SSEM

The first computer to electronically store and execute a program was the SSEM (Small-Scale Experimental Machine), also known as the Manchester Baby. It was designed by Frederic Williams, and built by his protégée, Tom Kilburn, with the assistance of Geoff Tootill, at the University of Manchester, England.

Kilburn wrote the first program to be executed on the SSEM. It calculated the highest proper factor of an integer using repeated subtraction rather than division. Its first execution was on June 21, 1948.

Alan Turing also composed prototype programs for the SSEM, implementing long division.

Computer acronyms, Execution, Hardware terms, Manchester Mark 1, Program, Prototype