Timeline for development of "pilot ACE"

Timeline for Davies' work on 'Pilot ACE' Establishment of Mathematics Department in NPL under the supervision of J R Womersley Alan Turing's proposal for the design of ACE made available to the NPL Executive Committe Alan Turing's proposal for the design of ACE made available to the NPL Executive Committe Project for the development of a prototype of ACE computer called ACE Test Assembly starts Pilot ACE successfully runs it's first simple program followed by a grand demonstration between 29th Nov. - 1st Dec. Production version of Pilot ACE, Deuce computer, is launched Pilot ACE computer further development ends

Donald Davies has contributed in many fields including Pilot ACE, London's first general purpose stored program electronic digital computer.

Davies was influenced by a lecture from John Womersley, superintendent of the mathematics division of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), about the ACE digital computer which was being developed there. So he immediately applied and joined the ACE group in the Mathematics Division on 1st September 1947.

He played a key part in the detailed design and development of Pilot ACE (based on original designs of Turing for ACE, Automatic Computing Engine) with Ted Newman, Jim Wilkinson and others. Here is a brief history of the development of Pilot ACE computer in London.