Alan Turing's Electronic Brain The Struggle to Build the ACE, the World's Fastest Computer

by Copeland, B. Jack

• ISBN13: 9780199609154
• ISBN10: 0199609152
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-07-05
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The mathematical genius Alan Turing, now well known for his crucial wartime role in breaking the ENIGMA code, was the first to conceive of the fundamental principle of the modern computer-the idea of controlling a computing machine's operations by means of a program of coded instructions, stored in the machine's 'memory'. In 1945 Turing drew up his revolutionary design for an electronic computing machine-his Automatic Computing Engine ('ACE'). A pilot model of the ACE ran its firstprogram in 1950 and the production version, the 'DEUCE', went on to become a cornerstone of the fledgling British computer industry. The first 'personal' computer was based on Turing's ACE.Alan Turing's Automatic Computing Engine describes Turing's struggle to build the modern computer. The first detailed history of Turing's contributions to computer science, this text is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the computer and the history of mathematics. It contains first hand accounts by Turing and by the pioneers of computing who worked with him. As well as relating the story of the invention of the computer, the book clearly describes the hardware andsoftware of the ACE-including the very first computer programs. The book is intended to be accessible to everyone with an interest in computing, and contains numerous diagrams and illustrations as well as original photographs. The book contains chapters describing Turing's path-breaking research in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Artificial Life (A-Life). The book has an extensive system of hyperlinks to The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, an on-line library of digital facsimiles of typewritten documents by Turing and the other scientists who pioneered the electronic computer.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction to the Centenary Edition

The National Physical Laboratory and the ACE Project

A Century of Measurement and Computation at the National Physical Laboratory, 1900-2000

The Creation of the NPL Mathematics Division

The Origins and Development of the ACE Project

The Pilot ACE at the National Physical Laboratory

Turing and the History of Computing

The ACE and the Shaping of British Computing

Computer Architecture and the ACE Computers

Turing and the Computer

From Turing Machine to "Electronic Brain"

The ACE Computers

The Pilot ACE Instruction Format

Programming the Pilot ACE

The Pilot ACE: from Concept to Reality

The DEUCE-a User's View

Applications of the Pilot ACE and the DEUCE

The ACE Test Assembly, the Pilot ACE, the Big ACE, and the Bendix G15

The ACE Simulator and the Cybernetic Model

The Pilot Model and the Big ACE on the Web

Electronics

How Valves Work

Recollections of Early Vacuum Tube Circuits

Circuit Design of the Pilot ACE and the Big ACE

Technical Reports and Lectures on the ACE and the Pilot ACE, 1945-1951

Proposed Electronic Calculator (1945)

Notes on Memory (1945)

The Turing-Wilkinson Lecture Series (1946-1947)

The State of the Art in Electronic Digital Computing in Britain and the United States (1947)

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