Dai Edwards (engineer)


David "Dai" Beverley George Edwards was a Welsh computer engineer. He is notable for his pioneering work on the series of digital computers developed at the University of Manchester from the 1940s to the 1980s, and as co-inventor of virtual memory.

Early life

Edwards was born in Tonteg, South Wales, the only child of Cecilia and William Edwards.

Career

In 1945 Edwards enrolled at the University of Manchester to read physics. After graduating in 1948 he became a research student working for Professor F.C. Williams in the Department of Electro-Technics on the Small-Scale Electronic Machine computer, also known as "The Baby", the world's first stored-program computer.
Edwards subsequently worked on the Manchester Mark 1 computer, improving the cathode-ray tube memory, extending the machine's instruction set, and implementing programmable data transfers between the magnetic storage drum and the CRT.
He was awarded his M.Sc. in 1949, was appointed Lecturer in 1950 and gained his Ph.D. for his work on the "Megacycle Machine" which was commercialised by Ferranti in 1957 as the Mercury computer. In 1959 he led the engineering team for the MUSE/Atlas computer. This led to his co-invention, with Tom Kilburn, Frank Sumner and M.J. Lanigan, of virtual memory.
In 1964 he joined the University's newly-created Department of [Computer Science, University of Manchester|Department of Computer Science] as Reader, and in 1965 he and Kilburn established the Department's undergraduate programme. He was appointed Professor of Computer Engineering in 1966.
He worked on the design of the experimental MU5 computer, which led to the ICL2900 series, and also worked on MU6.
He served as Head of the Department of Computer Science, Dean of the University of Manchester Faculty of [Science and Engineering|Faculty of Science] and retired from the University in 1988.

Personal life

In 1953 Edwards married Betty Duckworth, who died in 1977. In 1979 Edwards married Jane Ellis.

Selected publications

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