The design of a practical high-speed computing machine. The EDSAC

Abstract

I would like to give a description of the high-speed electronic digital calculating machine now in an advanced stage of construction in the University Mathematical Laboratory, Cambridge, and known as the EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator). Before doing this I will set forth some of the considerations underlying its design. It will be realized that the potential power of electronic digital computing machines is very great, and that they are likely to have a far-reaching effect on certain fields of scientific research. It is, for example, often possible to write down the mathematical equations governing a situation but not possible to treat them analytically. If any progress is to be made in these cases it must be by a direct numerical attack on the fundamental equations. There have in recent years been a number of examples of this method. I might mention Professor Hartree’s work on self-consistent fields and Professor Southwell’s relaxation methods. In both cases the equations expressing the physical laws appropriate to the problem are written down and an approximate numerical solution sought without any intervening analysis of the conventional type. This kind of method is in principle of wide application and power, and the reason why it has not been more generally applied is that the labour of carrying out the necessary numerical processes is too great