Progress in ComputersPrestige Lecture delivered to IEE, Cambridge, on 5 February 2004Maurice WilkesComputer LaboratoryUniversity of CambridgeThe first stored program computers began to work around 1950. The one we built in Cambridge, the EDSAC was first used in the summer of 1949.These early experimental computers were built by people like myself with varying backgrounds. We all had extensive experience in electronic engineering and were confident that that experience would s
