The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, built by Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn & Geoff Tootill that first ran on 21 June 1948, was an early form of what?
Manchester Baby Manchester Baby </noinclude> The Manchester Baby, also known as the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), was the world's first electronic stored-program computer. It was built at the Victoria University of Manchester, England, by Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Geoff Tootill, and ran its first program on 21 June 1948. The machine was not intended to be a practical computer, but was instead designed as a testbed for the Williams tube, the first truly random-access computer memory. Although considered "small and primitive" even by the standards of its own time, it was nonetheless the first working machine to contain all the
Manchester Mark 1 C. Williams". From that point on, development of the Mark 1 had the additional purpose of supplying Ferranti with a design on which to base their commercial machine. The government's contract with Ferranti ran for five years from November 1948, and involved an estimated £35,000 per year (equivalent to £ per year in ). The Baby had been designed by the team of Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill. To develop the Mark 1 they were joined by two research students, D. B. G. Edwards and G. E. Thomas; work began in earnest in August 1948. The project