Chapter 1

Question 1

ENIAC

Answer 1

• 1943: started
• 1946: first official launch
• inventors: Mauchly and Eckert
• first electronic, general purpose, programmable computer
• electronic numerical integrator and computer
• created to calculate artillery tables for the US Ballistics research laboratory
• it had 6 female operators
• used 28 vacuum tubes to hold each decimal
• was used in Los Alamos for calculations
• ran Monte Carlo simulations, numerical weather predictions, modelling of supersonic flow
• not the first programmable computer but the first to automate the job of deciding what to do next after a set of instructions

Question 2

EDVAC

Answer 2

• Mauchly and Eckert proposed it in 1944
• ready in 1946
• electronic discrete variable automatic computer
• three paradigms (Von Neumann)
  1. the EDVAC hardware paradigm
  2. von Neumann architecture paradigm
  3. System of instruction codes

Question 3

EDSAC

Answer 3

• 1947
• first full scale computer to implement all 3 EDVAC paradigms
• became the basis for scientific computing services
• used in many science fields: biology, chemistry, astronomy, math etc.
• design team led my Wilkes
• operated for around 10 years, starting from 1949.
• it was serial: transaction of bits was slower, but simpler

Question 4

UNIVAC

Answer 4

• 1948
• Mauchly and Eckert
• It was the first computer to be produced in quantity and used for a variety of applications, including scientific calculations and business data processing.
• its tape system and large memory made it much faster
• many of its novel features became common practice in the future, e.g. magnetic tapes for bulk memory
• it followed the EDVAC design, so it was flexible enough to be used for both business purposes and scientific calculations

Question 5

programming

Answer 5

Grace Hopper: made a paper tape library of standard sequences of operations that were commonly being used, e.g. converting decimal and binary numbers
assemblers: handled reusable code
mnemonics appeared
+ assembler => assembly language
labels were created

Question 6

commercialisation

Answer 6

• Mauchly and Eckert wanted to commercialise in spite of some people being against it (Aiken)
• they had a vision of how society could benefit from computers
• in 1950s computers were sold
• they formed a partnership with the ECC in 1946
• they first sold only computer components but then moved on to fully functional computers
• they struggled with funding
• received many orders, however it was hard to realise all of them and turn the prospects into actual orders as they were under-capitalised
• UNIVAC sold
• punch card machines sold a lot (by IBM)
• ACM was formed for the exchange of information and idea between those working in the field

Question 7

killer application

Answer 7

a program so desired by the user that it made them want to get a computer to preform it

Question 8

programming tools

Answer 8

• assemblers: tools that assembled subroutines and new code into a single executable program
• mnemonics: short abbreviations (ex. LOAD)
• Assembly language: the list of instruction mnemonics and parameters
• The assembler translated each line into the corresponding numerical instruction that the computer could execute