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Domain: ameslab.gov

Stories and comments across the archive that link to ameslab.gov.

Comments · 53

  1. ABC by Bryan+Andersen · · Score: 1 · on BT funds UK Crypto Heritage Park
    The Atanosoff-Berry Computer had the first use of rotating drum memory, bit serial computation, parallel computation. It was also the first computing device to be all electronic in it's core. Instead of using relays, like devices before it, it used vacume tubes. Vacume tubes were natoriously inaccurate when trying to work with analog voltages, but they were perfect at being able to quickly and reliably switch between on/off states.

    Where did the recreation end up. I know the only part left from the original was (maby still is) in the lobby of the Physics building at Iowa State university.

  2. Re:ENIAC by EngrBohn · · Score: 2 · on BT funds UK Crypto Heritage Park

    ENIAC was the first general-purpose electronic computer. Colossus was specific to code-breaking. I'd previously read that the Atanosoff-Berry Computer (ca.1939) (see also the links from that page, and this page) was the first programmable electronic computer, and it was specialized for solving linear systems of floating-point equations (at a whopping 3.75 flops). The designers wanted to be able to input & output as fast as the machine could support it, so they abandoned mechanical card readers & writers. Instead, they read cards by passing them under an electric field and measuring the disturbances in the field made by the holes. The wrote to the cards by using a 5kV spark to burn holes into the cards.
    Christopher A. Bohn

  3. Re:ENIAC by EngrBohn · · Score: 2 · on BT funds UK Crypto Heritage Park

    ENIAC was the first general-purpose electronic computer. Colossus was specific to code-breaking. I'd previously read that the Atanosoff-Berry Computer (ca.1939) (see also the links from that page, and this page) was the first programmable electronic computer, and it was specialized for solving linear systems of floating-point equations (at a whopping 3.75 flops). The designers wanted to be able to input & output as fast as the machine could support it, so they abandoned mechanical card readers & writers. Instead, they read cards by passing them under an electric field and measuring the disturbances in the field made by the holes. The wrote to the cards by using a 5kV spark to burn holes into the cards.
    Christopher A. Bohn