This was designed by Brian Crank of Wireless World. There is a zip file containing details of another amazing project by him in Wireless World Logic Display Aid.
I guess a fair number of enthusiasts first learned from this that they could build their own computer. It is all and well being a technically savvy dumpster dipper who can put together a monster from a huge drum drive and some ferrite core memory, but most people like a bit of hand holding to gain the confidence.
See here for a Wiki history of Wireless World The magazine was later renamed Electronics World. It has a history of being accomodating to new ideas (see for instance The 1945 Proposal by Arthur C. Clarke for Geostationary Satellite Communications, this also leads it to often publish amusing letters about why Einstein was wrong or suchlike - but then again people who try to never be wrong seldom do anything very good either, and I do like reading them.
See also:
Wireless World for a
history of the magazine.
Advance / Wireless World Desk Calculator for a much later project
using a Texas Instruments chip.
The end of the David Brooks'
Simplex III
page links to the homebuilt CPU's webring.
Click for an enlarged version of any picture:
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| Wireless World issue introducing the project. This was the same year that colour television was introduced into Britain. |
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First page describing the machine and its purpose. This was designed by Brian Crank of Wireless World. There is a zip file containing details of another amazing project by him in Wireless World Logic Display Aid. |
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| Sandhurst cadets constructing the computer. Notice also the code above which is doing some calculations with pounds shillings and pence. |