The EDSAC replica project was launched in 2011, and planned to be completed in three years, however, there is some delay due to difficulties. The project aims to recreate the world?s first stored programme computer EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator). Two-metre-tall EDSAC occupying four square metres and comprising of three thousand tubes could do 650 instructions per second.

Drawing on the principles of John von Neumann, Maurice Wilkes (1913-2010), one of the fathers of British computer science, and his colleagues built the original machine by hand at the Mathematical Laboratory of Cambridge University. EDSAC ran its first programme on 6 May 1949 and operated for nine years.

The work carried out with the support of the Computer Conservation Society (CCS,http://www.computerconservationsociety.org/) was hindered by the lack of sufficient original documentation and by the changes that had to be made as a consequence of the health concerns posed by the memory?s tubes filled with mercury.

It was announced this year that the first significant landmark had been reached: replica chassis had been recreated, which could even be manufactured using CAD/CAM systems.

Project manager Andrew Herber says the new EDSAC will be powered up and running in 2015.