Functional descriptions of some Atlas central processor sub-units

Scope and Content

Red foolscap folder containing typed foolscap sheets that were probably part of the documentation given to Atlas maintenance engineers during their time at Ferranti’s West Gorton Engineering Training School. Eric Sunderland has commented that the first generation of maintenance engineers for the Manchester Atlas more or less ‘learned on the job’ and that these hand-outs were probably produced after 1963 when engineers for the other Atlas installations (London, Chilton, etc.) were being trained at West Gorton. The documents are:

  • (a). The Central Computer, Chapter One (5 pages);
  • (b) The Atlas B Adder (full parallel adder) (16 pages, including circuit diagrams of printed-circuit packages 811, 812, 813 and 814); (c) Multiplier (4 pages).