Alan Turing and his contemporaries pdf
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- British computer projects
Alan Turing and his contemporaries PRACTICAL PROBLEMS, 1945–7 To some extent the problems that beset Turing at NPL also dogged other pioneering computer design groups in the immediate post-war years. The main problem was computer storage. Central to the idea of a universal automatic computer was the assumption that a suitable storage system or ‘memory’ could be built. The EDVAC Report was very clear about this, stating that the implementation of a general-purpose computer depended ‘most critically’ on the engineers being able to devise a suitable store. Many ideas for storage were tried by the engineers of the time; few proved reliable and cost-effective. The trials and tribulations of the principal early British computer design groups are recounted in Chapters 2 to 6. These groups were in the end successful, and indeed in a couple of cases they outpaced the contemporary American groups in building working computers. It is tempting to believe that progress was helped by a continuation of the spirit of inventiveness that the designers had experienced during their wartime service in government research establishments. All of the designers of early computers were entering unknown ter- ritory. They were struggling to build practical devices based on a novel abstract principle – a universal computing machine. It is no wonder that different groups came up with machines of different shapes and sizes, having different architectures and instruction sets and often being rather less than user-friendly. THE RICH TAPESTRY OF PROJECTS, 1948–54 To set the scene for the rest of this book, the diagram opposite gives a picture of the many
between wartime know-how and the marketplace. At the top of the dia- gram we can imagine the people and ideas flowing out of government secret establishments in 1945. At the bottom are the practical produc- tion computers that were available commercially in the UK by 1955. In between the arrows show how ideas and technologies fed through universities and research centres into industry and then out into the marketplace. The left-hand box shows that, at the same time, there were a number of classified government projects that remained secret. Surprisingly, Alan Turing’s own attempt at practical computer design at NPL, the Pilot ACE, did not bear fruit until 1950. Of course, Britain was not the only country actively working on high- speed electronic digital computers in the late 1940s. There were at least a dozen pioneering projects in America. Amongst the earliest of 8
The ideas men Wartime know-how developed at UK and US radar, communications and cryptanalysis research establishments (including the Moore School, University of Pennsylvania) 1945 People
People UK universities and research centres. UK Industry Elliott Ferranti
Manchester Cambridge NPL 1950
Lyons Defence
Modified Colossus
SSEM Mark I
EDSAC Birkbeck
English Electric
Other rapid analytical machines TREAC
Nicholas 401
Mark I Mark I*
LEO APE(R)C
OEDIPUS MOSAIC
Elliott 153 Etc. etc. BTM 1200
1955 402
DEUCE The computer market-place UK government projects at GCHQ, TRE, etc. Code
breaking Elliott 403 Pilot ACE Elliott 152 British computer projects The flow of ideas and the marketplace as commercially available British techniques that came from government wartime computers is shown here. The projects mentioned in research via pioneering prototype projects and into the diagram are described in detail in Chapters 2 to 6. these to become operational were machines called SEAC (May 1950), SWAC (August 1950), ERA 1101 (December 1950), UNIVAC (March 1951), WHIRLWIND (March 1951), IAS (summer 1951) and EDVAC (late 1951). In Germany Konrad Zuse designed a series of ingenious electromechanical computers between 1938 and 1945, but these were
lia the CSIRAC electronic stored-program computer first worked in November 1949. Its designer, Trevor Pearcey, had graduated in Physics from Imperial College, London University in 1940 and spent the rest of the war working on radar at the Air Defence Experimental Establish- ment (ADEE). He moved to Australia in late 1945. In the next chapter we continue the story of Alan Turing’s progres- sion from Bletchley Park to NPL and from thence to Manchester. This represents but one strand of post-war British computing activity. Many other people, as we have already seen, began to be involved in the late 1940s at various places and at various times. It is an intriguing tale. 9
INDEX Locators in italics indicate photographs ACE (Automatic Computing prototype magnetic drum 61–62,
Engine) 13–15 62 curious aspects of original Simple Electronic Computer
design 81, 82 (SEC) 63, 63 descendants 19, 19 Booth, Kathleen 60–61, 60 development 13, 95 – 98
Pilot Model 17, 18, 82 Booth multiplier 64–65 Pilot storage system 17, 18 Borehamwood Laboratories 47, 79 Turing’s involvement 13, 80–81, see also Elliott digital computers
82–83, 95–98 British Tabulating Machines Admiralty: secret Elliot (BTM) 65–67
computers 47 HEC (Hollerith Electronic Admiralty Signals Establishment Computers) 66–67, 66, 67, 82,
(ASE) 3 85–87 Alway, Gerald 13, 17 see also International Computers APE(X)C computers 63–64, 64 and Tabulators (ICT) Ltd ARC (Automatic Relay Calculator) Britten, Kathleen see Booth, 60, 60 Kathleen 60–61, 60 ARC II 61–62, 63 Brooker, Tony 44 artificial intelligence 15–16 Brown, Gordon 83 Atomic Energy Research BTM see British Tabulating Establishment, Harwell: decimal Machines
computer 74 Bush, Vannevar 21 Automatic Computing Engine see business: computer applications 26,
ACE 27, 55–57, 66–67, 74–75 Automatic Relay Calculator see
ARC
Cambridge University: Alan Turing at 13–14, 15, 81–82 ‘Baby’ computer 37, 38, 39, 85–88, Cambridge University Mathematical
99
BAE systems 76 computing research programme Bagrit, Leon 55–57, 56 26–27
bank computerisation 75 see also EDSAC Bates, Audrey 40–41 cathode ray tube (CRT) storage Bernal, J D 59–60 20, 33
Bird, Raymond ‘Dickie’ 65 Small-Scale Experimental Birkbeck College, University of Machine (SSEM ‘Baby’)
London 59–60, 62, 80 computer 37, 86–87 Bletchley Park 1, 2, 70 Williams-Kilburn CRT tube Alan Turing 6–7, 83–84 35–36, 36, 38, 51 Booth, Andrew 40, 59–67, 60, 80, Clayden, David 13, 17
82 Coales, John 47 All-Purpose Electronic Computers
code-breaking 63–64, 64 Bletchley Park 1, 2, 7, 70 ARC 60, 60 computers 13, 48, 70 ARC II 61–62, 63 Colebrook, F M 17 Colossus machines 2, 13, 70 commerce: computer applications 26, 27, 55–57, 66–67, 74–75 computers APE(X)C computers 63–64, 64 Atomic Energy Research Establishment 74 British manufacturers shrink 76–77
British projects 1948-54 8, 9 commercial applications 26, 27, 55–57, 66–67, 74–75 comparison of five early British computers 85–93 defence applications 47–49, 69–71, 76 descendants of ACE 19, 19 DEUCE 19, 19, 51, 82, 85–87, 92–93
EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) 4, 23, 61 ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) 3–5, 4 external customers 19–20, 25–26, 55–57, 71–77 Ferranti Pegasus 54, 75 HEC (Hollerith Electronic Computers) 66–67, 66, 67, 82, 85–87
ICCE (Imperial College Computing Engine) 74 industrial process control applications 57, 76, 77 LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) 26, 27, 74 Manchester University Mark I 38, 39, 40–41, 99, 100 MOSAIC 19, 70–71 projects 1948-54 8–9, 9 RASCAL (Royal Aircraft Establishment) 74 relay-based 73–74 science and engineering applications 71–74 109
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