Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
We unveiled a blue plaque on Tuesday 23 June to commemorate the development in 1949 of EDSAC, a landmark event in the history of modern computing. The EDSAC - 'Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator' - was the first electronic computer to go into general use that did not need to be rewired by hand for every new task. Its development marked the birth of everyday computing.
EDSAC weighed two tons and took up a whole room at what was then Cambridge University’s Mathematical Laboratory (nowadays the Department of Computer Science and Technology). When it came into operation, in May 1949, it was the first practical machine of its kind: a general purpose digital electronic 'stored-program' computer that could hold both instructions and data in the same memory. A groundbreaking machine, it enabled researchers to do work that had previously been impossible and in so doing, opened up new fields of science and contributed to three Nobel Prizes in the 1960s and 1970s (for Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Physics, respectively).
"I'm absolutely delighted that we're commemorating the EDSAC with a Blue Plaque,” says Professor Alastair Beresford, Head of this Department and one of the speakers at the event. "Both the machine and the science it enabled were truly groundbreaking. The legacy of this work can be seen across the Department today, where our staff and students continue to deliver world-class research, actively collaborate with industry, and launch world-changing companies."
We unveiled a blue plaque on Tuesday 23 June to commemorate the development in 1949 of EDSAC, a landmark event in the history of modern computing. The EDSAC - 'Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator' - was the first electronic computer to go into general use that did not need to be rewired by hand for every new task. Its development marked the birth of everyday computing.
EDSAC weighed two tons and took up a whole room at what was then Cambridge University’s Mathematical Laboratory (nowadays the Department of Computer Science and Technology). When it came into operation, in May 1949, it was the first practical machine of its kind: a general purpose digital electronic 'stored-program' computer that could hold both instructions and data in the same memory. A groundbreaking machine, it enabled researchers to do work that had previously been impossible and in so doing, opened up new fields of science and contributed to three Nobel Prizes in the 1960s and 1970s (for Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Physics, respectively).
"I'm absolutely delighted that we're commemorating the EDSAC with a Blue Plaque,” says Professor Alastair Beresford, Head of this Department and one of the speakers at the event. "Both the machine and the science it enabled were truly groundbreaking. The legacy of this work can be seen across the Department today, where our staff and students continue to deliver world-class research, actively collaborate with industry, and launch world-changing companies."
