Transcript Baby

“Manchester and Early
Computers”
Christopher P Burton
The Computer Conservation Society
• “What do you mean - ‘Computer’?”
• The first Manchester computer - “The Baby”
• Interlude - what was going on elsewhere
• The early Manchester computers
• Replicating “The Baby”
Numerical Tables
Books of tables
from the 18th
century
Early adding machines
Pascal
17th c.
de Colmar
1824
Charles Babbage
Mathematician
Philosopher
Genius
Analytical Engine - 1838
STORE
for numbers
MILL
arithmetic
CONTROL
mechanism
“Operations” cards
e

b
e
a
a
x
b
c

b
a
+
b
Babbage’s Analytical Engine
The only
fragment ever
constructed
Arrival of Electronics
Wireless sets
Television
Radar
Colossus Codebreaking Machine
Electronic,
very fast
1943, UK
Secret!
ENIAC Machine
Electronic,
very fast
1945, USA
Huge
Fixed Program Computer - 1940s
STORE
for numbers
MILL
arithmetic
CONTROL
mechanism
Stored Program Computer - 1940s
STORE
for numbers &
instructions
MILL
arithmetic
CONTROL
mechanism
Instructions
What is a True Computer?
• A list of instructions to manipulate numbers
(e.g. “add”, “copy”, “test” or “remember”) to be
carried out one instruction after another - “a
Program”
• Instructions are represented by numbers,
therefore a program can modify itself
• Needs a big memory to hold the program and
the numbers
Need for Electronic “Memory”
• “What do you mean - ‘Computer’?”
• The first Manchester computer - “The Baby”
• Interlude - what was going on elsewhere
• The early Manchester computers
• Replicating “The Baby”
Quest for a memory
• By 1945, several research teams were seeking a
fast memory device.
• FC Williams and Tom Kilburn at Manchester
University.
• During the war they had been expert radar
engineers and they believed they could solve the
memory problem using radar cathode ray tubes.
Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn
In 1950
Quest for a memory
• The Cathode Ray Tube Store could remember
over 2000 binary digits by end of 1947
• But would it work in a computing machine?
• It needed to be tested “…in the hurly-burly of
computing.”
The Need for Realistic Testing
• So they built a little computer to test their
memory invention.
• Formally, it was: “The Small-Scale
Experimental Machine”
• but informally: “Baby”
The Historic Event
• Monday, 21st June 1948, about 11:15
• The first time in the world that a stored-
program computer worked
• The “Baby” was the World’s first Universal
Computing Machine
• Nearly all modern computers are “like” that.
The Illustrated London News
The First
program
From a
notebook kept
by Geoff Tootill
Dots & Dashes
A film fragment showing the computer
probably in 1948
• “What do you mean - ‘Computer’?”
• The first Manchester computer - “The Baby”
• Interlude - what was going on elsewhere
• The early Manchester computers
• Replicating “The Baby”
Interlude - What was happening elsewhere?
• University of Cambridge 1946 - 1949
• National Physical Laboratory 1947 - 1950
• Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton -1952
• IBM - 1953
Cambridge - EDSAC
London - Pilot ACE
USA - von Neumann
IBM uses the Cathode Ray
Tube store
• “What do you mean - ‘Computer’?”
• The first Manchester computer - “The Baby”
• Interlude - what was going on elsewhere
• The early Manchester computers
• Replicating “The Baby”
Early Manchester Computers
1948 -The “Baby” - The Small-Scale Experimental Machine
1949 - The University Mark 1 computer
1951 - The Ferranti Mark 1 computer
1954 - MEG
1957 - Ferranti Mercury
1953 - Transistor machine
1956 - Metropolitan Vickers MV950
1958 - Muse
1962 - Ferranti Atlas
Small-Scale Experimental Machine
1948 - Manchester
Illustrated London News photo
with annotations
A newsreel film showing the enlarged
computer in about June 1949
The Ferranti company gets involved
• Sir Ben Lockspeiser in 1948
• “Construct one computer to Professor
Williams’s instructions”
The Ferranti Mk 1 Computer - 1951
(World’s first commercially-delivered computer)
MEG - Ten times faster - 1954
Ferranti “Mercury” -1957
University Transistor Computer - 1953
Metro-Vick MV950 - 1956
University “MUSE” - 1958
University/Ferranti “ATLAS” - 1962
• “What do you mean - ‘Computer’?”
• The first Manchester computer - “The Baby”
• Interlude - what was going on elsewhere
• The early Manchester computers
• Replicating “The Baby”
The Small-Scale Experimental Machine
Rebuild Project
The Computer Conservation Society
THE MUSEUM
OF SCIENCE &
INDUSTRY IN
MANCHESTER
Project Goal
“
To construct a working replica of the
Manchester University
Small-Scale Experimental Machine
by Sunday, 21st June 1998
the 50th anniversary of the successful running
of the world's first stored computer program
and to re-run that program.
”
SSEM - Building the Replica
•
1995 to June 1998 - 3½ years to do it all
•
Fully sponsored by ICL - purchasing and
use of workshops
•
Acquire the obsolete parts, valves etc.
•
Design studies - technical detective work
Dai Edwards’ Drawing of the
Clock Circuit
Alec Robinson’s version of the
Clock Circuit
Our Computer-Aided-Design
version of the Clock Circuit
Illustrated London News Photo
of Typewriter
The Mark 1 in 1949
Close-up of Mark 1 Typewriter
Cover of War
Surplus
Catalogue
Catalogue Page with Push Button
Unit
Replica of the “Baby”
Now a video of the re-building
Small-Scale Experimental Machine
Rebuild Project
Thanks to:
The University of Manchester for facilities and support
Our sole sponsor - ICL, West Gorton
The pioneer team for consultation and encouragement
The Museum of Science and Industry for a final home
Many individuals for information and parts
My team of CCS members for their volunteer effort