EDSAC Dead
EDSAC
KindMachine
Introduced1949
Discontinued1958
StatusDead
ManufacturerMaurice Wilkes / Cambridge
ClassEarly computer
PlatformMercury delay lines
Sourcewww.tnmoc.org ↗
The first practical stored-program computer — where von Neumann's ideas became daily service. Cambridge ran it as a computing bureau; Wilkes wrote the first textbook on programming for it.
19251950197520002025
Created by Maurice Wilkes
Inspired by von Neumann's EDVAC report (Wilkes attended the 1946 Moore School lectures), EDSAC ran its first program — a table of squares — on May 6, 1949. Mercury delay lines gave it 512 words of memory; 'Initial Orders' was the first usable assembler.
Cambridge's Mathematical Laboratory ran it as a computing service for researchers until 1958 — the first institutional computing service. Wilkes's 1951 book 'The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer' (with Wheeler and Gill) was the field's first textbook.