The evolution of digital computing practice on the Cambridge University Edsac, 1949–1951

Martin Campbell-Kelly

pp. 117-134

in: Thomas Haigh (ed), Exploring the early digital, Berlin, Springer, 2019

Abstract

Cambridge University was very unusual, if not unique, among British universities in that it had established a centralised computation facility—the Mathematical Laboratory—in 1937, long before the advent of stored-program computing. The laboratory contained a variety of computing machinery, including desktop calculating machines and a differential analyser. During 1947–1949, the laboratory built the EDSAC, the world's first practical stored-program computer. The EDSAC provided a massive increment in computing power that rendered the earlier equipment largely obsolete. However, the pre-existing computing infrastructure and practices profoundly shaped how the EDSAC was used and what it was used for.