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Michael de V. Roberts,
a British theoretical chemist, early computer programmer and manager. He holds a Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from University of London, had used Cambridge's EDSAC before joining Ferranti, Ltd. as a programmer. In 1957 he went to the United States and was hired by IBM. Along with Alex Bernstein, Timothy Arbuckle and Martin Belsky, Roberts was member of the team developing the chess playing program for the IBM 704 ^[1]. He was later involved in the language and compiler development of a "new programming language" (NPL) at IBM Hursley, responsible for language definition and control, implementation and product introduction, and by May 1965 had chosen the final name PL/I ^[2].

Publications

• Alex Bernstein, Michael de V. Roberts (1958). Computer vs. Chess-Player. Scientific American, Vol. 198, pp. 96-105. pdf from The Computer History Museum, reprinted 1988 in Computer Chess Compendium
• Alex Bernstein, Michael de V. Roberts, Timothy Arbuckle, Martin Belsky (1958). A chess playing program for the IBM 704. Proceedings of the 1958 Western Joint Computer Conference, pdf

References

1. ^ Alex Bernstein, Michael de V. Roberts, Timothy Arbuckle, Martin Belsky (1958). A chess playing program for the IBM 704. Proceedings of the 1958 Western Joint Computer Conference, pdf
2. ^ Emerson W. Pugh, Lyle R. Johnson, John H. Palmer (1991). IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems. The MIT Press, Chapter 6, pp 350-352

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