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When Allan Lasser went looking for the oldest computer used by the U.S. government, he found a surprising candidate: the Voyager probes.
When I started this project, I hadn't even considered that the oldest active computer might not even be on Earth. But after my first post, I received a few tips encouraging me to look at the computers onboard Voyager.
Benjamin Levy pointed out how, "the actual computers on board are probably older than [1977] because it takes time to design and build space probes and to certify their computers for their mission," and another tipster sent me a link to a story about the Voyager team needing to hire a new programmer with experience in FORTRAN.
I'll admit I was reluctant to pursue these computers at first, but I soon realized that it was silly to disqualify a government computer from this hunt simply because it's billions of miles away. While the hardware hasn't been upgraded since it left Earth, the software has been upgraded and maintained to meet new mission requirements. We're still in touch with these probes and they're still performing science at the edge of our solar system. Most important, these are government computers and they are both old and active.
How much computer infrastructure of today will be operable, let alone reliable in 40 years?
(Score: 2) by ese002 on Sunday January 08 2017, @08:51PM
Have to define "active".
Pioneer 10 is powered up and running if we had big enough antennas to hear it and its older than the voyager series. It had a 60s discrete TTL type design not a single die CPU which might disqualify it to normies.
I don't see how being constructed from discrete logic chips would disqualify it. All computers were once built that way. Before that they used discrete transistors and before that vacuum tubes. As long as it can load and run programs, it is a computer in the same sense we use today. (Fixed function digital and analogue "computers" are less clearly qualified)
The trouble with Pioneer 10 is that we just don't know. It might be running. It might not. Also in this category are Pioneers 6, 7, and 8. Pioneer 6 was last contacted in 2000. As far as anyone knows, these probes are still operating but 2000 was the last time anyone tried to contact them. I'm not finding information on their onboard "computers" so I don't know if they qualify in the modern sense, even they are still working.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Monday January 09 2017, @02:56PM
It could be because the CPU itself isn't a discrete unit. There isn't any part you can point to and say "This is the CPU". But i agree that it shouldn't be disqualified for that.
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