section 2 Flashcards
What was the problem the US Army faced in 1943?
there was a lack of firing tables (which were tables consisting of all the variables needed to angle a gun for firing)
How were firing tables made?
they were created by computers who at the time were typically women to perform the calculations
Despite having many people working on the firing tables, was it enough?
they could not keep up with the demand
What was the role of Dr Herman Goldstine?
he was hired in early 1943 to supervise the computer team in Pennsylvania making the firing tables and despite getting many other on the team the demand was still too high so he began to think about electronic computers speeding up the process.
What was the role of John Mauchly?
he submitted a proposal in 1942 of August where he stated he wanted to build an electronic computer but was ignored. he caught the attention of Goldstine who thought his ideas for an electronic computer had merit and goldstine gave him the funding. Mauchly was soon joined by presper eckert.
When, where, and what was Goldstein, Mauchly, and eckert’s proposal to the military?
April 9, 1943
Aberdeen Proving grounds
they wanted to build an electronic computer called the ENIAC (electronic numerical integrator and computer)
What was the outcome of the proposal (ENIAC)
they were granted funding
Where was the biggest area of concern when designing the ENIAC?
vacuum tubes - which can modulate or amplify electric current it has 2 states (on and off)
these were known for breaking down the ENIAC needed 18000
to prevent this, eckert used the highest quality tubes and ran them at 10% of their intended voltage to prolong their lifespan
How was the ENIAC better than previous electromechanical and mechanical
1) its speed (it performed calculations electronically so it wasn’t slowed down by moving parts)
2) it had the ability to perform conditional branching (if/then statements)
3) general purpose calculator
How was the ENIAC programmed?
a programmer had to manually set thousands of switches and unplug cables from one unit and plug them into another
Who were the important programmers on the ENIAC?
out of the hundreds, six women were chosen to be the original programmers
How did Goldstine meet John von Neumann?
at a train station in aberdeen Maryland, they struck up a conversation and goldstine told Neumann about the ENIAC and Neumann visited the site and gradually exerted his influence over the design of the next computer the EDVAC (electronic discrete variable automatic computer)
What were John von neumann’s plans for the EDVAC?
1) larger memory/perform and store calculations in binary
2) the EDVAC would store both the data and the instructions in the same memory
3) the instructions for the computer would be represented as a system of binary codes
When was the ENIAC completed?
fall 1945
Describe the ENIAC.
it was huge it weighed 30 tons and took up 1,800 sq.ft
When was the ENIAC unveiled?
February 1946
what did John von Neumann do after his work on the ENIAC?
he went back to IAS in Princeton (institute for advanced study)
this is where he started his own computer group and completed their computer called the IAS computer in 1951
who was max newman and what did he want to build?
he was a professor of mathematics at Manchester university and wanted to build and EDVAC-like computer
who did max newman recruit? why?
frederic Williams
he designed a new type of memory which was a type of cathode ray tube (he called William tube)
what was William and Newman’s computer called?
the Manchester baby - the “baby” part was for its limited functionality as it was only designed to be an outlet to test the William tubes
the designers of the Manchester baby soon went on to design the Manchester Mark I
who was Maurice wilkes and what was he planning build at the same time of the Manchester baby?
he was physicist at cambridge and he was planning to build a computer because after seeing the first draft he attended the moore school lectures and was inspired
What was something Maurice Wilkes did differently than newman and William?
he used memory delay lines instead of Williams tubes for the memory system
it was called the EDSAC (electronic delay storage automatic computer)
When was the EDVAC finally completed?
in 1951 because eckert and Mauchly resigned from the University of Pennsylvania the building stalled
What did Eckert and Mauchly do after resigning from the University of Pennsylvania?
IBM offered jobs to both of them but they both declined and started their own business instead (the eckert mauchly computer corporation - EMCC)
What was the EMCC’s first product?
the UNIVAC (universal automatic computer)
What was the EMCC’s plan to raise money for the UNIVAC?
they sold advanced orders for a fixed price (which means the buyer buys the product for a predetermined price despite the costs to build it) instead of cost-plus-developmental plan (which meant the buyer paid the predetermined price and additional costs to build the product)
What price did EMCC negotiate with the US Bureau of Standards?
270,000 fixed price bt they ended up spending 900,000 on it
What was the BINAC?
the BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer) was a smaller computer they agreed to build for Northrop Aircraft Company for additional funding
When was the BINAC completed?
1949, they tested it on site before shipping it off to Northrop Aircraft Company but when they set it up there it didn’t work
The EMCC was still short on cash, what did they do to fix this problem?
they offered IBM a major part of their company but were turned down
James rand Jr. was looking to branch into electric computers so he paid off their debt and buy their company
