Definition
Ferranti Mark 1
The Ferranti Mark 1 was the world’s first commercially available general-purpose electronic digital computer, delivered in February 1951. It was a commercialised version of the Manchester Mark 1, developed by Ferranti in collaboration with the University of Manchester.
Alan Turing and Randomness
Alan Turing was instrumental in the design and programming of the Mark 1. He famously insisted that the machine include a hardware random number generator, which produced noise from a resistor to generate random bits.
Obs
Turing believed that randomness was a feature, not a bug, for intelligent machinery. He argued that stochastic processes were necessary for simulating the “unorganised” nature of an infant’s brain and for solving problems that deterministic algorithms might struggle with.
Legacy
The Mark 1 was used by Turing to conduct some of the first computer simulations of morphogenesis, exploring how simple chemical rules could generate complex biological patterns. It was succeeded by the ferranti mark 2, which refined the platform’s reliability and performance.