Systems
ENIAC
EH-nee-ak
Also Known As Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, was a large scale electronic computer built at the University of Pennsylvania and completed in 1945, funded by the US Army to calculate artillery firing tables. It is widely described as the first general purpose electronic digital computer, though the description is genuinely contested: Britain's Colossus, used to break German ciphers from 1943, was electronic and earlier but special purpose and kept classified until the 1970s, and a 1973 US federal court ruling in Honeywell v Sperry Rand invalidated ENIAC's own patent, finding that its designers had derived key elements of the electronic digital computer concept from John Atanasoff's earlier Atanasoff Berry Computer.
Facts
Disputed
SignificanceWidely called the first general purpose electronic digital computer, though the claim is contested given Colossus's earlier, classified electronic use and a 1973 US court ruling crediting the underlying concept to John Atanasoff.
The court finding is a matter of public record (Honeywell v Sperry Rand, 1973); which machine deserves the title first general purpose electronic digital computer remains a live historical dispute rather than a settled fact. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Von Neumann consulted on ENIAC and its successor EDVAC, whose 1945 design report, describing the stored program architecture now named for him, he authored.
Held Differently
Zuse Z3, Systems Not a rival claim resolved in either machine's favor: the Z3 (1941, relay-based, Germany) and ENIAC (1945, electronic, USA) were independent, mutually unaware developments, and the Z3's obscurity in the West is why it rarely enters the same priority conversation this atlas's ENIAC trail already records.
Invented By
Predecessor Of
UNIVAC I, Systems UNIVAC I was designed principally by Eckert and Mauchly, the builders of ENIAC.
Sources
1. Computer: A History of the Information Machine
Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray, Basic Books, 1996
Wikipedia: ENIAC
Wikimedia FoundationLead sectionQuote, Lead section
ENIAC was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945.
Wikipedia: UNIVAC I
Wikimedia FoundationPredecessor Of: UNIVAC I, IntroductionQuote, Predecessor Of: UNIVAC I, Introduction
It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.
Wikipedia: J. Presper Eckert
Wikimedia FoundationInvented By: J. Presper Eckert, IntroductionQuote, Invented By: J. Presper Eckert, Introduction
With John Mauchly, he designed the first general-purpose electronic digital computer (ENIAC)
Wikipedia: John Mauchly
Wikimedia FoundationInvented By: John Mauchly, IntroductionQuote, Invented By: John Mauchly, Introduction
was an American physicist who, along with J. Presper Eckert, designed ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, as well as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer made in the United States.
Wikipedia: Z3 (computer)
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Zuse Z3, Legacy sectionQuote, Associated With: Zuse Z3, Legacy section
was not considered vital, so it was never put into everyday operation
Wikipedia: Von Neumann architecture
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Von Neumann Architecture, History sectionView the Source Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Significance
Historians crediting John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry hold that the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), operational at Iowa State in 1942, was the first automatic electronic digital computer, using electronic components for arithmetic rather than ENIAC's later, more famous general-purpose design. This is not merely a minority opinion: the 1973 US federal court ruling in Honeywell v. Sperry Rand voided the ENIAC patent specifically on the finding that its inventors, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, had derived key ideas from Atanasoff during a 1941 visit to see the ABC, formally establishing Atanasoff's prior claim as a matter of US patent law even though ENIAC is still the more commonly cited machine in general references.
A dissenting reading, from an independent laneWikipedia: Atanasoff Berry Computer, Wikimedia Foundation
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.