diff --git a/.zk/notebook.db b/.zk/notebook.db index ca51a86..9e3335c 100644 Binary files a/.zk/notebook.db and b/.zk/notebook.db differ diff --git a/zk/Delay_line_memory.md b/zk/Delay_line_memory.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cacb024 --- /dev/null +++ b/zk/Delay_line_memory.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: Delay_line_memory +tags: [computer-history, memory] +created: Wednesday, September 18, 2024 +--- + +# Delay line memory + +- First described in the _First Draft_ by #vonNeumann based on work by Eckert + and Mauchley. + +- Information is stored as acoustic waves travelling through a medium, typically + mercury. As sound travels more slowly than electric charge (light), if + electric signals are converted to sound, the delay time involved can be used + as a type of store. + +- It worked as follows: + - Imagine we have an 8-bit number. The number is input as a sequence of pulses + where a pulse is 1 and the absence of a pulse is 0. + - The pulses are converted into sound waves (as with a speaker) and sent + through a mercury-filled tube. + - The length of the tube diff --git a/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md b/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md index 12be604..4de14a2 100644 --- a/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md +++ b/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md @@ -334,20 +334,26 @@ the ABC to make ENIAC. ### Concept of the _internal stored program_ - Key innovation of the EDVAC was the _internal stored program_ (ISP). + - Solution to the problem of preceding computers requiring down-time when switching between applications and problem sets. + - Circuitry would need to be reconfigured before the computer could run on the next problem + - ISP removed the friction: + - the instructions comprising the program would be prepared on tape or punched cards and read into electronic memory - the hardware configuration of the machine would remain the same accross different programs and require no reconfiguration, only the input program data would change + - This was basically the invention of software. Both instructions and data shared the same memory space once they were read-in. Before, the data would be stored in memory but the instructions would be read one-by-one from the external storage media. + - Key consequences: - flexibility (no need for re-wiring) - speed: fetching instructions from memory is quicker than fetching from @@ -364,26 +370,46 @@ the ABC to make ENIAC. ### Post-EDVAC devices There were several notable devices which attempted to implement the architecture -described in the _First Draft_ using vacuum tubes: +described in the _First Draft_ using vacuum tubes and other fully-electronic +methods for memory: - the Manchester "Baby" - the Cambridge EDSAC - Turing's ACE computer -#### Manchester Baby +#### Manchester Baby (1948) - An experimental computer intended to create the [von Neumann architecture](CPU_architecture.md) using [Williams_Tube_RAM](Williams_Tube_RAM.md) + - Developed at the Univesity of Manchester and completed in 1948. + - Considered the first electronic stored-program computer and first to contain all the elements of a modern electronic digital computer. -#### EDSAC +#### EDSAC (1949) J.Wilkes et al. - _Electronic Delay Storge Automatic Computer_ + - Constructed by Maurice Wilkes and others at the Mathematical Laboratory - Cambridge University (UK). + Cambridge University. + - The second digital stored-program computer after the Manchester Baby. + - It used vacuum-tubes for the arithmetical operations in the ALU and mercury delay lines for the RAM. + +- Designed to be used by relatively non-specialist practitioners from other + university departments who were expected to program it themselves. To this + end, a formal programming paradigm was forged for the EDSAC which established + the following: + + - subroutines as a library of common procedures available to programmers (e.g. + printing a result, reading input tape, program checking, mathematical + operations) + - diagnostics: techniques for verifying program code and its correctness + +- The key players wrote the first textbook on programming in 1951: _The + Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer_ (Wilkes, Wheeler, + and Gill) diff --git a/zk/Williams_Tube_RAM.md b/zk/Williams_Tube_RAM.md index 6fa23a0..7aa38f9 100644 --- a/zk/Williams_Tube_RAM.md +++ b/zk/Williams_Tube_RAM.md @@ -8,13 +8,16 @@ created: Tuesday, September 17, 2024 - One of the early attempts to create RAM in computers based on the EDVAC stored-program architecture. + - Worked by displaying a grid of dots on a cathode-ray tube ("screen") + - Due to the way CRTs work, this creates a small charge of static electricity over each dot. The charge at the location of each of the dots is read by a thin metal sheet just in front of the display. + - Each dot position could be written to and read from and the pattern was constantly refreshed as the dots would fade over time. -[A Williams CRT tube](../img/williams-tube.jpg) +![A Williams CRT tube](../img/williams-tube.jpg) -[Memory dot pattern from a Williams Tube](../img/williams-tube-dots.jpg) +![Memory dot pattern from a Williams Tube](../img/williams-tube-dots.jpg)