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From Hollerith to the Half-Adder

This summer the children's programme in the Arithmeum will deal with topics connected with the main exhibition "Aesthetics of Chip Design". The individual themes will be "What are microprocessors?", "What is chip design all about?", and "How does a computer work?". Although these themes depend to some extent on one another, they can without problem be booked individually.

Computer memory using punched holes - shortly before 1890 the era of modern electronic data processing was inaugurated by Hermann Hollerith's invention of the first punched card counting machine. We will find out how punched cards store data by looking in detail at a reconstruction of Hollerith's machine. Evaluating the data leads us to learn about AND- and OR-switching elements which are still the basis of the logical building blocks of today's computers.