Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was an early British computer. The machine, having been inspired by John von Neumann's seminal First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England. EDSAC was the first practical stored-program electronic computer.
Later the project was supported by J. Lyons & Co. Ltd., a British firm, who were re...
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Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was an early British computer. The machine, having been inspired by John von Neumann's seminal First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England. EDSAC was the first practical stored-program electronic computer.
Later the project was supported by J. Lyons & Co. Ltd., a British firm, who were rewarded with the first commercially applied computer, LEO I, based on the EDSAC design. EDSAC ran its first programs on 6 May 1949, when it calculated a table of squares and a list of prime numbers.
As soon as EDSAC was constructed, it began serving the University's research needs. None of its components were experimental. It used mercury delay lines for memory, and derated vacuum tubes for logic. Input was via 5-hole punched tape and output was via a teleprinter.
Initially registers were limited to an accumulator and a multiplier register. In...
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