An assessment of the system of optimum coding used on the pilot Automatic Computing Engine at the National Physical Laboratory. Offprint from Phil. Trans

Wilkinson, James H.

Publication Date: 1955

About this Item

Wilkinson, James Hardy (1919-86). An assessment of the system of optimum coding used on the pilot Automatic Computing Engine at the National Physical Laboratory. Offprint from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series A: Mathematical and physical sciences, 248 (1955). 253-281pp. Text diagrams. 302 x 236 mm. Original printed wrappers, label partly removed from front wrapper, ownership signature in upper corner of front wrapper. Fine. Bookplate of Erwin Tomash. First Edition, Offprint Issue. The National Physical Laboratory's ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) was designed by Alan Turing, who began working on the project a few months before he joined the NPL's mathematics division on October 1, 1945. Construction of the ACE began with a "test assembly" to try out Turing's ideas of computer design; after Turing's departure from the NPL in September 1947, this project was taken over by his assistants, James H. Wilkinson and Michael Woodger. In early 1949 the original ACE test assembly was abandoned and a new version, redesigned to make the electronics as simple as possible, began construction in early 1949. This machine, completed in 1950, came to be known as the "Pilot ACE." The Pilot ACE, although intended as a prototype, was immediately pressed into service, as it was then the only computer in a British government department. It remained in operation until 1956, undergoing several modifications during its lifetime. The present report "describes the system of optimum coding which is used on the Pilot ACE . . . It includes a number of simple examples of programs prepared for the machine and gives an assessment of the gain in speed which results from the use of optimum coding in general. It concludes with a description of the design of the full-scale ACE which takes full advantage of the general principles embodied in the design of the Pilot ACE" (p. 253). .

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: An assessment of the system of optimum coding used on the pilot Automatic Computing Engine at the National Physical Laboratory. Offprint from Phil. Trans
• Publication Date: 1955
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition