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ENIAC was the first digital electronic computer built in 1946 for the US Army. It was used for military tasks until 1955 and is considered a progenitor of modern computers. Women played a significant role in its development, and it inspired later computer engineering innovations.
The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was the first digital electronic computer, completed in 1946 for the United States Army. It was used to calculate information for a variety of military tasks until 1955 when it was retired in favor of other, more advanced devices. The ENIAC is considered one of the progenitors of the modern personal computer and represents a huge achievement in engineering and mathematics. Pieces of ENIAC can be seen on display in various museums throughout the United States.
In 1943, the Army awarded a contract to John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert of the University of Pennsylvania. The two were commissioned to build a device that could be used to calculate gunnery tables for the military. After three years of work, the final product was revealed on February 14, 1946. Although initially designed to run on artillery tables, ENIAC’s first major project was the calculations related to the development of the hydrogen bomb.
The first iteration of ENIAC was a far cry from modern computers. It ran on a decimal, rather than binary, system and took up 1,800 square feet (167 square meters) of floor space with 42 separate panels. The intense heat generated by the ENIAC required operation in an air-conditioned room and the vacuum tubes failed quite frequently. It had to be set manually when a program needed to be run, and it had no stored memory. Input and output were achieved via punch cards.
While ENIAC may seem primitive to modern computer users, it was a substantial achievement. The history of the people who worked at ENIAC also demonstrates the egalitarian nature of the field of computer engineering. Women worked side by side with men and were primarily responsible for the day-to-day running of ENIAC. Female programmers have also developed improvements at ENIAC and were honored in the 1997 Women in Technology Hall of Fame. During an era when many women fought for equality in the workplace, the hard work of the ENIAC team was an anomaly.
Reforms and improvements continued to be made to the ENIAC until it was finally retired. Many of these reforms played a part in the development of later computers, such as internal memory and the use of binary rather than decimal representation. While the processing power of a modern computer is packed into a very small space compared to the full-sized ENIAC, it deserves a place in history for the computer engineering it inspired.
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