The mathematical genius Alan Turing (1912-1954) was one of the greatest scientists and thinkers of the 20th century. Now well known for his crucial wartime role in breaking the ENIGMA code, he was the first to conceive of the fundamental principle of the modern computer-the idea of controlling a computing machine's operations by means of a program of coded instructions, stored in the machine's 'memory'. In 1945 Turing drew up his revolutionary design for an electronic computing machine-his Automatic Computing Engine ('ACE'). A pilot model of the ACE ran its first program in 1950 and the production version, the 'DEUCE', went on to become a cornerstone of the fledgling British computer industry. The first 'personal' computer was based on Turing's ACE.Alan Turing's Automatic Computing Engine describes Turing's struggle to build the modern computer. The first detailed history of Turing's contributions to computer science, this text is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the computer and the history of mathematics. It contains first hand accounts by Turing and by the pioneers of computing who worked with him. As well as relating the story of the invention of the computer, the book clearly describes the hardware and software of the ACE-including the very first computer programs. The book is intended to be accessible to everyone with an interest in computing, and contains numerous diagrams and illustrations as well as original photographs. The book contains some previously unpublished work by Turing as well as data that has only recently been declassified, and there are in addition chapters describing Turing's path-breaking research in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Artificial Life (A-Life). The book has an extensive system of hyperlinks to The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, an on-line library of digital facsimiles of typewritten documents by Turing and the other scientists who pioneered the electronic computer.
Author(s): B. Jack Copeland
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 558
0198565933......Page 1
Contents......Page 14
List of Photographs......Page 17
Contributors......Page 18
Introduction......Page 26
Part I: The National Physical Laboratory and the ACE Project......Page 38
1. The National Physical Laboratory......Page 40
2. The creation of the NPL Mathematics Division......Page 48
3. The origins and development of the ACE project......Page 62
4. The Pilot ACE at the National Physical Laboratory......Page 118
Part II: Turing and the History of Computing......Page 130
5. Turing and the computer......Page 132
6. The ACE and the shaping of British computing......Page 174
7. From Turing machine to ‘electronic brain’......Page 198
8 Computer architecture and the ACE computers......Page 218
Part III: The ACE Computers......Page 232
9. The Pilot ACE instruction format......Page 234
10. Programming the Pilot ACE......Page 240
11. The Pilot ACE: from concept to reality......Page 248
12. Applications of the Pilot ACE and the DEUCE......Page 290
13. The ACE Test Assembly, the Pilot ACE, the Big ACE, and the Bendix G15......Page 306
14. The DEUCE—a user’s view......Page 322
15. The ACE Simulator and the Cybernetic Model......Page 356
16. The Pilot Model and the Big ACE on the web......Page 360
Part IV: Electronics......Page 364
17. How valves work......Page 366
18. Recollections of early vacuum tube circuits......Page 370
19. Circuit design of the Pilot ACE and the Big ACE......Page 374
Part V: Technical Reports and Lectures on the ACE 1945—47......Page 392
20. Proposed electronic calculator (1945)......Page 394
21. Notes on memory (1945)......Page 480
22. The Turing–Wilkinson lecture series (1946–7)......Page 484
23. The state of the art in electronic digital computing in Britain and the United States (1947)......Page 554
A......Page 566
B......Page 567
D......Page 568
F......Page 570
I......Page 571
M......Page 572
P......Page 573
S......Page 575
T......Page 576
W......Page 577
Y......Page 578
