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Herman Goldstine, ENIAC Developer, Dies at Age 90

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the on-to-greener-pastures dept.

CodeFixer writes "Herman Goldstine, who as a mathematician working at the Ballistic Research Lab convinced the US Army to fund the development of the ENIAC and EDVAC, has died at the age of 90. His obituary can be found at the New York Times and descriptions of his involvement in the development of the ENIAC can be found at the Army Research Laboratory."

6 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Ironic - He died just like his machine by CompWerks · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Quotes about the ENIAC:

    "Thus ended the life of the once glorious pioneer in the field of digital computation"

    "It's death was a natural one--it had served its purpose."

    As quoted from: The ENIAC Story

    --
    If you can read this sig - the bitch fell off.
  2. A sad day by Gorffy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A great man who paved the way for many other great men and women. as a side note, It's interesting how so much technology, such as ENIAC, get started as tools of war.

  3. Re:Visionary guy by Gorffy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    IBM also supplied many armies with the punch-card machines/readers used to keep track of war records. the armies included the US army and the German army.

  4. How long? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How long will you have to live to see as much change as this guy saw?

  5. ENIAC on a chip and a java applet - enjoy! by mrmeval · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The ENIAC Java Applet and the ENIAC on a chip project

    --
    I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
  6. Re:Goldstine was project manager not designer by tetranz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not to denegrate Goldstine's contributions, they were important but he was really more of a project manager .....

    Yes, that's true. I enjoyed listening to an audio version of ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer Fasinating stuff. I seem to remember that there were a lot of personality clashes.