WILLIAMS Frederick

Frederick Williams (Williams, Sir Frederic) (26 June 1911, Stockport, United Kingdom - August 11, 1977, Manchester), English engineer, electrical engineer. Invented by a mass storage device on a cathode-ray indicator tubes, which marked the beginning of the computer era.

He was educated at Manchester University and the College of Mary Magdalene in Oxford. From 1939 he worked in a research laboratory at Manchester University in Boudsi, where he focused on the development's first operational radar system for the identification of aircraft. His system was the forerunner of modern radar systems that use complex codes and different frequency.

In the early 1940's he developed the first fully automatic radar for use in fighter aircraft. In 1946 he invented the so-called up Williams, a mass storage device on a cathode-ray indicator tubes (CRT-memory). In 1948, Williams, together with Newman created his computer Mark-1, using the CRT. This was the first computer with a program stored in the memory. Williams tubes commonly used in digital computers, the first generation until the appearance of storage on magnetic media, invented by J. Forrester.

In 1976, Williams, professor of electrical engineering at Manchester University, was elevated to the dignity of knighthood.