Lavington Moving Targets

Elliott-Automation and the Dawn of the Computer Age in Britain, 1947 – 67
2011
ISBN: 978-1-84882-933-6
Verlag: Springer
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 710 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: History of Computing

charts the gradual take-up of Information Technology in Britain, as seen through the eyes of one innovative company – Elliott-Automation – and remembered by those who worked for that company. The story touches on the strategic, technical and economic history of the 1950s and 1960s, through such themes as: secret computers built for the Admiralty and for GCHQ at Elliott’s Borehamwood Laboratories; the changing balance between analogue and digital techniques; the challenges of commercial data processing and the marketing arrangement between Elliott and NCR; the introduction of low-cost, reliable computers and their application to industrial control and to avionics; the growing importance of software and the Elliott Algol compiler; and the market rivalry between the Elliotts and other British computer manufacturers such as English Electric and Ferranti Ltd.

Simon Lavington, M.Sc., Ph.D., FIEE, FBCS, is emeritus professor of Computer Science at the University of Essex and the author of many publications. He retired in 2002 and is a committee member of the BCS Computer Conservation Society.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lavington, Simon

Inhaltsverzeichnis

The Navy Comes to Borehamwood

A Glint on the Horizon

The Secret Digit

Analogue Expertise

NRDC and the Market

Process Control and Automation: the Bagrit Vision

Automation: the Machines and the Applications

Software and Applications at Borehamwood

NCR, the 405 and Commercial Data Processing

Evolution of Elliott Computer Architectures

EARS and Aerials: Elliott’s Radar Achievements

Airborne Computing System Developments at Elliott-Automation, 1958 – 1988

Mergers, Take-overs and Dispersals

The End of the Line