The Ferranti Mark 1, also known as the Manchester Electronic Computer in its sales literature and thus sometimes called the Manchester Ferranti, was produced by the British electrical engineering firm Ferranti Ltd. It was the worlds first commercially available electronic general-purpose stored-program digital computer, described as the tidied up and commercialised version of the Manchester Mark I. The first machine was delivered to the Victoria University of Manchester in February 1951, ahead of the UNIVAC I, which was delivered to the United States Census Bureau on 14 June 1951. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
SignificancePreceded as a commercial digital computer by the BINAC and the Z4, but distinguished from both: the Z4 was electromechanical and lacked software programmability, while BINAC never operated successfully after delivery, leaving the Ferranti Mark 1 as the first commercially available machine of its kind that actually worked. 1 FAQs
How many Ferranti Mark 1 machines were sold and where did they go?
About nine production machines were sold between 1951 and 1957 and three went abroad.
Ferranti publicly sold nine production Mark 1 and Mark 1 Star machines between 1951 and 1957, and one or two others may have gone to government agencies. Three of the machines were sold abroad, to Canada, Holland and Italy. The first machine off the production line was delivered to the University of Manchester in February 1951.
Connections
Held Differently
BINAC, Systems Not a settled priority dispute in either machine's favor: BINAC is sometimes cited as preceding the Ferranti Mark 1 as a commercial digital computer, but it never operated successfully after delivery to its customer, which is the usual basis for crediting the Ferranti Mark 1 as the first commercially successful general-purpose computer instead.
Source Wikipedia: Ferranti Mark 1
In Field
Source Wikipedia: Ferranti Mark 1
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Developed By
Also in Business Atlas: the developer of this subject.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Ferranti Mark 1
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Although preceded as a commercial digital computer by the BINAC and the Z4, the Z4 was electromechanical and lacked software programmability, while BINAC never operated successfully after delivery.
Lead sentence
Ferranti Mark 1, also known as the Manchester Electronic Computer in its sales literature, and thus sometimes called the Manchester Ferranti, was produced by British electrical engineering firm Ferranti Ltd.
View the Source 2. Wikidata: Ferranti Mark 1
- Wikidata Q675128, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
- Wikidata Q675128 P571 (inception)
- In Group: First-Generation Vacuum-Tube Computers, Wikidata instance-of first-generation computer
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