Saturday, March 7, 2009

1949


Maurice Wilkes assembled the EDSAC, the first practical stored-program computer, at Cambridge University. His ideas grew out of the Moore School lectures he had attended three years earlier.

For programming the EDSAC, Wilkes established a library of short programs called subroutines stored on punched paper tapes.

Technology: vacuum tubes 

Memory: 1K words, 17 bits, mercury delay line 

Speed: 714 operations per second

The Manchester Mark I computer functioned as a complete system using the Williams tube for memory. This University machine became the prototype for Ferranti Corp.´s first computer.

Start of project: 1947 

Completed: 1949 

Add time: 1.8 microseconds 

Input/output: paper tape, teleprinter, switches 

Memory size: 128 + 1024 40-digit words 

Memory type: cathode ray tube, magnetic drum 

Technology: 1,300 vacuum tubes 

Floor space: medium room 

Project leaders: Frederick Williams and Tom Kilburn 

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