Talk:Automatic Computing Engine

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Cat

This is definetly earlier than a lot of other comps in the cat. Why is early computer an invalid cat?--Jirate 22:59, 2005 Mar 4 (UTC)

Comment

It would be good to have more detail on how it was supposed to work (or did work...) Duncan.france 05:50, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Colossus

We read in the introduction: "His wartime experience at Bletchley Park where the Colossus computers had been successful in breaking German military codes." But Turing didn't even know that Colossus existed (it was in another hut) and worked only on the Enigma-cracking "Bombe", so this seems irrelevant. There is a T101 in your kitchen (talk) 09:59, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Turing worked on many things at Bletchley, not just the Bombes (don't use that film as a source!). In mid 1942, he was working on the Lorenz, and developed a manual method which was the basis of the Heath Robinson, which was the basis of Colossus. He was also the chap within Bletchley who put forward Tommy Flowers as the technical developer for Colossus, given his experience working with him. So even within the tight security of Bletchley, and even though Turing "wasn't working on" something, that doesn't necessarily mean he was unaware of it. Andy Dingley (talk) 10:10, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, Turing was one of the few people at Bletchley Park who had knowledge and involvement across the board. He was also close to Max Newman who had taught him at Cambridge, commented helpfully on a draft of Turin'g seminal paper "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" and arranged for him to study for a PhD in Princeton. --TedColes (talk) 10:39, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Naming change for Malvern

Re this edit.

It should still use the previous TRE name, as that was the name in effect at the time. Andy Dingley (talk) 11:21, 25 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The cite I added is very clear it was at RRDE (Leigh Sinton Road, North Site Malvern Vale - ie not the TRE site), which with TRE were merged into RRE. i.e. it was at the non-TRE bit that formed RRE. And for this purpose, the cite is very authoritative - the Malvern Radar and Technology History Society. Do you have a contrary cite? Rwendland (talk) 13:39, 25 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

NB pages 83-83 of this book also say it was installed at RRDE not TRE. Rwendland (talk) 14:09, 25 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

So what are you seeing for an installation date?

My problem with this is that I have a suspicion of the installation date as early (I would hope those more familiar would have better sources), excellent descriptions of when the name changed (late) and the vaguest of passing references from books, such as the one you just cited, for it being "installed at RRDE". Overall, that's the sort of ref I don't trust (when presented with that sort of contradiction) because it's a minor matter that so easily gets garbled in transmission. On the whole, it just doesn't matter much.

There's also the issue that RRDE seems to have been "scheduled for merger and renaming" a few years before this actually took place, and the new name was officially adopted. In the interim the naming was indeed vague. But both seem to be later than ACE anyway.

It may well have been at RRE, not TRE. I have no knowledge of that. Andy Dingley (talk) 14:59, 25 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It was running at RRDE "1952 or early 1953" according to the cite above and page 370 of this book which states its source was the Post Offices Engineer in Chief's annual report for 1952-53. That books states Post Office engineers started work on it in 1946 - they were former Colossus engineers so had an advantage over NPL. RRE was formed in April 1953 I believe, so it was clearly a machine ordered by RRDE (an Army establishment working on anti-aircraft) years prior and running a few months before RRE was formed. I have yet to see a reliable cite that claims MOSAIC was at TRE - the evidence seems very clear to me. Rwendland (talk) 10:50, 28 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]