Early Manchester Computers

The University of Manchester has made a considerable contribution to the development of computing. This includes many "firsts" such as the first stored program computer, the first floating point machine, the first transistor computer and the first computer to use virtual memory.

Read about the achievements in computer design from the Department of Electrical Engineering and then the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester in the years up to 1975. It focuses on the 5 major machines built here and the people who built them.

 
Muse

Muse and Atlas

A joint development between the University, Ferranti and Plessey. It was arguably one of the world's first supercomputers.

The MU5

MU5

The biggest single outside influence to development of ICL VME2900

 

The Manchester Mark 1

The Enhanced Manchester Mark 1

The Manchester Mark I was one of the earliest electronic computers, built at the University of Manchester in England, in 1949.

The Mercury Computer

Meg and Mercury

Developed in the early 1950s by Ferranti and the University of Manchester computing department.

The Transistor Computer

Transistor Computer

Computers through the late 1950-60s featured boards filled with individual transistors and magnetic memory cores.



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