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by chriswarbo
544 days ago
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Tangentially: ERNIE is probably the most famous "computer" in the UK, which has been picking winners for the UK's premium bonds scheme since the 1950s. It was heavily marketed, to get the public used to the new-fangled idea of electronics, and is sometimes considered one of the first computers; though (a) it was more of a special-purpose random number generator rather than a computer, and (b) it descended from the earlier Colossus code-breaking machines of World War II (though the latter's existence was kept secret for decades). The latest ERNIE is version 5, which uses quantum effects to generate its random numbers (earlier versions used electrical and thermal noise). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premium_Bonds#ERNIE |
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