- Tue Dec 13, 2022 11:47 pm
#787870
When we talk about computers and digital mechanisms, many lay people probably think of machines such as smartphones, video games, astronomical radars or artificial intelligence systems. That yes, they are computers. But they are examples of very (very) advanced cases, in relation to what was the first electronic digital computer in the world. This is the ENIAC, a computer developed for military purposes by the United States in 1946.
Background computing information Before ENIAC, information computing and programming machines already existed. Of the oldest, we know only parts, duly eroded by the action of time and the Greek seas. It is the Antikythera Phone Number List Machine, a mechanical artifact approximately 2000 years old, which, in modern reconstructions, looks a lot like a clock, with pulleys and disks. So why can it be called a “computer”? Because the idea here is to “compute”, that is, to gather data to provide information.
Later we had data analysis machines, of the most diverse natures, among which, the La Pascaline calculator of 1642, passing through the Jacquard Loom in 1804, until the Electromechanical Pump in 1939, developed by the mathematician Alan Turing. However, all these were combinations of mechanical and electrical systems. Unlike the ENIAC, which was only built in 1946. A ballistic calculation machine The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer – the ENIAC – was a gigantic machine designed by engineer John Eckert in partnership with physicist John Mauchly.
Background computing information Before ENIAC, information computing and programming machines already existed. Of the oldest, we know only parts, duly eroded by the action of time and the Greek seas. It is the Antikythera Phone Number List Machine, a mechanical artifact approximately 2000 years old, which, in modern reconstructions, looks a lot like a clock, with pulleys and disks. So why can it be called a “computer”? Because the idea here is to “compute”, that is, to gather data to provide information.
Later we had data analysis machines, of the most diverse natures, among which, the La Pascaline calculator of 1642, passing through the Jacquard Loom in 1804, until the Electromechanical Pump in 1939, developed by the mathematician Alan Turing. However, all these were combinations of mechanical and electrical systems. Unlike the ENIAC, which was only built in 1946. A ballistic calculation machine The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer – the ENIAC – was a gigantic machine designed by engineer John Eckert in partnership with physicist John Mauchly.
