Maurice Wilkes Quotes

A collection of quotes by Maurice Wilkes.

Maurice Wilkes was a prominent British computer scientist and an influential figure in the early development of computing. He was born on June 26, 1913, in Dudley, England. Wilkes attended St. John's College, Cambridge, where he earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees in mathematics.

In 1945, Wilkes joined the University of Cambridge's Mathematical Laboratory (later renamed the Computer Laboratory), where he began his pioneering work on computers. He led the team that developed EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator), one of the world's first practical stored-program computers, which successfully ran its first program in May 1949.

Wilkes further contributed to computing with his development of microprogramming, an innovative technique used to design computer processors. In the early 1950s, he introduced the concept of microcode, which significantly improved computer performance and made the design process more efficient.

Throughout his career, Wilkes made numerous significant contributions to various aspects of computing, including compilers, computer graphics, and operating systems. His work laid the foundation for the modern computer systems we use today.

Maurice Wilkes received numerous accolades for his contributions to computing, including the prestigious Turing Award in 1967. He continued to be an active researcher and educator, promoting computer science as a discipline until his passing on November 29, 2010, in Cambridge, England. His legacy in the field of computer science is widely recognized and appreciated around the world.