ENIAC: Difference between revisions

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[[image:Eniac.jpg|right|thumb|ENIAC]]

'''ENIAC''', short for '''Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer''', was long thought to have been the first electronic [[computer]] designed to be [[Turing-complete]], capable of being reprogrammed by rewiring to solve a full range of computing problems. It was preceded in [[1941]] by the fully tape-programmable [[Z3]] designed by [[Konrad Zuse]] (although Z1 and Z2 were still mechanical, Z3 was the world's first electronicgeneral purpose electro-mechanical computer, using [[relay]]s for all functions) in Germany and in 1944 by the all-electronic rewire-to-reprogram but not fully general purpose British [[Colossus computer]]. Both ENIAC and Colossus used [[thermionic valve]]s, that is, [[vacuum tube]]s, while Z3 used relays. The requirement to rewire to reprogram ENIAC was removed in [[1948]].

ENIAC was developed and built by the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] for their [[Ballistics Research Laboratory]] with the purpose of calculating ballistic firing tables. ENIAC was conceived of and designed by [[J. Presper Eckert]] and [[John William Mauchly]] of the [[University of Pennsylvania]]. Mauchly had borrowed some ideas from the first electronic computer, the [[Atanasoff Berry Computer]]. A [http://www.cs.iastate.edu/jva/court-papers/ patent infringement case] (Sperry Rand vs. Honeywell, 1973) voided the ENIAC patent as a derivative of John Atanasoff's invention. Atanasoff commented, "there is enough credit for everyone in the invention and development of the electronic computer." Eckert and Mauchly received initial credit for inventing the electronic digital computer but historians now consider the Atanasoff-Berry computer to have priority.