How the World's First Computer Was Rescued from the Scrap Heap (2014)
1–10 of 55 posts
Re: How the World's First Computer Was Rescued from the Scrap Heap (2014)
#2The ENIAC was not the world's first computer.
Konrad Zuse's Z1 was first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z1_(computer)
Even if you want it to be electrical, not mechanical, then Zuse's Z3 was first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer)
Re: How the World's First Computer Was Rescued from the Scrap Heap (2014)
#3Obligatory comment that the Z3 was the world's first digital computer. Not sure what the "real" refers to in the headline, but it turns out that the Z3 was indeed Turing complete.
Re: How the World's First Computer Was Rescued from the Scrap Heap (2014)
#4In addition to ENIAC being built after the German Z1 (1938) and Z3 (1941), as others here have stated, it was also built after the UK's Colossus[0] (1943).
If we're talking "first real computer", though, and depending on your definition of "real", the Manchester Baby[1] (1948) was the first stored-program computer. The Colossus and ENIAC machines all needed to be re-wired to change what computations they could make and the Z3's instructions came only from the input tape.
Re: How the World's First Computer Was Rescued from the Scrap Heap (2014)
#5In addition to ENIAC being built after the German Z1 (1938) and Z3 (1941), as others here have stated, it was also built after the UK's Colossus[0] (1943). If we're talking "first real computer", though, and depending on your definition of "real", the Manchester Baby[1] (1948) was the first stored-program computer. The Colossus and ENIAC machines all needed to be re-wired to change what computations they could make a…
> The Z3 [...] needed to be re-wired to change what computations they could make.
Sure? Wikipedia says:
> Program code was stored on punched film.
Re: How the World's First Computer Was Rescued from the Scrap Heap (2014)
#6Obligatory comment that the Z3 was the world's first digital computer. Not sure what the "real" refers to in the headline, but it turns out that the Z3 was indeed Turing complete. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer)
> Not sure what the "real" refers to in the headline
We all know what they mean - they mean it was American.
Re: How the World's First Computer Was Rescued from the Scrap Heap (2014)
#7This is quite sad. It seems the person who was tasked with doing something with the panels they had quickly gave up on doing anything with them other than making them into a visual prop.
It's not ENIAC any more, it's a bunch of DMX blinkenlights mounted on an ENIAC frame. If you're going to do that, what's the point of using the original hardware? That's just destroying it further.
Making the whole machine work like it originally did is obviously not going to happen without, well, the rest of the machine. But we can fit a whole ENIAC in a fingertip these days. What I would have done is attempted to reverse engineer the logic of the available pieces, collected any existing documentation, and then made it do something. Real calculations. Wire it up to a virtual reproduction of the rest of the machine.
Sure, maybe there isn't enough existing documentation to do it faithfully. Maybe it would all be a giant pile of guesses. But at least it would be computing something, even if it's just our best guess of how it was supposed to work, instead of just flashing lights randomly.
It just feels really sad knowing that not a single one of those vacuum tubes is actually performing any logic functions, the way they wired it up.
Re: How the World's First Computer Was Rescued from the Scrap Heap (2014)
#8The ENIAC was not the world's first computer. Konrad Zuse's Z1 was first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z1_(computer) Even if you want it to be electrical, not mechanical, then Zuse's Z3 was first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer)
Wikipedia says that the Z3 was "electromechanical", though, while the ENIAC is described as "electronic".
You can always play the "who was first" game if you just add enough distinguishing categories.
Re: How the World's First Computer Was Rescued from the Scrap Heap (2014)
#9The ENIAC was not the world's first computer. Konrad Zuse's Z1 was first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z1_(computer) Even if you want it to be electrical, not mechanical, then Zuse's Z3 was first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer)
Wikipedia says that the Z3 was "electromechanical", though, while the ENIAC is described as "electronic". You can always play the "who was first" game if you just add enough distinguishing categories.
Yes, the Z3 used relays and the Eniac used tubes. Relays were more reliable but slower.
Re: How the World's First Computer Was Rescued from the Scrap Heap (2014)
#10In addition to ENIAC being built after the German Z1 (1938) and Z3 (1941), as others here have stated, it was also built after the UK's Colossus[0] (1943). If we're talking "first real computer", though, and depending on your definition of "real", the Manchester Baby[1] (1948) was the first stored-program computer. The Colossus and ENIAC machines all needed to be re-wired to change what computations they could make a…
> The Z3 [...] needed to be re-wired to change what computations they could make. Sure? Wikipedia says: > Program code was stored on punched film.
Oops, yeah, you're right. I've updated my comment, thanks for pointing that out.