Ferranti Mark I.
The Ferranti Mark I was the second commercially available universal computer after the Zuse Z4 . It was first delivered in February 1951 shortly before the UNIVAC I .
The calculator was built by the British company Ferranti and was based on the Manchester Mark I , which was designed by Frederic Calland Williams and Tom Kilburn at the University of Manchester . The Manchester Mark I served to a certain extent as a prototype for the Ferranti Mark I. The most important improvements were the size of the working and secondary memory , a faster multiplier and additional commands .
After the first two computers were shipped (to the University of Manchester and the University of Toronto ), a revised design was shipped that became known as the Ferranti Mark I * or Ferranti Star . The other revisions mainly concerned the command set , for better usability. At least seven of these computers were shipped between 1951 and 1957.
Web links
- Ferranti Mark I at Computer50 ( Memento from February 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- Who Made the First Computer? (English)
- A simulator of the Ferranti Mark I, executing Christopher Strachey's Love letter algorithm from 1952