Talk:Manchester Mark I
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April 1954 or 1949?
The article said "The first version of the machine was running in April 1954". The book "Early Britis Computers", page 37 says that it was used to investigate Mersenne primes in April 1949. It ran overnight in June 1949, and that it was completed in October 1949.--Bubba73 16:22, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Mark I coincidence
Is it by pure coincidence that this machine shares a similar name to Harvard Mark I? --Abdull 10:17, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
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- Yes, unrelated. However, the Baby Mark 1, Ferranti Mark 1 and intermediary version of the Manchester Mark 1 where all known as the "Mark 1" despite being different evolutions of the same machines. This link has something to say on the matter. --BlueNovember 00:01, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Size of a page
I'm confused by this text:
- The Mark I included two tubes, each storing 64 rows ("double density") of 40 points, for a total of 128 words. 64 words was considered to be a single "page", so the system stored 4 pages. Freddie Williams deliberately sized the drum to store two "pages" of Williams tube data – that is, 2x32x40 = 2,560 bits – per track, and 32 tracks in total.
The word size is 40 bits. Each tube stores 64 words. There are two tubes. 64×2 = 128. This makes sense. Then it says there were four pages. How exactly does 64×4 = 128? Did I miss something? Apparently two pages of data is 2×32 words... so presumably the article should say '32 words was considered to be a single "page"'? --StuartBrady (Talk) 19:08, 11 September 2007 (UTC)
