1949

Computers Wilkes with the EDSAC Maurice Wilkes assembled the EDSAC, the first practical stored-program computer, at Cambridge University. His ideas grew out of the Moore School lectures he had attended three years earlier. For programming the EDSAC, Wilkes established a library of short programs called subroutines stored on punched paper tapes. Technology: vacuum tubes Memory: 1K words, 17 bits, mercury delay line Speed: 714 operations per second

Manchester Mark I The Manchester Mark I computer functioned as a complete system using the Williams tube for memory. This University machine became the prototype for Ferranti Corp.´s first computer. Start of project: 1947 Completed: 1949 Add time: 1.8 microseconds Input/output: paper tape, teleprinter, switches Memory size: 128 + 1024 40-digit words Memory type: cathode ray tube, magnetic drum Technology: 1,300 vacuum tubes Floor space: medium room Project leaders: Frederick Williams and Tom Kilburn

People & Pop Culture Thomas Watson Jr., speaking to an IBM sales meeting, predicted all moving parts in machines would be replaced by electronics within a decade.