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SUMMARY:EDSAC: The World's First Practical Electronic Digital Computer - D
 r Andrew Herbert OBE
DTSTART:20130531T170000Z
DTEND:20130531T181500Z
UID:TALK43887@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:David de Sancho
DESCRIPTION:It is not generally known that the worlds first practical 'sto
 red program electronic digital computer" was designed and built in Cambrid
 ge by a team at the University's Mathematical Laboratory between 1947 and 
 1949.  Building on wartime expertise in radar electronics\, the Cambridge 
 team\, led by M.V. Wilkes\, designed a machine that embodied all the eleme
 nts we expect to find in a modern computer.  Of course EDDSAC was on a dif
 ferent scale: built using thermionic valves\, it filled a large room\; it'
 s memory was tiny\, just 512 words\; and its processor puny\, running at a
  pedestrian 500KHz.  But\, in comparison to the hand calculators and other
  mechanical computers it replaced\, EDSAC was a 1\,500-fold speed up - per
 haps the largest single leap in computing power ever seen.  EDSAC ran for 
 10 years\, helping 3 Cambridge scientists secure their Nobel prizes and st
 arting many famous computer scientists on their careers.  Scrapped after 1
 0 years to make room for the next machine\, very little of EDSAC survived 
 beyond a few electronics racks\, an album of photographs and a handful of 
 technical\nreports.  The speaker is leading a project based The National M
 useum of Computing at Bletchley Park to construct an replica of EDSAC as a
  working exhibit to sit alongside the Museum's recreation of Colossus\, th
 e wartime code-breaking "computer" and WITCH the worlds oldest surviving o
 riginal computer\, dating from 1952.  After introducing EDSAC and explaini
 ng it's importance in the history of computers\, the speaker will describe
  how you go about reinventing 70-year old technology and progress on the p
 roject to date.
LOCATION:Old Combination Room (OCR)\, Wolfson College
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