When he first joined NPL in 1947, he worked as a member of a small team, which was led by Alan Turing of Bletchley Park fame. The group's work, based on Turing's design, eventually led to the Pilot ACE computer, one of the first electronic stored-program digital computers in the world.
However, it was his role as Superintendent of the Division of Computer Science at NPL that had even more of an impact. In 1965, he was the first to suggest that computer data could be transmitted in small packets containing destination addresses. His idea, which he called ‘Packet Switching’, would enable several different computers and terminals to use the same network route at the same time. This was the first step on the road to today’s internet and it remains the fundamental technology, allowing us to browse web pages, access emails and communicate over computer networks.
NPL is proud of its legacy in computer science and the role that people, like Donald Davies, played in making the United Kingdom a technological world-leader and it is a special honour for his birthplace in Treorchy to be recognised with this blue plaque.”
from;
Sam Gresham
Communications
National Physical Laboratory
Hampton Road | Teddington | Middlesex | UK | TW11 0LW
24/07/13National Physical Laboratory
Hampton Road | Teddington | Middlesex | UK | TW11 0LW
