Mainframe Computer Component, Ferranti Atlas Core Plane
date: label: date made
content: 1964
notes: label: Description
content: Manchester University in England pioneered in building electronic computers. The first, the Manchester Mark I, was a vacuum tube machine, built between 1946 and 1949 (for a small portion of the commercial version of the Manchester Mark I, built by Ferranti, see CI.334386). By 1953, Manchester University staff were thinking about using the newly intented transistor to build a more powerful computer. This device, first named the MUSE, was renamed the ATLAS in 1959 and jointly developed with Ferranti. The first example was formally inaugurated in 1962. Ferranti also built two copies of the Atlas. One was for a consortium of London University and British Petroleum (1963). Another was for the Atomic Engergy Research Establishment in Hartwell (1964). The latter machine was then moved to the Atlas Computer Laboratory at Chilton. When this third Atlas shut down in 1973, this object and a few other parts were given to the Smithsonian and assigned accession number 317839.
label: Description
content: This particular object is a core plane from the memory of the Atlas.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Simon Lavington, <I>Early British Computers</>, Bedford, MA: Digital Press, 1980.
label: Description
content: Simon Lavington, <I>History of Manchester Computers</I>, Rochelle Park, N.J.: The Hayden Book Company, 1975, pp. 30-39.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, Greater Manchester
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Science Research Council
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CI.317839.01
label: catalog number
content: 317839.01
label: accession number
content: 317839
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Mainframe Component
label: Object Name
content: mainframe computer component
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 cm x 12 cm x 12 cm; 13/32 in x 4 23/32 in x 4 23/32 in