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Autocode
Autocode is the name of a family of "simplified coding systems", later called programming languages, devised in the 1950s and 1960s for a series of digital computers at the Universities of Manchester, Cambridge and London. Autocode was a generic term; the autocodes for different machines were not necessarily closely related as are, for example, the different versions of the single language Fortran. Today the term is used to refer to the family of early languages descended from the Manchester Mark 1 autocoder systems, which were generally similar. In the 1960s, the term autocoders was used more generically as to refer to any high-level programming language using a compiler. Examples of languages referred to as autocodes are COBOL and Fortran. Glennie's Autocode The first autocode and its compiler were developed by Alick Glennie in 1952 for the Mark 1 computer at the University of Manchester and is considered by some to be the first compiled programming language. His main ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlas Autocode
Atlas Autocode (AA)Original scans)) is a programming language developed around 1963 at the University of Manchester. A variant of the language ALGOL, it was developed by Tony Brooker and Derrick Morris for the Atlas computer. The initial AA and AB compilers were written by Jeff Rohl and Tony Brooker using the Brooker-Morris Compiler-compiler, with a later hand-coded non-CC implementation (ABC) by Jeff Rohl. The word '' Autocode'' was basically an early term for ''programming language''. Different autocodes could vary greatly. Features AA was a block structured language that featured explicitly typed variables, subroutines, and functions. It omitted some ALGOL features such as '' passing parameters by name'', which in ALGOL 60 means passing the memory address of a short subroutine (a ''thunk'') to recalculate a parameter each time it is mentioned. The AA compiler could generate range-checking for array accesses, and allowed an array to have dimensions that were determined at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Brooker
Ralph Anthony Brooker (22 September 1925 – 20 November 2019), was a British computer scientist known for developing the Mark 1 Autocode. He was educated at Emanuel School and graduated in Mathematics from Imperial College in 1945 and returned there in 1947 as assistant lecturer. His first computer project was the construction of a fast multiplier unit from electro-mechanical relays. This was taken over by Sid Michaelson and K. D. Tocher and incorporated into ICCE, the Imperial College Computing Engine based on the same technology. By then (1949)Brooker had moved to the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory to work for Maurice Wilkes on software development for EDSAC. In October 1951 Brooker joined the Computing Machine Laboratory at Manchester University, where he took over from Alan Turing the task of writing programming manuals and running a user service on the Ferranti Mark 1 computer. It was his experience with the rather tedious Manchester machine-coding co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlas Computer (Manchester)
The Atlas was one of the world's first supercomputers, in use from 1962 (when it was claimed to be the most powerful computer in the world) to 1972. Atlas's capacity promoted the saying that when it went offline, half of the United Kingdom's computer capacity was lost. It is notable for being the first machine with virtual memory (at that time referred to as "one-level store") using paging techniques; this approach quickly spread, and is now ubiquitous. Atlas was a second-generation computer, using discrete germanium transistors. Atlas was created in a joint development effort among the University of Manchester, Ferranti and Plessey. Two other Atlas machines were built: one for BP and the University of London, and one for the Atlas Computer Laboratory at Chilton near Oxford. A derivative system was built by Ferranti for the University of Cambridge. Called the Titan, or Atlas 2, it had a different memory organisation and ran a time-sharing operating system developed by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferranti Mercury
The Mercury was an early commercial computer from the mid-1950s built by Ferranti. It was the successor to the Ferranti Mark 1, adding a floating point unit for improved performance, and increased reliability by replacing the Williams tube memory with core memory and using more solid-state components. The computer had roughly 2000 vacuum tubes (mostly type CV2179/A2134 pentodes, EL81 pentodes and CV2493/ECC88 double triodes) and 2000 germanium diodes. Nineteen Mercuries were sold before Ferranti moved on to newer designs. Predecessor: Mark I When the Mark I started running in 1951, reliability was poor. The primary concern was the drum memory system, which broke down all the time. Additionally, the machine used 4,200 thermionic valves, mostly EF50 pentodes and diodes that had to be replaced constantly. The Williams tubes, used as random-access memory and registers, were reliable but required constant maintenance. As soon as the system went into operation, teams started lookin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory
The Department of Computer Science and Technology, formerly the Computer Laboratory, is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. it employed 56 faculty members, 45 support staff, 105 research staff, and about 205 research students. The current Head of Department is Professor Alastair Beresford. History The department was founded as the Mathematical Laboratory under the leadership of John Lennard-Jones on 14 May 1937, though it did not get properly established until after World War II. The new laboratory was housed in the North Wing of the former Anatomy School, on the New Museums Site. Upon its foundation, it was intended "to provide a computing service for general use, and to be a centre for the development of computational techniques in the University". The Cambridge Diploma in Computer Science was the world's first postgraduate taught course in computing, starting in 1953. In October 1946, work began under Maurice Wilkes on EDSAC (''Electronic D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Hartley (computer Scientist)
David Fielding Hartley FBCS (born 14 September 1937) is a computer scientist and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. He was Director of the University of Cambridge Computing Service from 1970–1994, Chief Executive of United Kingdom Joint Academic Network (JANET) 1994–1997, and Executive Director of Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) 1997–2002. He is now much involved with the National Museum of Computing. He was involved in the development of the programming language CPL, whose influence can be traced on to C, and C++. He was president of the British Computer Society from 1999 to 2000 and chairman of the Computer Conservation Society from 2007 to 2011. Student years Dr Hartley became an undergraduate at Clare College, University of Cambridge in 1956. He read Mathematics for the first two years and studied Numerical Analysis and Automatic Computing in his third year, graduating BA in 1959. He then became a research student of computer science, develop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compiler
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that Translator (computing), translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that translate source code from a high-level programming language to a lower level language, low-level programming language (e.g. assembly language, object code, or machine code) to create an executable program.Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools by Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, Jeffrey D. Ullman - Second Edition, 2007 There are many different types of compilers which produce output in different useful forms. A ''cross-compiler'' produces code for a different Central processing unit, CPU or operating system than the one on which the cross-compiler itself runs. A ''bootstrap compiler'' is often a temporary compiler, used for compiling a more permanent or better optimised compiler for a language. Related software ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High-level Programming Language
A high-level programming language is a programming language with strong Abstraction (computer science), abstraction from the details of the computer. In contrast to low-level programming languages, it may use natural language ''elements'', be easier to use, or may automate (or even hide entirely) significant areas of computing systems (e.g. memory management), making the process of developing a program simpler and more understandable than when using a lower-level language. The amount of abstraction provided defines how "high-level" a programming language is. In the 1960s, a high-level programming language using a compiler was commonly called an ''autocode''. Examples of autocodes are COBOL and Fortran. The first high-level programming language designed for computers was Plankalkül, created by Konrad Zuse. However, it was not implemented in his time, and his original contributions were largely isolated from other developments due to World War II, aside from the language's influe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ALGOL
ALGOL (; short for "Algorithmic Language") is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in 1958. ALGOL heavily influenced many other languages and was the standard method for algorithm description used by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in textbooks and academic sources for more than thirty years. In the sense that the syntax of most modern languages is "Algol-like", it was arguably more influential than three other high-level programming languages among which it was roughly contemporary: FORTRAN, Lisp, and COBOL. It was designed to avoid some of the perceived problems with FORTRAN and eventually gave rise to many other programming languages, including PL/I, Simula, BCPL, B, Pascal, Ada, and C. ALGOL introduced code blocks and the begin...end pairs for delimiting them. It was also the first language implementing nested function definitions with lexical scope. Moreover, it was the first programming language which gave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alick Glennie
Alick Edwards Glennie (1925–2003) was a British computer scientist, most famous for having developed Autocode, which influential computer scientist Donald Knuth regarded as the first ever computer compiler.Knuth, Donald E.; Pardo, Luis Trabb, "Early development of programming languages", Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology (Marcel Dekker) 7: 419–493 Glennie worked with Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist. He was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer ... on several projects, including the Manchester Mark 1. Glennie subsequently worked at Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) where he was responsible in the early 1960s in developing FORTRAN compilers for several large computers inc. IBM 709, IBM 7090, IBM 7030 ("Stretch") and also ICT Atlas. He pioneered a method of developing t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
EDSAC
The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was an early British computer. Inspired by John von Neumann's seminal ''First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC'', the machine was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England to provide a service to the university. EDSAC was the second electronic digital stored-program computer, after the Manchester Mark 1, to go into regular service. Later the project was supported by J. Lyons and Co., J. Lyons & Co. Ltd., intending to develop a commercially applied computer and resulting in Lyons' development of the LEO (computer), LEO I, based on the EDSAC design. Work on EDSAC started during 1947, and it ran its first programs on 6 May 1949, when it calculated a table of square numbers and a list of prime numbers. EDSAC was finally shut down on 11 July 1958, having been superseded by EDSAC 2, which remained in use until 1965. Project and plan The concept ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overlay (programming)
In a general computing sense, overlaying means "the process of transferring a Block (data storage), block of program code or other data into main memory, replacing what is already stored". Overlaying is a computer programming, programming method that allows programs to be larger than the computer's main memory. An embedded system would normally use overlays because of the limitation of physical memory, which is internal memory for a system-on-chip, and the lack of virtual memory facilities. Usage Constructing an overlay program involves manually dividing a program into self-contained object code blocks called overlays or links, generally laid out in a tree structure. ''Sibling'' segments, those at the same depth level, share the same memory, called ''overlay region'' or ''destination region''. An overlay manager, either part of the operating system or part of the overlay program, loads the required overlay from Auxiliary memory, external memory into its destination region when i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
