automatic-computing-engine

The chapter details Alan Turing's transition to the National Physical Laboratory where he tackled the engineering challenges of building the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE), focusing on innovative memory storage solutions like acoustic delay lines using mercury. It highlights Turing's design philosophy prioritizing large, fast memory and instruction-driven computation over hardware complexity, including his pioneering concept of self-modifying code and conditional branching via programming. The chapter also explores the organizational and political tensions within the NPL Mathematics Division that influenced the ACE project's development.

The chapter details Alan Turing's development of the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) project, highlighting the technical challenges of designing a universal computing machine with advanced features like conditional branching and optimized instruction handling. It also covers the administrative and financial hurdles faced in securing support and resources, as well as the institutional resistance and organizational inertia at the National Physical Laboratory that hindered practical engineering progress. The narrative contrasts the conservative approach at NPL with the more dynamic and pragmatic computing initiatives at Manchester University, underscoring tensions between theoretical design and practical implementation in early British computing.