David "Dai" Beverley George Edwards (14 March 1928 – 11 November 2020)[1][2] was a Welsh computer engineer. He is notable for his pioneering work on the series of digital computers developed at the University of Manchester from the 1940s to the 1980s, and as co-inventor of virtual memory.[3][4]
Edwards was born in Tonteg, South Wales, the only child of Cecilia (née George) and William Edwards.[3]
Career and research
In 1945 Edwards enrolled at the University of Manchester to read physics. After graduating in 1948 he became a research student working for Frederic C. Williams in the Department of Electro-Technics on the Small-Scale Electronic Machine (SSEM) computer, also known as "The Baby", the world's first stored-program digital computer.[5][6][7][8]
Edwards subsequently worked on the Manchester Mark 1 computer, improving the cathode-ray tube (CRT) memory, extending the machine's instruction set, and implementing programmable data transfers between the magnetic storage drum and the CRT.[9]
Edwards was awarded a Master of Science degree in 1949, was appointed Lecturer in 1950[5]:185 and gained his PhD in 1954.[10] for his work on the "Megacycle Machine" (MEG) which was commercialised by Ferranti in 1957 as the Mercury computer. In 1959 he led the engineering team for the MUSE/Atlas computer.[5]:208 This led to his co-invention, with Tom Kilburn, Frank Sumner and M.J. Lanigan, of virtual memory.[11]
In 1964 he joined the University's newly-created Department of Computer Science as Reader,[5]:211 and in 1965 he and Kilburn established the Department's undergraduate programme. He was appointed Professor of Computer Engineering in 1966.[6]
Edwards worked on the design of the experimental MU5 computer (1968–1982), which led to the ICL2900 series, and also worked on MU6 (1982–1987).[12]
Edwards served as Head of the Department of Computer Science (1980–1987),[13][14]Dean of the Faculty of Science (1982–1983)[15] and retired from the University in 1988.[3]
Edwards, D.B.G.; Aspinall, D.; Kilburn, T. (1964). "Design principles of the magnetic tape system for the Atlas computer". Radio and Electronic Engineer. 27 (1): 65–73. doi:10.1049/ree.1964.0012.
Edwards, D.B.G., Lanigan, M.J. and Kinniment, D.J., 1964, September. High-speed ferrite-core storage system. In Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (Vol. 111, No. 9, pp. 1501-1510). IEE.
Edwards, David BG, Alan E. Knowles, and J. V. Woods. "MU6-G. A new design to achieve mainframe performance from a mini-sized computer." In Proceedings of the 7th annual symposium on Computer Architecture, pp. 161-167. 1980.
1234Broadbent, T.E. (1998). Electrical Engineering at Manchester University: The story of 125 years of achievement. The Mancherster School of Engineering, University of Manchester. ISBN0953120309.
12Lavington, Simon. "Obituary: Prof. Dai Edwards". Computer Resurrection, the Journal of the Computer Conservation Society. Winter 2020/21 (92).
↑Rojas, Raul; Hashagen, Ulf (2002). The First Computers: History and Architectures. MIT Press. p.381. ISBN9780262181976.
