IT industry news: British computing legend dies

11:50 1st December 2010

Professor Sir Maurice Wilkes, one of Britain's computing pioneers, has passed away at the age of 97.

Professor Wilkes, labelled as the 'father' of British computing, worked on the team from Cambridge University that built the world's first stored-program computer.

Those considering taking programming courses may already be familiar with the EDSAC computer, which Professor Wilkes and his university team first trialled in 1949.

The machine housed 3,000 vacuum valves arranged on 12 racks and used tubes filled with mercury as memory. Despite filling an entire room at the university, EDSAC could only process 650 operations per second.

Professor Wilkes had been a former student of Cambridge, studying mathematics before devoting his time to developing radar systems in World War Two.

Professor Wilkes was inspired to build the machine after seeing blueprints for pioneering American computers such as the ENIAC and its successor the EDVAC.

According to the BBC, computer historian Dr Simon Lavington said of the project: "The EDSAC group was the most influential of the early British computing teams, most especially in setting high standards for the development of software and the organisation of a computing service to scientists and engineers."

Posted by Paul Davis

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