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The claim was the first programmable, general-purpose "electronic computer". Zuse's machine was "electro mechanic" (i.e. based on relays instead of tubes).
by Rochus 6y ago
The claim was the first programmable, general-purpose "electronic computer". Zuse's machine was "electro mechanic" (i.e. based on relays instead of tubes).
- croes 6y agoThat seems a little unclear. In the title it says "Eniac: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer" In the outline: "Presents a history of the world's first programmable computer, ENIAC" In the reviews once "Nobody doubts the pair designed and built ENIAC, the world's first fully electronic computer" and another time "This account of how an engineer barely out of college and a physicist with dreams of predicting the weather, conceived and built the world's first computer."
- Rochus 6y agoOn page 3 of the book: "They built ENIAC, the first digital, general-purpose, electronic computer". It all depends on how you define the term "computer". Not to forget that "computers" at that time were the women who did the calculations; see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer#Etymology. Nearly all computers today are electronic and digital; so ENIAC was one of the pioneers of this development (the Colossus was another one).