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N0KFQ > TODAY 14.06.07 07:43l 68 Lines 3496 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jun 14
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1951 : UNIVAC computer dedicated
On June 14, 1951, the U.S. Census Bureau dedicates UNIVAC, the
world's first commercially produced electronic digital computer.
UNIVAC, which stood for Universal Automatic Computer, was
developed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, makers of ENIAC,
the first general-purpose electronic digital computer. These
giant computers, which used thousands of vacuum tubes for
computation, were the forerunners of today's digital computers.
The search for mechanical devices to aid computation began in
ancient times. The abacus, developed in various forms by the
Babylonians, Chinese, and Romans, was by definition the first
digital computer because it calculated values by using digits. A
mechanical digital calculating machine was built in France in
1642, but a 19th century Englishman, Charles Babbage, is credited
with devising most of the principles on which modern computers
are based. His "Analytical Engine," begun in the 1830s and never
completed for lack of funds, was based on a mechanical loom and
would have been the first programmable computer.
By the 1920s, companies such as the International Business
Machines Corporation (IBM) were supplying governments and
businesses with complex punch-card tabulating systems, but these
mechanical devices had only a fraction of the calculating power
of the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff-Berry
Computer (ABC). Completed by John Atanasoff of Iowa State in
1939, the ABC could by 1941 solve up to 29 simultaneous equations
with 29 variables. Influenced by Atanasoff's work, Presper Eckert
and John Mauchly set about building the first general-purpose
electronic digital computer in 1943. The sponsor was the U.S.
Army Ordnance Department, which wanted a better way of
calculating artillery firing tables, and the work was done at the
University of Pennsylvania.
ENIAC, which stood for Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Calculator, was completed in 1946 at a cost of nearly $500,000.
It took up 15,000 feet, employed 17,000 vacuum tubes, and was
programmed by plugging and replugging some 6,000 switches. It was
first used in a calculation for Los Alamos Laboratories in
December 1945, and in February 1946 it was formally dedicated.
Following the success of ENIAC, Eckert and Mauchly decided to go
into private business and founded the Eckert-Mauchly Computer
Corporation. They proved less able businessmen than they were
engineers, and in 1950 their struggling company was acquired by
Remington Rand, an office equipment company. On June 14, 1951,
Remington Rand delivered its first computer, UNIVAC I, to the
U.S. Census Bureau. It weighed 16,000 pounds, used 5,000 vacuum
tubes, and could perform about 1,000 calculations per second. On
November 4, 1952, the UNIVAC achieved national fame when it
correctly predicted Dwight D. Eisenhower's unexpected landslide
victory in the presidential election after only a tiny percentage
of the votes were in.
UNIVAC and other first-generation computers were replaced by
transistor computers of the late 1950s, which were smaller, used
less power, and could perform nearly a thousand times more
operations per second. These were, in turn, supplanted by the
integrated-circuit machines of the mid-1960s and 1970s. In the
1980s, the development of the microprocessor made possible small,
powerful computers such as the personal computer, and more
recently the laptop and hand-held computers.
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