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How the World's First Computer Was Rescued From the Scrap Heap
anavictoriasaavedra sends this quote from Wired:
"Eccentric billionaires are tough to impress, so their minions must always think big when handed vague assignments. Ross Perot's staffers did just that in 2006, when their boss declared that he wanted to decorate his Plano, Texas, headquarters with relics from computing history. Aware that a few measly Apple I's and Altair 880's wouldn't be enough to satisfy a former presidential candidate, Perot's people decided to acquire a more singular prize: a big chunk of ENIAC, the "Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer." The ENIAC was a 27-ton, 1,800-square-foot bundle of vacuum tubes and diodes that was arguably the world's first true computer. The hardware that Perot's team diligently unearthed and lovingly refurbished is now accessible to the general public for the first time, back at the same Army base where it almost rotted into oblivion.
Ross Perot is awesome! Damn shame that Clinton got elected.
I don't want to do a sig now
The thing was freakin huge. There was about 4-5 racks up in the mezzanine storage that someone was trying to reverse engineer to work somewhat and 3-4 on display at one time. Haven't been to EECS in a decade though.
...it wasn't the first computer.
SURELY NOT!!!!!
not the world's first.
ENIAC wasn't the first electronic programmable computer. Colossus was. It was used for code breaking in WW2. Colossus Mark 1 was up and running by December 1943, and Mark 2 (using shift registers to increase speed) was up and running by June 1944. The only reason people think of ENIAC instead of Colossus, was that Colossus's existence was kept secret up until the 1970s. By that time ENIAC got all the publicity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff-Berry_Computer
If it has limited space, its not turing complete. Not just the space is limited (this alone would suffice), but because of that the time too (unless you want to never terminate) (If you have n bits, there is a constant c for every program such that the program ends within c^n time, this is simply seen by the number of "states" the program has, you cant have more than 2^n configurations of your space, and you can't have a pair of Program counter register value (lets assume harvard-architecture here, so program's fixed) and memory configuration occur twice, because this would lead to a loop). If its not turing complete, its no computer. So please stop to call these machines "computers".
The first American computer. Not the first computer.
Gleason realized early on that he couldn’t make his portion of ENIAC run actual calculations—such an endeavor would require all 40 panels
I wonder if Gleason of other preservationists have considered building functional replicas of the missing panels. Doing so would be the first step is bringing the relics to life again as a functioning computer.
Of course, that would not be the end of the project:
, not to mention thousands of new components and technical know-how that had long been forgotten.
But perhaps a workable project to restore ENIAC to working order could inspire the re-discovery of such knowledge. Often of technical knowledge thought to be lost is not really lost, just misplaced. Somebody knows or knows who knows but they need to be inspired to come forward or follow up on their hunch.
That giant sucking sound coming from the south was interfering with my concentration.
#DeleteChrome
Binary (not decimal like the ENIAC), floating point unit, touring complete, programmable via tape. Nothing came close for years.
So essentially ENIAC is lost.
What's left is only a quarter of the original machine that's been turned into some light show. The other 3/4 of the panels are owned by other people or are gone entirely. While I'm not saying it wasn't worth doing or that it wasn't hard work, it's not what I would call "refurbished".
It's like digging up a skeleton and having someone rig up a motion detector to play recorded phrases and move the jaw as people walk by it.
Unfortunately there seems to be a period of time where things are just old and past their usefulness, - their historical significance takes more time for people to appreciate. I understand that a true restoration would be hugely impractical, but it would be cool.
Can you play Crysis on it?
Sure. Bring a laptop.
ENIAC is merely the first _electronic_ computer. The Zuse Z1 was the first programmable computer, and it was built on private funds, by Zuse himself.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I had a chance to bid on an ENIAC at a Government auction, Looking at it, while it would be cool to have and show off, my entire 3 bedroom ranch house with an extension wasn't big enough to store it in; had to pass for obvious reasons.
I did ask about it, the high bid was $300 but refused as the precious metals were worth more than that.
But I did have a chance :}
They had computers before 1957? How could they build computers without space? Space is the only driver for innovation, because spinoffs.
I know about Altair 8800s and IMSAI 8080s.
Or just another /. edit fail.
Or you can get ENIAC on a chip:
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~jan/eniacproj.html
much less space and easier on the electric bill too.
George H W Bush (aka Bush41) tossed that moniker in Reagan's direction in the primaries in the 1980 election cycle. Reagan was the conservative and Bush was the establishment guy, and the establishment Republicans were doing everything they could possibly do to stop Reagan (which led to the famous mike-cutting incident which can be seen on You Tube). When Reagan won the GOP nomination, the establishment wanted him to put former president Ford on the ticket... and since he had been President a VP slot was not what they wanted; they told Reagan that he should take Ford as his "co-president". Reagan was not dumb enugh to fall for that and instead put Bush (the establishment's 2nd choice) on the ticket as VP to unify the party - after which only Democrats went on using the "voodoo economics" phrase.
Ross Perot's famous phrase was "giant sucking sound" which was what he said the American middle class would hear, relative to jobs wages and benefits, if the establishment Republicans (represented by Bush41 in the 1992 race) and/or the establishment Democrats (backing Clinton in 1992) got their way and rewarded Wall Street bankers by passing NAFTA. Perot was a smart but un-artful guy deploying something we used to call "common sense" and basic economics and was, of course, ultimately proved correct.
I was never a big fan of his, but he WAS a genuinely patriotic guy who spent a lot of time and money trying to bring any American POWs home and similar causes AND he was a computer guy long before Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (though of a very different sort naturally since he was pre-microcomputer.
Perot may have failed to get elected, but he set a very high standard for any would-be third-party presidential candidate to even match.
Oh, and relative to the "restoration" - it was apparently not up to museum standards BUT even reputable museums have done similar things with other artifacts like famous rare aircraft. It's best when people do this stuff if they at least keep the parts and document everything so somebody later can re-do it better. Certainly whatever his employees did, it was FAR better than what the government had done for decades.
Fact: *BSD is D E A D.
Admiral Stockdale (Perot's running mate) was a very decent and honorable man and NOT some sort of village idiot. He, however, committed the cardinal sin of modern American politics: he went on national television without being all scripted and programmed and spoon-fed "talking points". He spoke to Americans as an ordinary American, like a grandfather. He and Perot probably gave the population too much credit and assumed that the man's resume and reputation alone would assure people that of all six people in those debates (Bush, Clinton, Perot, Quayle, Gore, and Stockdale) the retired admiral was the one most qualified, least eager, and most trustworthy to be going for one of the two top jobs; Bush,Gore, and Clinton had all been seeking the presidency for many years and people who want power that badly probably should not be given it. Quayle was Bush's insurance policy, and Perot was the ornery dude who was disgusted by both parties and was always being begged to run.... of ALL of them, Stockdale was the only one who actually belonged at 1600 Penn.
Now we can see it in colors... Did IBM name "Deep Blue" after that?
If I understand correctly ENIAC was the first computer with no moving parts (pure electronics) AND the von Neumann digital architecture, whereby data and program are the same and program can modify its code as if data, to become a different program.
Therefore, ENIAC was theoretically possible to infect with malware, had any "leet hax0r" of 1947 endeavoured to achieve such a feat for lulz and profit. That way, ENIAC is the true ancestor of Microsoft Windows and Android!
On the other hand, the night interceptor version of the infamous Messerschmitt Me-262 jetfighter had a relay-based Zuse mini computer onboard, which autopiloted the shotdown, based on data input from the primitive "antlers" phased array radar set the plane carried in the nose. Allies got lucky that only a dozen or so were built of these before the austrian mustached painter went kaput.
Allegedly a larger Zuse computer prototype, designed for the guidance of A-9/A-10 trans-atlantic ICBM missile is still in US possession. Those nazional-socialst germans were a scary bunch. Nowadays some russian historians claim at least 4 such missiles were launched at soviet factories localted in the Ural mountains, during April 1945 and at least two impacted the targets, but got covered up. This could explain why the soviets had such an extreme focus on rocketry post-WW2, at the expense of blue water naval development, for example. Luckily they couldn't match either the german or american developments in guidance computers, else they could have converted Sputnik and Gagarin to a first landing on the Moon or spot-on accurate ICBMs.
I know, this is one more message in the mass. But let's say it again anyway: The first computer, as considered by computer historians, was the Z3 built by Konrad Zuse in 1946, five years earlier. Check out the Wikipedia.-Ignacio Agulló
It was mummified at best
I got to walk around inside a Canadian version of Eniac (but several generations newer - still "room sized" and built with vacuum tubes) when my step-dad was stationed down in "The Hole" in the 70's.
I can't directly say that it inspired my future self's choice of career ... but here we are.
ENIAC was the first digital ELECTRONIC computer. There had been relay monsters built before it.
Does it qualify as such?
Everyone who went to school before 1996 was taught that ENIAC was the world's first GP computer.
It depends where you went to school. I was taught that EDSAC was the first fully programmable computer. Earlier devices (including ENIAC) had to be physically re-configured to run each different program using cables and switches, rather than just loading a new program into the same memory that is used for data.
Even if we had known about Colossus at that time (and it is possible that some of my teachers did...) it would not have qualified as a stored-program computer.
It's like a zillion other Hollywood prop computers: a bunch of blinky lights wired up to move in artistic patterns (motion detector? ) None of the vacuum tubes and diodes (which the author seems not to realize are also vacuum tubes) were being used, etc.
Other than the fact that the actual metal is the same, I don't know that this is legitimately a "rescue of a computer".
Next you'll be claiming that the US didn't single-handedly win both world wars!
We did pretty much single-handedly stop the Chimera invasion in 1949 though.
Perot didn't rescue anything. They just found a few panels and wired them up with blinky lights, Hollywood style.
Here's a list of the ENIAC parts and their locations (from Wikipedia):
The School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania (where the ENIAC was built in 1943 and operated until 1947) has four of the original forty panels and one of the three function tables of ENIAC (on loan from the Smithsonian).
The Smithsonian has five panels in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
The Science Museum in London has a receiver unit on display.
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California has three panels and a function table on display (on loan from the Smithsonian).
The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has four panels, salvaged by Arthur Burks.
The U.S. Army Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, where ENIAC was used, has one of the function tables.
The Perot Group in Plano, Texas has also seven panels and detailed history and explanation of ENIAC functions using text, graphics, photographs and interactive touch screen.
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY has one of the data entry terminals from the ENIAC.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
The wold's first computer (Zuse Z3) was destroyed in one of the many bombings on Berlin in WW2.
...wants to have a word with you.
They described the 'restoration' as follows:
Strip to bare panels, sand blast and repaint.
Install lights, wire up to a DMX light dimmer, make them blink.
If this is actually what happened, they pretty much destroyed the computer to make something the looks like a computer.
It's hard to understand someone supposedly technically savvy like Perot as doing this.
Unless his intentions were to just have a piece of artwork for show, instead of anything of historical significance.
They might have been better off is they stayed lost in the crates in the warehouse.
Which says the raiders of the lost arch plan was actually pretty good.