Pioneers Of Computing And Information Theory Codexery

Maurice Wilkes

English computer scientist who built EDSAC and invented microprogramming.

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Sir Maurice Vincent Wilkes was an English computer scientist who designed the EDSAC, one of the earliest stored-program computers.[1] He invented microprogramming, a method for controlling a central processing unit's circuits.[1]

Last updated 2026-10-07 from the source article.

Life and work

Wilkes studied the Mathematical Tripos at St John's College, Cambridge from 1931 to 1934.[2] He completed a PhD in physics on radio propagation in the ionosphere in 1936.[2] In 1945 he became the second director of the Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory.[3] He attended the final two weeks of the Moore School Lectures in August 1946.[4]

On the return voyage he sketched the logical structure of the machine that became EDSAC.[4] EDSAC ran its first program in May 1949 and was the second practical stored-program computer.[5] In 1951 he developed the concept of microprogramming, which simplified CPU design.[6] After being lent a copy of the "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" by John von Neumann, which he had to return the next day, Wilkes immediately recognized it as describing the stored program computer concept and resolved to build such a machine.[7][8][4]

What the cited sources add

The BBC News obituary calls Wilkes the "father" of British computing and states EDSAC ran its first program in May 1949.[9] The Computer Pioneers account by Lee notes Wilkes was appointed university demonstrator in 1937 to supervise construction of a differential analyzer.[7] Lee's account states Wilkes recognized von Neumann's "First Draft" as "the real thing" and never doubted the future of computer development.[7] That biography also states the Cambridge Model Distributed System was described by Wilkes and Needham in 1980.[10]

Lee's account notes Wilkes received an honorary Doctor of Science from Cambridge in 1993.[7]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Maurice Wilkes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Father of British computing Sir Maurice Wilkes dies", BBC News, 30 November 2010 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Maurice Wilkes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Maurice V. Wilkes – Short Biography", cl.cam.ac.uk (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Maurice Wilkes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "CV for Maurice V. Wilkes", University of Cambridge (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Maurice Wilkes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Campbell-Kelly, "Computer: a history of the information machine", Westview Press, 2004, p. 89 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Maurice Wilkes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gene Frequencies in a Cline Determined by Selection and Diffusion, R. A. Fisher, Biometrics, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Dec. 1950), pp. 353–361. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Maurice Wilkes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wilkes, "The Growth of Interest in Microprogramming: A Literature Survey", ACM Computing Surveys, 1969, p. 139–145 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Lee, "Maurice Vincent Wilkes", Computer Pioneers. facts only, no text reused. history.computer.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Maurice Wilkes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wilkes, "What I Remember of the ENIAC", IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 2006, p. 30–37; Piech, "Debugging", stanford.edu, 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "Father of British computing Sir Maurice Wilkes dies", BBC News, 30 November 2010. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
  10. "Maurice V. Wilkes – Short Biography", cl.cam.ac.uk. facts only, no text reused. cl.cam.ac.uk

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Maurice Wilkes (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Test yourself

Three questions drawn from this entry’s sources. Pick an answer to check it.

1. In what year did Maurice Wilkes die?

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Not quite. The answer is 2010.

2. In which place was Maurice Wilkes born?

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Not quite. The answer is Dudley, Worcestershire, England.

3. In what year was Maurice Wilkes born?

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Not quite. The answer is 1913.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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