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Lot 48

WILLIAMS, FREDERIC C. and TOM KILBURN.
A storage system for use with binary-digital computing machines. London: March 1949.

4 December 2019, 13:00 EST
New York

Sold for US$892.50 inc. premium

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WILLIAMS, FREDERIC C. and TOM KILBURN.

A storage system for use with binary-digital computing machines. London: March 1949.
4to (278 x 216 mm). Original printed wrappers. Toned, front wrapper unevenly toned. Offprint from: Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Volume 96, Number 40.

RARE OFFPRINT EDITION OF THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST TRULY HIGH SPEED RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY. Williams and Kilburn, both at Manchester University, developed this early random-access memory device that works by displaying a grid of dots on a cathode ray tube (Williams tube) creating a small static electricity charge at each dot, the location of which is read by a thin metal sheet in front of the display. The system was utilized in a number of early computers including the first commercially available computer, the Ferranti Mark 1, as well as IBM's first commercial scientific computer, the 701. Hook & Norman Origins of Cyberspace 1066.

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