Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator

High school (ages 12+)
Science & Technology

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/electronic-delay-storage-automatic-calculator

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator known for?First practical implementation of the stored-program concept
2. What is the computer type?Early stored-program electronic digital computer
3. What is the location of development?Mathematical Laboratory, University of Cambridge, England
4. What was the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC)?EDSAC was an early electronic computer that could do math very fast. It was built in 1949 at the University of Cambridge and was the first computer to use a stored‑program design, meaning it could change its own instructions.
5. How did EDSAC store information using mercury delay lines?EDSAC used long tubes filled with mercury. Tiny electric pulses traveled through the mercury, creating sound waves that were turned back into pulses at the end of the tube. The pulses were sent back to the start, letting the computer keep bits of information in the tubes.

Stored-program concept: The architectural principle where instructions and data share the same memory, enabling dynamic program execution.
Thermionic valve: An electronic component that amplifies or switches electronic signals, used as the primary logic element in early computers.
Mercury delay line: An analog memory device that stores data by propagating acoustic pulses through a column of mercury.