First General-Purpose Electronic Computer

The conception, development, and design of the ENIAC are presented in the context of a causal history. Early influences, particularly the differential analyzer and the work of Atanasoff, are detailed. Architecture, electronic and logical designs, basic elements, main units, and problem setup are described, together with the historical contributions to each aspect. Finally, the place of the ENIAC in the history of computers is delineated, both quantitatively and qualitatively, through a comparison with machines from the mechanical, electromechanical, and electronic technologies. Reproduced here with permission of Arthur W. Burks and Alice R. Burks

[1]  C. E. Wynn-Williams.  The Use of Thyratrons for High Speed Automatic Counting of Physical Phenomena , 1931 .

[2]  Friedrich L. Bauer.  Between Zuse and Rutishauser—The Early Development of Digital Computing in Central Europe , 1980 .

[3]  Douglas R. Hartree,et al.  Calculating Instruments and Machines , 2012 .

[4]  Arthur W. Burks,et al.  From ENIAC to the Stored-Program Computer: Two Revolutions in Computers , 1978 .

[5]  D. R. HARTREE,et al.  The Differential Analyser , 1935, Nature.

[6]  Brian Randell,et al.  An Annotated Bibliography on the Origins of Digital Computers , 1979, Annals of the History of Computing.

[7]  Arthur W. Burks.  Computers and control in society , 1978 .

[8]  Olga Taussky.  Statistical Treatment of Values of First 2,000 Decimal Digits of e and of /pi Calculated on the ENIAC , 1950 .

[9]  Jan Rajchman.  Early Research on Computers at RCA , 1980 .

[10]  G. A. Morton,et al.  Report on Electronic Predictors for Anti-Aircraft Fire Control , 1982 .

[11]  Brian Randell,et al.  The origins of digital computers: Selected papers , 1975 .

[12]  Vannevar Bush,et al.  A New Type of Differential Analyzer , 1946 .

[13]  Gian-Carlo Rota,et al.  History of Computing in the Twentieth Century , 1980 .

[14]  Leonardo Torres y Quevedo.  Electromechanical Calculating Machine , 1982 .

[15]  C. E. Wynn-Williams.  A thyratron “scale of two” automatic counter , 1932 .

[16]  I. J. Good.  Pioneering Work on Computers at Bletchley , 1980 .

[17]  Konrad Zuse.  Some Remarks on the History of Computing in Germany , 1979 .

[18]  James D. McKean,et al.  REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE , 2005 .

[19]  Herman H. Goldstine,et al.  The electronic numerical integrator and computer (ENIAC) , 1946 .

[20]  George W. Reitwiesner.  An ENIAC Determination of π and e to more than 2000 Decimal Places , 1950 .

[21]  John V. Atanasoff,et al.  Computing Machine for the Solution of large Systems of Linear Algebraic Equations , 1982 .

[22]  John G. Brainerd,et al.  Genesis of the Eniac , 1976 .

[23]  H M DAVIS,et al.  Mathematical machines. , 1949, Scientific American.

[24]  Herman H. Goldstine.  The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann , 1972 .

[25]  Arthur W. Burks.  Electronic Computing Circuits of the ENIAC , 1947 .