EDSAC

Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer. It ran its first program May 6, 1949, and was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at Cambridge University, based on the EDVAC design report from John von Neumann.

This was not the first stored program computer (See the Manchester Baby[?]), but rather the first practical stored program computer. As soon as it was constructed, it immediately 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.

The project was supported by J. Lyons & Co. Ltd., a British firm, who were rewarded with the first commercial computer, LEO I, based on the EDSAC design.

Links

• It has a simulator program (http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~edsac/).
• 50th Anniversary of EDSAC Site (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/UoCCL/misc/EDSAC99/)