| ENIAC: The First Electronic Computer | |
| In June of 1943, John Mauchly
and J. Proper Eckert began to work on the Electronic Numerical Integration
and Calculator or ENIAC.
ENIAC was originally used by the military to calculate the trajectory of artillery shells. Built at the University of Pennsylvania, it was not finished until 1946, after World War II had ended. On its first demonstration, it was given a problem that would have taken a team of mathematicians 3 days to solve. It solved the problem in 20 seconds! ENIAC only occupied 1800 square feet, about the floorspace of a 3-bedroom house! and was only 3 tons. It used vacuum tubes instead of relay switches. The ENIAC still had two major weaknesses. First, it was difficult to change instructions. This could take up to 3 days of wire pulling, replugging, and switch-flipping to change instructions. Second, because the tubes it contained were constantly burned out, it was unreliable. |
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ENIAC |