EDSAC commissioning begins

EDSAC commissioning began this week by connecting some of the independently-built "sub-systems".

EDSAC Project volunteers, John Pratt, John Sanderson and Peter Lawrence, successfully connected the clock and digit pulse generator system in rack M3 to the “tank flashing” or store address decoding system in rack F3.

There is now an interconnected chassis in the front and middle row of racks, confirming that both subsystems, the inter-rack wiring and the power distribution system are working together.

The next step is to try to connect the flashing system to the storage regeneration system.

The order decoding system, the arithmetic unit, coincidence (computer-store synchronisation) and transfer unit (the delay line connecting output bus to input bus) are all showing good progress.

The EDSAC reconstruction is expected to be ready in late 2015. Next month the EDSAC display, complete with interpretive signage, will be officially opened by Hermann Hauser, chairman of the EDSAC Replica Project.

The ongoing reconstruction of EDSAC can be seen when TNMOC is open to the public.

A complete set of short top quality videos tracing the Project's progress can be found here. The videos have been made by David Allen, producer of the 1980's computer literacy BBC TV series.

Here is the the overview video of the project as a taster: