Manchester computer architectures, 1948-75

Author

Lavington, Simon H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Essex Univ., Colchester, UK

Volume

15

Issue

3

fYear

1993

fDate

6/15/1905 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

44

Lastpage

54

Abstract

It is suggested that, because of changes in computer technology and terminology, it is often difficult for present-day observers to judge the significance of early digital computer projects. The author discusses some architectural themes of interest, as they evolved in the design of three innovative computers developed at the University of Manchester: the Mark I, Atlas, and MU5. Themes such as operand address generation, instruction formats, and memory management are traced for the period 1948 to 1975. These themes are illustrated by a set of normalized diagrams that may aid further study of the original references.<>

Keywords

computer architecture; history; mainframes; Atlas; MU5; Mark I; University of Manchester; architectural themes; computer architectures; digital computer projects; instruction formats; memory management; operand address generation; Computer architecture; Computer industry; Design engineering; Electrical engineering; Memory management; Prototypes; Radar; System software; Technological innovation; Terminology;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1058-6180

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/85.222841

Filename

222841