EDSAC

(Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) Developed by Maurice Wilkes at Cambridge University in England and completed in 1949, it was one of the first stored program computers and one of the first to use binary digits. Its memory was initially 512 36-bit words of liquid mercury delay lines, and its input and output were provided by paper tape. The EDSAC could do about 700 additions per second and 200 multiplications per second. It was in routine use at the university until 1958. See delay line memory.

The EDSAC

Using liquid mercury memory, the EDSAC could perform a mind-boggling 700 additions per second. It was one of the first computers to perform calculations in binary. (Image courtesy of Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge,www.cl.cam.ac.uk)

Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

EDSAC stands for Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator -- a machine that was designed to help mathematicians and scientists do complex calculations quickly.

EDSAC was built by a team led by Sir Maurice Wilkes, a professor at University of Cambridge in U.K.

The EDSAC team is rebuilding the first computer using these earliest computing elements -- the vacuum tubes.

Lost Piece Of First Computer Discovered

"Edsac was the first to go into regular service to help the people Sir Maurice saw in Cambridge, researchers struggling with computation using desk calculators," the BBC quoted Dr David Hartley, chairman of the CCS, as saying.

UK to rebuild world's first room-sized recognisably modern computer

Ignoring the rarefied allusion to the 1950s-era EDSAC I, he provides a footnote that explains that "E n F = Branch to instruction at n if accumulator = 0 else perform next instruction." Aren't you glad he told us that?

The Computer Contradictionary

While there in 1956 I wrote my first computer program; it was on the EDSAC. Of course EDSAC made history.

Turing Award lecture: elements of interaction

Maurice Wilkes, developer of EDSAC, was recognized for his pioneering contributions.

Celebration at new ACM headquarters

All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.