[HN Gopher] ENIAC Simulator
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ENIAC Simulator
Author : nanna
Score : 60 points
Date : 2024-05-10 10:49 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (zuse-z1.zib.de)
(TXT) w3m dump (zuse-z1.zib.de)
| throw0101c wrote:
| I found the book _Eniac: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World
| 's First Computer_ by Scott McCartney a pretty good read:
|
| * https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/720730
| rahen wrote:
| I would strongly suggest to read "ENIAC in Action" from Thomas
| Haigh. It's by far the most technically complete book about the
| ENIAC.
|
| You'll even find some code samples from 1948 on the website.
|
| https://eniacinaction.com
| mcroydon wrote:
| I highly recommend "Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the
| Six Women Who Programmed the World's First Modern Computer"
| for more context about how the ENIAC came together. It
| includes the point of view of the programmers of the ENIAC
| who are often left out of or diminished in other accounts.
|
| https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kathy-
| kleiman/provi...
| Rochus wrote:
| That's a good book, I can recommmend it.
|
| I also recommend the review by Jean Bartik (i.e. Betty "Jean"
| Jennings Bartik, 1924-2011) about the book:
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3K2DSB6UE1X7H/re...
| alexhackhack wrote:
| Which is the first computer that was built? Eniac or Zuse?
| rahen wrote:
| It really depends on how you define a computer.
|
| Have a look at the Wikipedia article. For some reason the
| French one appears to be the most complete, it even describes
| every unit of the machine and features some comparison with the
| EDSAC, SSEM, EDVAC, Zuse and Colossus.
|
| https://fr-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/ENIAC?_x_tr_s...
| adrian_b wrote:
| There are many earlier computers than ENIAC.
|
| ENIAC has been claimed to be only the first _electronic_
| computer, i.e. made with vacuum tubes instead of relays or
| other electromechanical devices, which decreased the switching
| times from milliseconds to microseconds.
|
| Some earlier electromechanical computers, including those of
| Zuse and those of Aiken, had structures much closer to a modern
| computer than ENIAC, except that they used distinct kinds of
| memories for the program and for the data. The name "Harvard
| architecture" for the computers with separate program and data
| memories comes from the electromechanical computers of Aiken,
| who worked at Harvard.
|
| While ENIAC can be considered the first really _useful_
| electronic computer, it has been preceded by another more
| special-purpose electronic computer, that of John Atanasoff,
| which had a structure dedicated to solving systems of algebraic
| equations.
|
| Moreover, the development of the Atanasoff computer and of the
| ENIAC computer (both in USA) has been made possible by the
| previous invention of various kinds of electronic counters,
| made with vacuum tubes or gas tubes, which had been invented by
| several physicists who had worked in UK in the research of
| nuclear and cosmic radiation, during the decade preceding WWII.
|
| The priority of the Atanasoff computer was used to invalidate
| the patents related to ENIAC, as a result of the Honeywell vs.
| Sperry Rand lawsuit. The conclusion of the lawsuit was deserved
| by the ENIAC team, because one of them had visited Atanasoff,
| gaining useful intel about how to design the electronic
| circuits of the future ENIAC, but then in multiple occasions
| they have attempted to present their work as more original than
| it really was, omitting any references to their prior sources
| of inspiration.
|
| ENIAC received a big budget due to the war, which resulted in a
| machine very big and very fast for those times, which has been
| used to solve a great number of important mathematical
| problems.
|
| Nevertheless, in the few documents that have remained from the
| Atanasoff-Berry university project, Atanasoff demonstrated a
| much clearer understanding of the problems of automatic
| computing than the ENIAC team, like also von Neumann would
| demonstrate later. An important contribution of the Atanasoff
| computer was the invention of the dynamic memory, which was
| made with discrete capacitors, but it was nonetheless the
| ancestor of the current DRAM memories.
|
| The inadequate memory capacity was the greatest disadvantage of
| ENIAC, which was immediately noticed by von Neumann. It was
| very fortunate that von Neumann had the opportunity to study
| the ENIAC project, because he had the vision of the future that
| the ENIAC team lacked.
|
| The ENIAC team has been obsessed more with how to monetize
| their experience in the ENIAC project than about how to improve
| their computer and they were annoyed that von Neumann has
| explained publicly to anyone how to make better electronic
| computers, which has started a great number of projects for
| developing electronic computers, not only in USA, but also in
| many other countries.
| kens wrote:
| There are many first computers, depending on what adjectives
| you apply. The "official" claim is that ENIAC is the "first
| electronic, general purpose, large scale, digital computer".
| For an interesting exploration of what computer is first under
| what definition, see the interactive website
| https://www.gleech.org/first-computers
|
| I highly recommend the book "ENIAC in Action" for a thorough
| discussion of the computer.
|
| Personally, I view ENIAC as the first influential computer, in
| the sense that it made multiple groups decide to build
| computers and thus started the computer revolution. If you went
| back in time and stopped ENIAC, it would have set back
| computing by years; the impact of earlier computers was small.
| rst wrote:
| For what it's worth, the word "electronic" in that
| description is a lot more load-bearing than it looks,
| excluding machines such as the Harvard Mark I (ASCC) and Bell
| Labs Relay Computers, both of which were solving problems
| under program control years earlier (unlike the Eniac, which
| initially had to be rewired for every problem -- stored-
| program control was added years later).
| hoten wrote:
| I forget the details, but I recall this video on the Colossus-
| a very secretive program that resulted in arguably the first
| programmable digital computer (iirc). I think we only
| relatively recently learned of it's existence?
|
| https://youtu.be/g2tMcMQqSbA?si=bW059oO6B4H1GR_R
|
| It was very worth the watch, lots of fascinating tidbits
| including some stories of unsung heroes / geniuses. It was kept
| secret even after WWII but the people involved went off to
| kickstart the computer industry in England
| rahen wrote:
| There is a much more accurate, pulse level simulator available:
| https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/eniac/eniac.html
|
| Unfortunately I know no simulator of the stored program ENIAC.
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