Maurice Wilkes was a British computer scientist who led the team at the University of Cambridge that built EDSAC, which ran its first program in May 1949 and is widely credited as the first computer to offer a regular, practical computing service to its users, alongside earlier and competing claims for other stored-program machines built around the same time. Wilkes also introduced microprogramming, a systematic method for implementing a computers control logic using a lower-level stored program of its own, still used in processor design today. He received the first Turing Award, given in 1967.
Facts
Awardhonorary doctor of the University of Kent 2 AwardFellow of the Royal Society 2 AwardHarry H. Goode Memorial Award 2 AwardFellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering 2 AwardW. Wallace McDowell Award 2 AwardComputer History Museum Fellow 2 Awardhonorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge 2 AwardClifford Paterson Lecture 2 AwardDistinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society 2 AwardFellow of the British Computer Society 2 AwardHonorary doctorate from the Technical University of Munich 2 Awardhonorary doctor of the University of Pennsylvania 2 AwardKyoto Prize in Advanced Technology 2 Awardhonorary doctor of the University of Munich 2 AwardIEEE John von Neumann Medal 2 Awardhonorary doctor of the University of Bath 2 Awardhonorary doctor of Linköping University 2 FAQs
Why was EDSAC deliberately built to be modest rather than as advanced as possible?
EDSAC aimed to be a usable machine for the university rather than a better design than its rivals.
Maurice Wilkes decided that his mandate was not to invent a better computer but simply to make one available to the University of Cambridge. His approach was therefore relentlessly practical: he used only proven methods for constructing each part of the machine. The result was slower and smaller than other contemporary computers that were being planned, but it was a working service machine that ran from May 1949.
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In Field
Source Wikipedia: Maurice Wilkes
Invented
Maurice Wilkes led the Cambridge CAP computer project at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, built 1970 to 1977.
EDSAC, Systems Maurice Wilkes led the EDSAC project at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory, running its first program in 1949.
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Nationality
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Sources
1. Wikipedia: Maurice Wilkes
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Sir Maurice Vincent Wilkes (26 June 1913 - 29 November 2010) was an English computer scientist who designed and helped build the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), one of the earliest stored-program computers, and who invented microprogramming, a method for using stored-program logic to operate the control unit of a central processing unit's circuits.
- In Field: Computer Architecture, Lead paragraph
View the Source 2. Wikidata: Maurice Wilkes
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