First commercial computer, but it looks like Z4 and BINAC were there earlier, with only BINAC being electronic,
First paging computer. The acoustic delay lines for BINAC shipped before the Williams tubes for Mark 1; I don't know the dates for the technologies. As to RADAR, it motivated improvements in vacuum tube design, which was more important than either storage technology. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Dave Wade Sent: Monday, April 28, 2025 4:12 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: What has IBM ever done for us? (probably more than I know) External Message: Use Caution On Sun, 27 Apr 2025 21:59:37 +0000, Seymour J Metz <[email protected]> wrote: >Thanks; that makes 2 firsts for Manchester-Ferranti. > I wonder which two you are thinking of? The Baby/SSEM ran a program from RAM so the Kilburn/Williams tube as the first RAM and as used in the IBM 701, IBM replaced them fairly quickly with magnetic core. I find it interesting that both the Storage Tube and the Mercury Delay line memories used in early computers before the adoption of magnetic core were developed for use in Radar... .. yes the Mk1 was the first computer you could order. Possibly also the primeval origin of the World Wide Wed, as Tim Berners-Lee's parents met while working for Ferranti.. But there were other patents acquired by IBM and used in 360 and 370. I think most notably Virtual Memory for which Manchester also holds an IEEE milestone award... https://secure-web.cisco.com/15rCZ8Cc8uZQkvlTJ-nyX_dgxXa1jyV_QS4vEnOp_evu9VUu92xlwD0O80bTlXkt_J81bm-PVz_-4yQTcXAHUgvjVPI1rSyU0RdVzJ08VE3G1-xF1medI7tiSBB-sOu-8J_AnY01kApfbEjfC_v34QryhUOFOqeke3pRDlWLAVwFB3fOat2AN-ny4Oa3ZfO8mFvutqKZqU8Z_XjbwvQDHmOzt24aRY2lACkIO-3CtQgheq_GfLN3lGfO4LJRjt_wI_0vuMAtTCMka9X9Uv7xmMF48k9s-f1wxeAIWJDruuuxbJNy4ZuX73OFdiuU2uJNn2ZcoZgUg8Zh4GKTlUmER879nVb33RgZewyWUcvgjuWC9mM6FFMz8-xHMwBycZQKllM6AxeHX1jiSWM-1CoXa4iCm6VK5nKD1htUrFIZdgnQ/https%3A%2F%2Fethw.org%2FMilestones%3AAtlas_Computer_and_the_Invention_of_Virtual_Memory,_1957-1962 >-- >Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz >http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 >עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי >נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר > Dave G4UGM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
