News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

One of the world’s oldest computers has sparked back into life after being re-booted by two scientists in a garden shed.

And although it looks like the nerve centre of a huge hi-tech network, these bulky machines actually make up just a single computer, an old ICT 1301 mainframe lovingly referred to as Flossie.

Rod Thomas and Roger Holmes have spent 10 years breathing life back into five-ton Flossie, which cost a £250,000 in 1962.

And technology has whizzed by since then – you would need over four million Flossies just to match the same storage capacity of today’s basic 8gb smartphone.

Despite its 25 square foot size, Flossie’s 16,000 transistors and 4,000 logic boards only result in a puny 2kb memory and 1mhz processing speed – all of which can now fit on a couple of modern-day 10mm silicon chips.

Mr Thomas, 67, and Mr Holmes, 59, now face the painstaking task of using 27 reels of magnetic tape and 100,000 punch cards to recover software on the computer, which is currently housed in a shed in Kent.

Flossie’s main purpose before being shut down was to produce GCE exam results and certificates at London University.

The computer, one of just four of its type left in the world, is the only second-generation British mainframe currently in working order.

Roger, a volunteer of the Computer Preservation Society, said: “The foundation of the early British computer industry is enshrined in this machine.

"It is important they are available to future British generations.

“It would be nice if it could end up at the Science Museum or Bletchley Park.”

Flossie featured as a prop in the 1974 James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun and was also used in numerous episodes of popular BBC sci-fi shows Doctor Who and Blake’s 7.