Reddit user reports finding legendary computer 'LGP-30' released in 1956 in basement

A user on Reddit, a bulletin board social news site, reported that an extremely rare computer, the LGP-30 , released in 1956, was found in the basement of his grandparents' house. This computer is one of 45 manufactured in Europe, and is famous for being used by a legendary programmer, so it is reported to be a gem that enthusiasts will enjoy.

Redditor discovers legendary 1956 computer in grandparents' basement | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/11/redditor-discovers-legendary-1956-computer-in-grandparents-basement/

Below is a post by Reddit user c-wizz reporting that he found LGP-30. A DEC PDP-8/e manufactured in 1970 was also found in the basement of Mr. c-wizz's grandparents' house, where the LGP-30 was stored.


The LGP-30, developed by Stan Frankel at the California Institute of Technology in 1954, is attracting particular attention. LGP-30 stands for Librascope General Purpose 30 and was developed by Stan Frankel of the California Institute of Technology in 1954. The price when it was commercialized in 1956 was $47,000.

The dimensions are 33 x 44 x 26 inches (about 84 x about 112 x about 66 cm), about the size of a small desk, and it weighs 800 pounds (about 360 kg), but at the time it was a small computer. It was a 31-bit computer with 113 vacuum tubes, 1,450 semiconductor diodes, and magnetic drum memory , and a storage capacity of 4,069 words, equivalent to about 15.8KB in modern times.

The LGP-30 is considered rare not only because there are only a few in existence, but also because Melvin Kaye, also known as Mel, is hailed as a ``true programmer'' in the hacker legend ``The Story of Mel.'' This is because it is also a related model.

``Mel's Story'' tells the story of Mel, who was working at Librascope, the manufacturer of the LGP-30, and was given the task of porting the card game Blackjack program from the LGP-30 to other products. And it is an anecdote that he did it with original programming. In ``Mel's Story,'' Edward Nazar, the author and debugger of the program Mel left behind, was so awed by the code that he stopped debugging it and reported that there was no bug. ” he said.

In addition to this legendary story among hackers, LGP-30 is also said to have been used by meteorologist Edward Lorenz to test the butterfly effect and chaos theory .

After being told how valuable the LGP-30 is by another Reddit user, c-wizz said, ``I think it would be really great if this could work again. Apparently, Germany has an active LGP-30.'' I heard that there is a museum that houses the -30, so I would like to contact them.'