Alan Turing’s Automatic Computing Engine

Alan Turing’s Automatic Computing Engine
Edited by B Jack Copeland
Oxford University Press, 2005
ISBN 0198565933
TNMOC reference: 003028 History of Computers/Computing - General

Alan Turing’s Automatic Computing Engine describes the author's struggle to build the modern computer. It contains first-hand accounts by Turing and the by the pioneers of computing who worked with him.

In addition to the invention of the computer, the book describes the hardware and software of the ACE computer, including the first computer programs. It also includes chapters describing Turing’s path-breaking research in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life.

It will be of interest to readers who want to get a feeling of what it was like to try and establish the UK as a centre of excellence for computing and the struggle to overcome post-war shortages and austerity in Britain.

Each month, TNMOC librarians highlight a historic book in the museum collection. The library holds an outstanding collection of books on computer history and milieu, and historically significant textbooks. Cataloguing is well underway.The online catalogue is on Library World.