4 ms·
In addition to ENIAC being built after the German Z1 (1938) and Z3 (1941), as others here have stated, it was also built after the UK's Colossus[0] (1943). If
by M2Ys4U 6y ago
In addition to ENIAC being built after the German Z1 (1938) and Z3 (1941), as others here have stated, it was also built after the UK's Colossus[0] (1943).
If we're talking "first real computer", though, and depending on your definition of "real", the Manchester Baby[1] (1948) was the first stored-program computer. The Colossus and ENIAC machines all needed to be re-wired to change what computations they could make and the Z3's instructions came only from the input tape.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Baby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Baby
- eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 6y ago> The Z3 [...] needed to be re-wired to change what computations they could make. Sure? Wikipedia says: > Program code was stored on punched film.
- M2Ys4U 6y agoOops, yeah, you're right. I've updated my comment, thanks for pointing that out.
- mhh__ 6y agoColossus was (while extremely important and criminally underutilized after the war) not turing complete by itself.
- Animats 6y agoRight. Colossus wasn't a general purpose computer at all. It was a key-tester, like a Bitcoin miner. The big problem in the early days was memory. ENIAC had nothing writable that could hold a stored program. IBM had electronic arithmetic in R&D before WWII, and that came out as a product after the war, the IBM 603 (1946) and 604 (1948). Those were plugboard programmed machines with electronic arithmetic. Workarounds for memory cost, basically. Everybody involved recognized that with enough memory, they could get rid of the plugboards, but the hardware wasn't ready. Many memory devices were tried. Delay lines. (Slow, not random access) Williams tube electrostatic storage. (Big and expensive.) High speed drums. (Slow, not random access.) Finally core memory was developed, the first thing that went fast and had random access.
- kens 6y agoYes, the difficulty of implementing memory back then often isn't appreciated. Core memory was a really important technology for making the modern computer possible. (Everyone I've talked to who used Williams tubes mentions how unreliable they were.) As for ENIAC, it was upgraded to core memory (built by Burroughs) in 1953.
- alephnil 6y agoThe ENIAC was originally not Turing complete, and as you say, had to be rewired for each new problem. In 1948 it was rewired to a stored program computer, which made it Turing complete in the sense that it was essentially programmed to emulate a von Neuman machine. This made it considerably slower, but was much more practical, as it was now possible to change programs frequently. Previously it took weeks to do so. This configuration was used until it was retired. Betty Jean Jennings Bartik, one of the original ENIAC programmers was leading this work, which was one of the main reasons she got the computer pioneer award for in 2008. Better late than never I guess. https://www.computer.org/profiles/betty-jean-bartik https://www.computer.org/profiles/betty-jean-bartik The Manchester Baby was the first computer that was built to be Turing complete from the start.
- fsagx 6y ago<quote> In addition to ENIAC being built after the German Z1 (1938) and Z3 (1941), as others here have stated, it was also built after the UK's Colossus </quote> Don't forget the ABC computer (1937-1942) which also pre-dates ENIAC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_comput...
- booky2 6y agoSo in this, does the definition of "World" include both West coast and East coast? What about Hawaii and Alaska?