Maurice Vincent Wilkes

Sir Maurice Vincent Wilkes (born the June 26th 1913) is a researcher in British Informatique .

Biography

Wilkes is born with Dudley in the Staffordshire. He studies with the St John' S College of Cambridge of 1931 with 1934 and supplements his doctorate in 1936 in the field of the propagation of waves radios with low frequencies in the Ionosphère. He is engaged by the university of Cambridge where he works with the establishment of a computing laboratory. During the Second world war Wilkes works on the Radar S with the Telecommunications Research Establishment , it makes also Operations research

In 1945, he becomes the second director of the laboratory of Mathématiques of Cambridge, which will be famous later Computer Laboratory . The laboratory has several type of calculators at that time, in particular several differential analyzers. Wilkes obtains off a copy of the first report/ratio John von Neumann First Draft has Report one the EDVAC , a prepublication of EDVAC, successor of ENIAC, in the course of construction by John Eckert and John William Mauchly with the Moore School off Electrical Engineering. It reads it during a whole night having to turn over it quickly. This reading immediately decides it to approach the construction of computer in this manner.

In August 1946, he travels by boat to the the United States to attend the Moore School Lectures , name popular of conference series, Theory and Techniques for Design off Electronic DIGITAL Computers given July 8th 1945 to the August 30th 1946. The risks of the voyage enable him to attend only the two last weeks. During its stay in the United States he visits the American sites more in seen in the field of calculation and becomes familiar with ENIAC.

Its laboratory having its own funds, it can as of its return work with the construction of a machine, EDSAC ( Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer ). It decides that its goal is not to manufacture a better computer but simply to do of them one which is usable by the university of Cambridge. Its approach being primarily practical, it uses the technologies already tested for each part of the EDSAC. The result is less large and less powerful than the projects in progress in the world but n the other hand it is the first computer with Architecture of von Neumann complete and functional. The first program is carried out on the EDSAC the May 6th 1949 and calculates the squares of the numbers from 0 to 99.

In 1951 Wilkes develops the concept of microcoding when it realizes that the central processing unit of a computer can be controlled by a Computer program specialized placed in a ROMANIAN. This concept simplifies the development of processor. Microcoding is described for the first time at the Manchester University Computer Inaugural Conference in 1951. Microcoding is used in EDSAC 2.

The computer following in its laboratory is the Titan (Atlas 2) built jointly with the firm Ferranti. Atlas 2 is the first computer with the the United Kingdom supporting a Operating system to Temps divided. Two specimens will be built, second is décommissionné in 1976. They are mainly used to make calculation of Transformée of opposite Fourier and Conception computer-assisted in the field of mechanics. The operating system of Titan provides Access Control List as well as based on the identity of the program on that of its user. It introduces also a system of encoding of password used later by the first Unix as well as a Management software of versions.

Wilkes is also credited with the idea of the labels symbolic systems, the macro S and in collaboration with David Wheeler and Stanley Gill of a programming system based on routines.

In 1956 it is elected member of the Royal Society. Wilkes founds the British Computer Society of which he is the president of 1957 with 1960. It receives the Prix Turing in 1967 with the quotation

“professor Wilkes is known like the architect and the manufacturer of the EDSAC, the first computer with architecture of von Neumann. It is also known like the author with Wheeler and Gill of a volume of Preparation off Programs for Electronic DIGITAL Computers in 1951 when the bookstores of programs are introduced. ”

In 1974 Wilkes sees a network under operation in Switzerland which uses a ring topology to allocate time on a phone network. It realizes that the idea is applicable to the computers and manufactures initially a prototype to divide Périphérique S then to divide time computing.

In 1980 Wilkes withdraws teaching and of its position of director of the computing laboratory of Cambridge, it joined Digital Equipment Corporation with Maynard. In 1986 it turns over in England where it works for Olivetti. In 2000 it is made knight and in 2003 it is named Professor emeritus computing laboratory of the Université of Cambridge.

Wilkes with the reputation called “I remember the exact moment or I realized that from now I was going to pass most of my life to seek errors in my programs. ”

Publications

has Shorts Introduction to Numerical Analysis . Cambridge University Near, 1966, reprinted 1971. ISBN 0-521-09412-7 paperack; ISBN 0-521-06806-1 clothbound.
Time-sharing Computer Systems . Elsevier, 1975. ISBN 0-444-19525-4
Memoirs off has Computer Pioneer . The MIT Near. 1985. ISBN 0-262-23122-0

References

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