The Manchester Computer: A Revised History Part 1: The Memory

Author

Copeland, B. Jack

Author_Institution

Univ. of Canterbury in Christchurch, Christchurch, New Zealand

Volume

33

Issue

1

fYear

2011

Firstpage

4

Lastpage

21

Abstract

The Manchester Baby, built by F.C. Williams and Tom Kilburn and operational in June 1948, was the first stored-program electronic computer. The Williams-Kilburn tube memory, pioneered in the Baby, was subsequently adopted in many first-generation computers, including the Princeton IAS machine and the IBM 701. Part 1 of this article provides an overview of the Manchester project and its personnel and documents the origins of the Williams-Kilburn tube.

Keywords

digital computers; digital storage; storage management; IBM 701; Manchester Baby; Manchester computer; Manchester project; Princeton IAS machine; Williams-Kilburn tube memory; first generation computer; stored program electronic computer; A.M. Turing; Automatic Computing Engine (ACE); Bletchley Park; Colossus; F.C. Williams.; I.J. Good; J. von Neumann; J.P. Eckert; M.H.A. Newman; Manchester Baby computer; Manchester Mark I Computer; Moore School; Princeton Computer; R.A. McConnell; Royal Society Computing Machine Laboratory; Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM); T. Kilburn; Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE); Turing-Wilkinson Lecture Series; Williams tube; cathode-ray tube memory;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1058-6180

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MAHC.2010.1

Filename

5383334