Abstract
Cambridge University was very unusual, if not unique, among British universities in that it had established a centralised computation facility—the Mathematical Laboratory—in 1937, long before the advent of stored-program computing. The laboratory contained a variety of computing machinery, including desktop calculating machines and a differential analyser. During 1947–1949, the laboratory built the EDSAC, the world’s first practical stored-program computer. The EDSAC provided a massive increment in computing power that rendered the earlier equipment largely obsolete. However, the pre-existing computing infrastructure and practices profoundly shaped how the EDSAC was used and what it was used for.
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Notes
- 1.
This chapter gives a highly condensed description of the programming techniques devised in the laboratory. A much more detailed history is given in Campbell-Kelly (1980).
- 2.
The following description of the computing service is distilled principally from Cambridge University Library, Computer Laboratory papers COMP. B. 3.15: Computer Laboratory Operating Memorandum No. 3 (March 1951), 8 (January 1952), and 11 (September 1952).
- 3.
Cambridge University Library, Computer Laboratory papers COMP. A. 9.
- 4.
Table making was the primary reason for the existence of both the Harvard Mark I and the ENIAC . Indeed, the Harvard machine had a nickname “Bessie” due to the vast amount of time spent computing tables of Bessel functions.
- 5.
Unless otherwise indicated, the information and quotations for this section come from Cambridge University Library, Computer Laboratory papers COMP. A. 9 (Priorities Committee).
- 6.
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Campbell-Kelly, M. (2019). The Evolution of Digital Computing Practice on the Cambridge University EDSAC, 1949–1951. In: Haigh, T. (eds) Exploring the Early Digital. History of Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02152-8_7
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