BRITISH
SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE
ACE 2000
CONFERENCE
SCIENCE MUSEUM OF LONDON, 18 MAY 2000
NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY, 19 MAY 2000
ACE 2000
will mark the 50th Anniversary of the Pilot Model Automatic Computing
Engine, London's first computer. Alan Turing's 'Proposal for Development
in the Mathematics Division of an Automatic Computing Engine (ACE)',
written in 1945, is the first relatively complete design for an electronic
stored-program general-purpose digital computer. The contemporaneous
U.S. document 'First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC' contained little
engineering detail, especially concerning electronic hardware; Turing's
proposal, on the other hand, contained detailed electronic circuits,
specimen programs in machine code, and even an estimate of the cost
of building the machine (£11,200).
The Pilot
Model ACE ran its first program on May 10, 1950, at the National
Physical Laboratory. With a clock speed of 1 MHz, Pilot Model ACE was
for some time the fastest computer in the world. DEUCE, the production
version of the Pilot Model, was constructed by the English Electric
Company. In total more than 30 were sold. NPL's full-scale ACE began
work in 1958. The fundamentals of Turing's ACE design were used in the
Bendix G15 computer. The G15 was arguably the first personal computer
and over 400 were sold worldwide. DEUCE and the G15 remained in use
until about 1970. Another computer deriving from Turing's ACE design,
the MOSAIC, played a role in Britain's air defences during the Cold
War period; other derivatives include the Packard-Bell PB250 (1961).
Speakers
at ACE 2000 include leading historians of computing and the pioneers
who constructed and programmed Pilot Model ACE and its derivatives,
including the English Electric DEUCE
and the Bendix G15.
ACE 2000
at the Science Museum, Exhibition
Road, South Kensington, London SW7, 10.30 a.m. - 5.30 p.m., Thursday
18 May will celebrate
the Pilot Model ACE and survey the ACE family of computers and the impact
that these machines had on British computing. ACE 2000 at the Science
Museum is hosted by the Computer
Conservation Society.
ACE 2000
at the National Physical Laboratory,
Bushy House, Queens Road, Teddington, London TW1, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.,
Friday 19 May will focus on the history of computation at NPL
The Turing
Project is grateful to the Science Museum of London and to the National
Physical Laboratory for providing facilities for ACE 2000.