Systems

EDSAC

Early Computer

Citation Formats

General Reference

Computing Atlas. "EDSAC." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/systems/edsac.

APA Style

Computing Atlas. (n.d.). EDSAC. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/systems/edsac

BibTeX

@misc{computingatlas-edsac,
  author = {Computing Atlas},
  title = {EDSAC},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/systems/edsac},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A stored-program computer built by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory, which ran its first programs, a table of squares and a list of primes, on 6 May 1949. EDSAC was the SECOND electronic digital stored-program computer to enter regular service, after the Manchester Mark 1 the previous month; it is distinguished from the earlier 1948 Manchester Baby this atlas already describes, which proved the stored-program principle but was built as a testbed rather than a working service.

Facts

Year

1949 1

Significance

One of the earliest computers to provide an ongoing computing service to a working research community rather than functioning as a one-off experimental testbed, a distinction historians treat as separate from and as significant as who ran a stored program first. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections