. in mathematical physics from Cornell University in 1930. From 1930 to 1941 he was a research mathematician with the Bell Telephone Laboratories. At about the same time Claude Shannon was writing his master’s thesis on the application of Boolean algebra (expressed as logic gates) to electronic circuits, Stibitz gathered a conglomeration of old relays, batteries, flashlight bulbs, wires, and pieces of tin. Sitting at his kitchen table he tinkered an electromechanical circuit that added two binary numbers. This was his famous Model K (for Kitchen) digital circuit. In computer science, such a device is called a half adder. The K Computer would sum two binary numbers and produce a carry. In the opening graphic, the two large cylinders are telephone batteries. The two smaller elements in the upper right corner are relays (switches). Below the relays are two inputs labeled A and B. Below the batteries are two light bulbs for registering output.
