the ENIAC Flashcards
section 2
What problem did the US army face in 1943?
There was a lack firing tables for its guns.
What was a firing table?
a table giving the elements of standard trajectories for a particular gun and type of ammunition and for effects produced by conditions (as of temperature or wind) that are not standard
Was it easy to create firing tables?
It required a lot of manual calculations and lots of human computers.
Where were firing tables mainly made?
Ballistics Research Laboratory at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland (had access to a Differential Analyzer machine)
Who was hired to fix the firing tables problem?
Herman Goldstine. he was faced with many problems with the temperamental Differential Analyzer so he entertained the idea of the electronic computer.
Who was John Mauchly and what was his role in the firing table problem?
Mauchly was hired because of his idea of developing a fully electronic and Goldstine was desperate for a fix to his problem.
Who was Mauchly joined by?
Presper Eckert (a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania)
Who was involved in the proposal of the next machine?
Goldstine, Mauchly, and Eckert
What was the proposal?
Funding to build an electronic computer
What did the proposal eventually become?
the ENIAC(electronic numerical integrator and computer)
Who was hired to work on the ENIAC?
12 people were initially assigned to the specific parts of the project (all of them in their 20s and 30s)
Who was the lead engineer for the ENIAC?
Eckert – he was a stickler for quality control
What were some problems faced?
vacuum tubes were used to modulate or amplify electric current and it has two states (on or off) and they were prone to breaking down
What were the solutions?
using the highest quality tubes and running them at only 10 percent of their intended voltage
How was the ENIAC superior to its formers?
1) it was speedy (performed all its calculations electronically)
2) conditional branching
3) perform any type of calculation
Who were the programmers on the ENIAC?
six women (called operators)
Before even finishing the ENIAC, what were Eckert and Mauchly thinking about?
their next computer –the EDVAC
How did John Von Neumann get involved in the ENIAC?
goldstine met neumann at the Aberdeen train station in 1944, neumann then stopped by the UoP to see the ENIAC and assert his influence
Where was John Von Neumann’s influence really felt?
during the creation of the EDVAC
What were the plans for the EDVAC?
1) larger memory
2) store both the program’s data and instructions in the same memory
3) instructions would be represented as binary codes
When was the ENIAC finished?
fall of 1945
When was the formal unveiling for the ENIAC?
feb 1946, hosted by the army and the UoP
What happened after the ENIAC became more well known?
1) UoP sponsored a summer school called the “Moore School Lectures” to teach the principles of electronic computing
2) neumann went back to IAS in Princeton and started her own computer research group (made the IAS computer finished in 1951)
3) many believed that neumann was the sole author of the First Draft
