Ferranti Mark 1
First commercial electronic computer / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ferranti Mark 1, also known as the Manchester Electronic Computer in its sales literature,[1] and thus sometimes called the Manchester Ferranti, was produced by British electrical engineering firm Ferranti Ltd. It was the world's first commercially available electronic general-purpose stored program digital computer.[lower-alpha 1]
Also known as | Manchester Electronic Computer Manchester Ferranti |
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Product family | Manchester computers |
Predecessor | Manchester Mark 1 |
Although preceded as a commercial digital computer by the BINAC and the Z4, the Z4 was electromechanical and lacked software programmability, while BINAC never operated successfully after delivery.[2]
The Ferranti Mark 1 was "the tidied up and commercialised version of the Manchester Mark I".[3] The first machine was delivered to the Victoria University of Manchester in February 1951[4] (publicly demonstrated in July)[5][6] ahead of the UNIVAC I which was delivered to the United States Census Bureau in late December 1952, having been sold on 31 March 1951.[7]