Stored Computer Programs Part 2 Flashcards
What were the early SPC projects in England and in America?
England: • The Manchester Machine • Cambridge Machine: The EDSAC • The NPL Pilot Ace America: • The EDVAC • The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) Machine • The Eckert/Mauchly Machines: UNIVAC and the BINAC • SEAC/SWAC • Project Whirlwind
How did the Americans lose their early head start to the British
The British projects were of a smaller scale but were still counted as stored program computers. Thus while the british were debugging there’s the Americans were still designing there’s.
When was work commenced on these machines and when were they complete (this is the date that they were fully/largely operational – later enhancements could have been added later)
Manchester Machine: June 1948 EDSAC: 1949 NPL Pilot: DEUC 1954, Pilot Ace 1959 EDVAC: 1952 IAS: Finished released 1952 UNIVAC/BINAC: released 1951 SEAC/SWAC: fully operational 1950 Whirlwind: April 1951
What motivated the creation of these machines (if applicable)
EDSAC: run real programs for actual work over speculating on what would it be like to build certain design of machines.
What was the general appearance and physical characteristics of these machines
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How did these machines receive their name/naming convention (if applicable)
EDSAC: named after EDVAC
How were these machines designed and what were their important technical specifications of these machines
EDSAC:
– 16 steel tubes containing mercury
– Each tube could store 17 bits (16 bit digit plus a sign bit)
• Addition: 700/second (~1.4 milliseconds) • Multiplication: 4.5 milliseconds
What were some of the challenges involved in the creation of these machines (if applicable)
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What sort of technologies were employed in these machines
EDSAC: – Used mercury-based acoustic delay lines
Who were the major people and organizations behind the development of these machines
EDSAC: Cambridge, Maurice Wilkes
NPL Pilot Ace: National Physical Laboratory, Alan Turing, Harry Huskey, James Hardy Wilkinson, Mike Woodger
How were these machines used (if applicable)
EDSAC: – Used to solve many problems: payroll (1.5 seconds vs. 8 minutes by hand), determining the optimal mix in different brands of tea
What significant developments that came out of the creation of these machines (e.g., new technologies, new programming techniques)
EDSAC: The “Wheeler Jump” was the predecessor of the modern function/subroutine call.
