Elliott 900 Series Computers

Documentation Archive

Last Update: 13th January 2025

Scanned copies of Elliott issued manuals and other Elliott 900 related documentation collected by Andrew Herbert.

All the documents contained in this archive are thought to be orphaned works and/or otherwise free of copyright restrictions. If this is not the case, the copyright owner is invited to contact me and ask for the copyright they hold to be acknowledged and/or have the relevant documents removed.

Elliott Issued Documents

920 Coral in Outline: Summary of facilities provided in the CAP Coral system for Elliott 920.

ACD Books: this folder contains books issued by (Marconi-) Elliott Airborne Computing Division (ACD). Specifically:

• ACD Book 103: 903/920 SIR: describes ACD one pass and two pass SIR.
• ACD Book 106: 903/905/920 Useful Notes: describes the various Elliott telecodes and the ACD sum-checked binary loader format.
• ACD Book 108: 903/920 SIR Subroutines Describes the ACD subroutine library.
• ACD Book 120: 903 Utility Software: describes ACD utilities for tape copying, editing, sorting, debugging and document processing.
• ACD Book 306: 905 FORTRAN: describes the 905 FORTRAN IV system.
• ACD Book 309 CAP 920C CORAL: describes the Coral programming system developed for the 920 by Computer Analysts and Programmers Ltd.

Manual of the ARCH Computing System of Online Process Control, an introduction to the Elliott ARCH process control architecture for industrial systems. Published by Elliott Brothers (London) Limited, November 1963. The original of this document is held by Danish Data Museum.
The handwritten codesheets are believed to be the work of Alex Hvidtfeldt, a Dane who worked for Elliotts from 1962 and was responsible for the development of ARCH. The Elliott 903/920B-based implementation of ARCH was known as the ARCH9000 and the Elliott 920C-based version as ARCH9050.

Elliott 900 Technical Manual, Copy No. 100, Vols. 1, 2, 3, 4: this folder contains the manual supplied by Elliotts to customers who purchased an Elliott 903 computer. It describes the hardware, peripherals, operating instructions, maintenance instructions and software. The content is primarily from Copy No. 100 belonging to an 8K Elliott 903 sold to The British Ceramics Research Association. Some missing / out-of-date pages have been added from other copies of the manual held by T.J. Froggatt and at The National Museum of Computing.

Elliott 903 ALGOL Design Documents: this folder contains the Elliott 903 Algol Design Documents authored by Don Hunter and Norman Spink. Specifically:

• 903 Algol Object Code Manual.
• The 903 Algol Translator (textual description).
• The 903 Algol Translator (flowcharts).
• The 903 Algol Interpreter (textual description and flowcharts).
• 903 Algol Maintenance.
• Annotated Algol Sources: To facilitate understanding of the Algol system, the original source code and design documents have been converted to HTML form by Andrew Herbert with extensive cross-linking between source code labels, textual descriptions and flow charts.

Elliott 905 computer brochure, Marconi Elliott Computer Systems Ltd, 1970: summary information about the Elliott 905 computer, software and peripherals.

Elliott 905 Digital Computer System Functional Specification, Issue 2, July 1969.

Elliott 920A Fact Book: a summary of the features of first machine in the Elliott 900 Series.

Elliott 920C computer brochure, Elliott Automation: summary brochure for Elliott 920C computer.

Elliott 928 Graphical Display System, a brochure describing the Elliott 920 Graphical Display System and its software. The 928 display was designed to be driven by an Elliott 905 computer.

Functional Specification of Elliott 902 and 905 Fast Autonomous Transfer Unit: Technical Report 332 PPR 144 Issue B, 1st May, 1969.

FACE Sales Brochure: FACE was the Field Artillery Computer Equipment gunnery control system adopted by the British army and based on the Elliott 920B computer by Elliott Space and Weapon Automation Ltd.

MC2/144 S.A.P. Symbolic Assembly Program: Section of Elliott 902 Computer Programming Manual, Part 2, Programming Languages describing assembly language for the Elliott 902 computer system (12 bit machine).

MCS 920B Computer Diagrams: this folder contains drawings issued by Elliott for 903 number 62, believed to be the 8K machine currently at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge. It was originally sold the British Ceramics Research Association.

MCS 920B Manual MCB 143, Vol. 4 Technical Manual, Copy A.139, A/275: This folder contains parts 1-5 and Logic and Circuit Diagrams from the MCS 920B Technical Manual (parts 1-4 ex copy A.139, diagrams ex copy A.275). This substantially duplicates the 900 Technical Manual Volume 4, but includes sections on Additional Store and Power Supplies which are missing from the former, and more numerous and detailed diagrams making this a valuable volume when tracing and repairing hardware faults. It also describes some of the other power supplies and I/O devices available for the 920B when used as an embedded system.

MCS 920C Specification: Specification of the Elliott 920C computer system (military version of Elliott 905).

MCS 920B Manual MCB 145, Vol. 5 Test Program Library, Copy A/117: Extracts from MCS 920B Manual, Vol. 5: Test Program Library MCB.145 Copy No. A/117 giving operating instructions for 920B test programs. The original also includes program coding sheets for each of the test programs but these have not been copies. Additional pages relating to X.51 and store tests for the 920M have been included.

Programming Compatibility of 920 Series Computers: Note written by Peter Lawrence describing differences between 920A, 920B and 920M models.

WORKSHOP: Elliott booklet describing the WORKSHOP calculator package.

Other Hardware Documents

Teletype BPRE Punch Manual: engineering manual for Teletype BPRE paper tape punch unit.

Teletype Manual: This folder contains the engineering manual for Teletype ASR teleprinter.

TRM 250 Tape Reader, Elliott Automation, 1967: technical manual for the Elliott 250 c/s paper tape reader including operating and maintenance instructions, mechanical design drawings and electronic circuit diagrams.

Other Software Documents

920ATC: notes by Terry Froggatt on 920ATC instruction set.

Aldenham Utilities: manual for Aldenham School Utilities.

AJH Algol

• Algol Interpreter Notes: notes written about the data structures and intermediate code for the Hunter and AJH versions of Algol.
• Elliott Algol Recovery Project: notes on the derivation and implementation of AJH Algol.

Bowdler-130782: notes on differences between BOWDLER 13/07/82 and version described in ACD Book 120 903 Utility Software.

City and Guilds Mnemonic Code

• The City and Guilds Computer: scan of a document describing the Elliott 903 implementation of the City and Guilds Mnemonic Code. This is thought to be the original documentation issued with the software.
• City and Guilds 319 Mnemonic Code (1967) and .. .(1968): scans of documents issued by the City and Guilds Institute defined the Mnemonic Code system. The Elliott implementation conforms to the 1967 specification.
• CCS Resurrection City and Guilds Mnemonic Code Article: an article for Resurrection written by Andrew Herbert giving an account of the Elliott version of City and Guilds Mnemonic Code.

Integer Division: notes by Terry Froggatt on errors in the Elliott 903 Algol integer division code,

Macrogenerators

• Documentation of FRED 9/2/71 a GPM-like symbol processor.

General Purpose Macrogenerator (GPM)

• CJ GPM paper: a scanned copy of Strachey’s Computer Journal paper introducing GPM.
• CCS Resurrection GPM Article: an article for Resurrection written by the author giving an account of the General Purpose Macrogenerator.

ML/I & LOWL

• Algebra Manual 1970: manual for the Algebra system written in LOWL as a teaching aid for manipulating algebraic expressions.
• K300 Computer Science Project: Harold Thimbleby’s writeup of his port of ML/I to the Elliott 905.
• ML1 Manual: issue 4 of ML/I User Manual.
• MLI at ECUA Meeting 760923: notes from meeting of Elliott Computer User’s Association on 26/9/76 when Thimbelby’s 905 ML/I was distributed.
• Thimbleby Tapes Investigation: write up of investigation of paper tapes supplied by Harold Thimbleby and recovery of his port of ML/I and LOWL tool chain.

Music Programs

• CCS Resurrection 903 Music Article: an article written for Resurrection by the author describing the various Elliott 903 music playing programs.
• Maestro
• The Music System
• Sample of Elliott Music playing (M4A format)
• Sample of Elliott Music playing (MP3 format)

XSTORE: summary documentation for XSTORE, a store test program written by Terry Froggatt.

Miscellaneous Documents

920M Construction: short article describing construction techniques for Elliott 920M.

Benson-Lehner Plotter: An advertisement for the Benson-Lehner plotter for the Elliott 903.

CCS Resurrection Elliott 903 Software Article: an article for the CCS Resurrection magazine written by the author summarizing the software available for the Elliott 900 series.

Educational Computer: an article from the Computer Bulletin, December 1965 describing the use of an Elliott 903 computer for education.

Elliott 903 Operating Notes is a summary of entry points, data formats and error messages for the main Elliott 900 and ACD utilities.

Page Inventories This folder contains a summary of the pages in the base documents that were scanned to make this collection.