Seeber instructions(ID:7543/)

First soft-addressable memory

Country: us
- languages for us
- us/1949
Began: 1949
Type:Initial orders
- Initial orders
Sammet:EXC
- EXC
- EXC/1949
- EXC/us

Seeber's proposed use of soft-addressing in the Mark II, rejected by Aiken (!) and incorporated into the SSEC

Seeber instructions

Influence

References:

Phelps, B. E. "Effervescent Years" [Letter to the Editor] IEEE Spectrum 11(05) (May 1974) pp30- 31 view details Extract: Extract
When the Mark I was announced, he transferred to Harvard to work in the Mark I under Howard Aiken. While helping Aiken on the design of the Mark II, he proposed to Aiken that the Mark II use the same language for instructions as for data so that it might be possible to machine-modify instructions and addresses. His suggestion was summarily rejected, proving that even geniuses can have an occasional blind spot. Shortly thereafter, Seeber joined I.B.M. to work on the S.S.E.C. where he was successful in incorporating his ideas on instruction handling.