Last 28.10 saw the passing of Kathleen Booth. She was a mathematician and a computer scientist who wrote the very first assembly language for computer systems (for the ARC computer).
She started collaborating with a small team of researchers, which included Andrew Booth, who would later develop one of the first rotating storage devices, preceding computer disks. What is interesting to notice in my view is that part of their groundbreaking work was developed in two 6-month research visits at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, where they had the chance to work with John von Neumann on his machine architecture, which enabled programs to be stored through a memory function. This experience led Andrew to redesign the ARC, repurposing the relay part of the machine (developing what is referred sometimes as the ARC2). In 1947, while still at the IAS, Kathleen and Andrew wrote two reports about such experiences, General considerations in the design of an all-purpose electronic digital computer and Coding for ARC. The first of those reports outlines several different options for the memory function of the von Neumann architecture machine, describing how to develop it. The second report explains how the instructions are represented in machine language and can be loaded into a storage device. Kathleen would later also turn to research in natural language processing and neural networks.
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AuthorThis blog is meant to provide a space for discussing the geophysical as well as the the imaginary entanglements between media infrastructures and organic environments. In the coming months, it will be dedicated to my current project, Cloud Gaming Atlas, which is particularly interested in observing and interrogating the infrastructures developed for cloud gaming initiatives in regard to their environmental implications. Additionally, it should also gather information about events and publications related to my project at the Zukunftskolleg and the Department of Literature, Art and Media of the University of Konstanz. Archives
January 2024
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