Editing EDSAC (section)

==Applications of EDSAC==
EDSAC was designed specifically to form part of the Mathematical Laboratory's support service for calculation.<ref>{{Citation |last= Goddard |first= Jonathan |title= 70 years since the first computer designed for practical everyday use |publisher= Department of Computer Science and Technology, [[University of Cambridge]] |date= 3 May 2019 |url= https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/news/70-years-first-computer-designed-practical-everyday-use }}</ref> [[Ronald Fisher]], in collaboration with Wilkes and Wheeler, used EDSAC to solve a differential equation relating to gene frequencies; this represented the first application of a computer to research in [[biology]].<ref>{{cite journal| last = Fisher| first = R.A.| author-link = Ronald Fisher| title = Gene Frequencies in a Cline Determined by Selection and Diffusion| journal = Biometrics| volume = 6| issue = 4| pages = 353–361| url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/3001780}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Livesey |first=James |date=2019-01-08 |title=The EDSAC and Computing in Cambridge |url=https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-whipple-collections/calculating-devices/edsac-and-computing-cambridge |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250114144113/https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-whipple-collections/calculating-devices/edsac-and-computing-cambridge |archive-date=2025-01-14 |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref> In 1951, Miller and Wheeler used the machine to discover a 79-digit prime<ref>[http://primes.utm.edu/notes/by_year.html Caldwell – largest known primes by year]. One reference gives Miller, J. C. P. "Larger Prime Numbers" (1951) ''Nature'' 168(4280):838, but the [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v168/n4280/abs/168838b0.html abstract] does not mention it.</ref>&nbsp;– the [[Largest known prime|largest known]] at the time.

The winners of three Nobel Prizes{{snd}} [[John Kendrew]] and [[Max Perutz]] (Chemistry, 1962), [[Andrew Huxley]] (Medicine, 1963) and [[Martin Ryle]] (Physics, 1974){{snd}} benefitted from EDSAC's revolutionary computing power. In their acceptance prize speeches, each acknowledged the role that EDSAC had played in their research.

In the early 1960s [[Peter Swinnerton-Dyer]] used the EDSAC computer to calculate the number of points modulo ''p'' (denoted by ''N<sub>p</sub>'') for a large number of primes ''p'' on elliptic curves whose rank was known. Based on these numerical results, {{harvtxt|Birch|Swinnerton-Dyer|1965}} conjectured that ''N<sub>p</sub>'' for a curve ''E'' with rank ''r'' obeys an asymptotic law, the [[Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture]], considered one of the [[Millennium Prize Problems|top unsolved problems in mathematics]] as of 2024.

{{blockquote
|The "brain" [computer] may one day come down to our level [of the common people] and help with our income-tax and book-keeping calculations. But this is speculation and there is no sign of it so far.
|British newspaper ''The Star'' in a June 1949 news article about the EDSAC computer, long before the era of the personal computers.<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~edsac/Software/EdsacTG.pdf | title=Archived copy | website=dcs.warwick.ac.uk | publisher=[[University of Warwick]] | location=UK | access-date=18 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222132057/http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~edsac/Software/EdsacTG.pdf |archive-date=22 December 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

===Games===
In 1952, [[Sandy Douglas]] developed ''[[OXO (video game)|OXO]]'', a version of [[noughts and crosses]] (tic-tac-toe) for the EDSAC, with graphical output to a VCR97 6" [[cathode-ray tube]]. This may well have been the world's [[first video game]].<ref name="Cohen">{{cite web |url=http://classicgames.about.com/od/computergames/p/OXOProfile.htm |title=OXO aka Noughts and Crosses – The First Video Game |last=Cohen |first=D. S. |work=[[About.com]] |publisher=[[IAC (company)|IAC]] |date=2014-09-20 |access-date=2015-12-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222084801/http://classicgames.about.com/od/computergames/p/OXOProfile.htm |archive-date=2015-12-22 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Wolf3>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming |last=Wolf |first=Mark J. P. |date=2012-08-16 |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-313-37936-9 |pages=3–7}}</ref>

Another video game was created by [[Stanley Gill]] and involved a dot (termed a sheep) approaching a line in which one of two gates could be opened.<ref name=smithIEEE /> The Stanley Gill game was controlled via the lightbeam of the EDSAC's paper-tape reader.<ref name=smithIEEE /> Interrupting it (such as by the player placing their hand in it) would open the upper gate.<ref name=smithIEEE /> Leaving the beam unbroken would result in the lower gate opening.<ref name=smithIEEE>{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Alvy Ray |date=9 June 2015 |title=The Dawn of Digital Light |journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=74–91 |doi=10.1109/MAHC.2015.51 |s2cid=10257358 }}</ref>