Who developed the earliest stored-program computers, that was funded and purchased from Ferranti in the UK instead?
Manchester Mark 1 The Manchester Mark 1 was one of the earliest stored-program computers, developed at the Victoria University of Manchester from the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM) or "Baby" (operational in June 1948). It was also called the Manchester Automatic Digital Machine, or MADM. Work began in August 1948, and the first version was operational by April 1949; a program written to search for Mersenne primes ran error-free for nine hours on the night of 16/17 June 1949.
IBM 1400 series The IBM 1400 series were second-generation (transistor) mid-range business decimal computers that IBM marketed in the early 1960s. The computers were offered to replace tabulating machines like the IBM 407. The 1400-series machines stored information in magnetic cores as variable length character strings separated at the left and right by a special flag, called word mark. Arithmetic was performed digit-by-digit. Input and output support included punched card, magnetic tape, and high speed line printers. Disk storage was also available.