29 Dec
2016
29 Dec
'16
8:44 p.m.
On Thu, 12/29/16, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
Interesting factoid about the Bendix G-15: it was
designed with the help of
one of the ACE people (Harry Huskey), and is basically a re-packaged ACE with
drum instead of delay lines. There's an interesting article by Huskey himself
in "Alan Turing's ACE" (by Jack Copeland) which discusses the G-15.
Indeed. Huskey is probably one of the most influential, least known
early pioneers. He was one of the engineers on the ENIAC, having
designed the card reader and punch interface units. He spent some
time at NPL and was one of the prime pushers behind the idea of
building a pilot version of the ACE. When he returned to the US, he
designed both the SWAC and the G-15. Later he was on the
faculty at UC Berkeley where three of his advisees were Niklaus
Wirth, Ken Thompson, and Butler Lampson. And he turned 100
early in 2016.
BLS