skip to main content
10.1145/1434770.1434780acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesafipsConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article
Free Access

The design, construction, and performance of a large-scale general-purpose digital computer

Published:10 December 1951Publication History

ABSTRACT

The PRINCIPLES OF operation of the computer to be discussed in this paper have been described in the paper by Dr. T. Kilburn. The basic techniques required for the design and construction of a satisfactory computer were developed by Professor F. C. Williams and his group at the University of Manchester, and the Computer Section of Ferranti Ltd. have therefore made use of these proven techniques in their engineering approach to the problem of constructing a reliable computer. This paper describes the engineering techniques used and evaluates the performance of the computer to date, with a brief reference to the types of problems being handled on the computer. The first computer of the type described (Figure 1) now has been installed at the University of Manchester, and the construction and testing of further similar machines is proceeding.

Recommendations

Comments

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Sign in
  • Published in

    cover image ACM Conferences
    AIEE-IRE '51: Papers and discussions presented at the Dec. 10-12, 1951, joint AIEE-IRE computer conference: Review of electronic digital computers
    December 1951
    125 pages
    ISBN:9781450378512
    DOI:10.1145/1434770
    • Conference Chair:
    • J. C. McPherson

    Copyright © 1951 ACM

    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    • Published: 10 December 1951

    Permissions

    Request permissions about this article.

    Request Permissions

    Check for updates

    Qualifiers

    • research-article

PDF Format

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader