EDSAC 2

EDSAC 2
	EDSAC 2 users in 1960
Release date	1958
Predecessor	EDSAC

EDSAC 2 was an early computer (operational in 1958), the successor to the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC). It was the first computer to have a microprogrammed control unit and a bit-slice hardware architecture.[1]

First calculations were performed on incomplete machine in 1957.[2] Calculations about elliptic curves performed on EDSAC-2 in the early 1960s led to the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, a Millennium Prize Problem, unsolved as of 2020. And in 1963, Frederick Vine and Drummond Matthews used EDSAC 2 to generate a seafloor magnetic anomaly map from data collected in the Indian Ocean by H.M.S. Owen, key evidence that helped support Plate Tectonic theory.[3]

References

Wilkes, M.V. (1992). PDF available by "View PDF" (expand "View on IEEE"). "EDSAC 2". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 14 (4): 49–56. doi:10.1109/85.194055. S2CID 11377060.
Information, Reed Business (1957-08-08). "New computer in Cambridge". New Scientist. Reed Business Information. p. 31.
Vine, Fred J.; Matthews, Drummond H. (1963). "Magnetic anomalies over oceanic ridges". Nature. 199 (4897): 947–949. Bibcode:1963Natur.199..947V. doi:10.1038/199947a0. S2CID 4296143.

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[1] Wilkes, M.V. (1992). PDF available by "View PDF" (expand "View on IEEE"). "EDSAC 2". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 14 (4): 49–56. doi:10.1109/85.194055. S2CID 11377060.

[2] Information, Reed Business (1957-08-08). "New computer in Cambridge". New Scientist. Reed Business Information. p. 31.

[3] Vine, Fred J.; Matthews, Drummond H. (1963). "Magnetic anomalies over oceanic ridges". Nature. 199 (4897): 947–949. Bibcode:1963Natur.199..947V. doi:10.1038/199947a0. S2CID 4296143.