Elliott Brothers
Elliott Brothers (also known as Elliott-Automation) was a British computer company.
In 1958, in an attempt to form a strong national computer manufacturer, the commercial data processing element of Elliott Brothers was merged with International Computers and Tabulators, to form International Computers Limited. The remaining real-time systems part of Elliott-Automation was merged with similar elements of GEC, Marconi, and English Electric in 1969, to form Marconi Elliott Computer Systems Limited, re-named GEC Computers in 1972.
It is perhaps best-known to history for the ALGOL compiler for the Elliott 803, largely written by Tony Hoare (who had been hired by Elliotts as a programmer in August 1960). His experiences with ALGOL were an inspiration for his famous 1980 Turing Award lecture, The Emperor's Old Clothes - see link below).
Further reading
- Simon H. Lavington, Moving Targets: Elliott-Automation and the Dawn of the Computer Age in Britain, 1947–67, Springer, New York, 2011
External links
- Elliott Brothers (London) Ltd. and Elliott-Automation
- Elliott - manuals, marketing material and captioned images for several Elliott Brothers computers
- 803 ALGOL - manual for Elliott 803 ALGOL
- The Emperor's Old Clothes
- An ICL Anthology - contains Elliott Brothers-related content on pp. 70-72 (of the PDF)
- Another ICL Anthology - contains Elliott Brothers-related content on pp. 50-51
