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Clan Sunbeam Reborn !

Nickodell

Donation Time
Taking it out of context would imply an intention to deceive, which I don't appreciate.

In virtually every reference to ENIAC, it is either called "the world's first computer" - which is ludicrous, as mechanical ones existed more than a century earlier - or "the world's first electronic computer," which is how ENIAC is generally described, what the U. Penn student recruiting blurb sheet called it, and what I was taking aim at.

Usually the only time one runs across the modifier "general purpose" is when someone is making a technically comprehensive description to an expert or publication, or if the claim of "world's first electronic computer" is challenged.

ENIAC was much faster, could be reprogrammed to different tasks, and was superior to Colossus in several other ways. However, it should be remembered that it was only announced in 1946, while Colossus had been providing invaluable decription service on the successor to Enigma for three years.
 

MikeH

Diamond Level Sponsor
Then there is this; which potentially ends the debate.;)
Presented on:
http://www.technewsdaily.com/5156-computers-that-changed-the-world.html


Atanasoff-Berry Computer

Built just a few years before the Colossus, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer was the first electronic, digital computer.

Designed by John V. Atanasoff and his graduate student Clifford Berry, the Atanasoff-Berry represented several breakthroughs in computing. It included a binary system of arithmetic, parallel processing, regenerative memory, and a separation of memory and computing functions. The Atanasoff-Berry was also the first computer to separate memory and data processing.

The completed version was roughly the size of a desk, weighed 700 pounds, had over 300 vacuum tubes and contained a mile of wire. It could calculate about one operation every 15 seconds. Because it was too large to go anywhere, it remained in the basement of the physics department at Iowa State University.
 

Paul N.

Donation Time
I don't give a damn who's selectively quoting whom but as far as I'm aware:-

The first (so far discovered) "computer" is currently reckoned to be the Antikythera Mechanism.

The first computer capable of more than one task was Babbage's Difference Engine.

The first programmable computer was Babbages' Analytical Engine.

The first digital electronic computer was the Atanasoff-Berry Computer.

The first programmable digital electronic computer was Colossus. And you can still see one working!!

Whether the words "general purpose" are of any relevance as a milestone in the history of computing is debatable. If they are, and it's always open to discussion how little modification would have been needed to use Colossus for other tasks, then ENIAC may have a claim. One thing is absolutely certain and that is that ENIAC was not "the world's first computer", "The world's first programmable computer", "the world's first electronic computer", or "the world's first programmable electronic computer".

If people have to use contrived wording to justify a claim then I have the world's first digital electronic duvet-top computer to have ever written this post!
 

Nickodell

Donation Time
That's what I was going to say :D

And correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the great ENIAC only used at first to calculate artillery shell trajectories?
 

Paul N.

Donation Time
That's certainly what it was ordered for but it took so long to build that World War II was over before it was finished - ironically shortened by several months by Colossus!! ENIAC was, instead, used for other purposes including work on the hydrogen bomb.

One problem with ENIAC was that it took days, if not weeks to program so it was actually of benefit to the war effort that Colossus was far simpler and could be re-programmed quickly.

To take the history of computing one stage further, the first fully programmable digital electronic computer capable of running a stored program from internal memory - the concept we're all familiar with nowadays - was also British:- "Baby", the 1948 Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine.
 

Nickodell

Donation Time
Someone can correct or confirm, but didn't the description "bug," applied to computer faults, originate when real bugs, or insects, shorted out exposed wiring?
 

Paul N.

Donation Time
The use of the word "bug" is usually attributed to U.S. Navy Admiral Grace Murray Hopper who, in either August or September 1945 (accounts vary), pulled a 2" moth from relay number 70, Panel F, of the MARK II Aiken Relay Calculator, in the Harvard University. Some accounts say it was a "Mark I" but, being 1945, it probably wasn't a fully-fledged computer anyway, more an electro-mechanical calculator.

Admiral Hopper apparently kept the moth taped to a page in her 1945 log book, now in either the collection of Naval Surface Weapons Centre or the Smithsonian (accounts again vary).

However, the term "bug" was already in use for faults in electrical and mechanical equipment and had been since at least the early 20th century.
 

dmich2

Donation Time
I friend of maine plays bagpipes in a fire dept band and told me I could borrow a pair(???) kilts. I don't know the color yet, but please advise before I get these.

Dennis
 

Paul N.

Donation Time
So that he can sound like a very posh British megalomaniac:-

"It's maine, I tell you. . . . . Maine, all maine!!!" <Exit stage left, uttering manic laughter and wringing hands in a manner reminiscent of a cross between Vincent Price and Alice Cooper.>
 
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