The Antikythera Mechanism, which is regarded as the world's oldest computer, is 100 years older than previously thought.

Researchers from the National University of Quilmes in Argentina studied and examined the device and concluded the device dates back to 205 B.C.

The Antikythera Mechanism is an analog computer used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses. It was discovered on a sunken shipwreck near the remote island of Antikythera in the Aegean Sea.

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This device is so complex it was considered ahead of its time. Mechanical astronomical clocks of  similar complexity only appeared later in the 14th century. Researchers believe the Antikythera Mechanism isn't a prototype since its level of advancement implies others were built before it.

The new findings reveal the eclipse predictor or the Saros dial of the Antikythera mechanism provides immense, valuable astronomical information. The team used a process of elimination to get the exact date of the device that was comparable to the "sieve of Eratosthenes".

Using this complex method, researchers found out the mechanism was built around 50 to 100 years earlier than previously thought. Researchers also discovered the mechanism wasn't based on the fundamentals of Greek trigonometry since this mathematical method didn't exist at the time.

Researchers concluded a special arithmetic scheme was used to predict eclipses better than a trigonometric model.

Study author James Evans said it's still not clear who invented the device. The device shouldn't be attributed to Archimedes since there is too little information about Greek astronomy from this period.

The device was built a few years after the death of the great Greek mathematician, physicist and astronomer, Archimedes.

This study was published in the journal, Archive for History of Exact Sciences.  

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