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The Eniac

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NT-1110 Computer Structure and Logic
Unit 4 Research Paper 1
The ENIAC Computer
4/26/13

World War II was knocking on the United States front door when the decision to develop a computer to handle complex mathematical calculations was made. The United States was in a dire need for a machine that could make accurate, precise, and fast calculations. The United States government and military turned to John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert to build the first Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator; or for short the ENIAC. The United States was ill prepared and forced into the war which meant that it had few resources to accomplish the task of defeating the enemy. The ENIAC was purposefully designed to calculate all variables such as wind speed, trajectory, and distance so that each shot fired from the military was done with devastating precision and accuracy. The ENIAC enabled the military to do these calculations in a matter of hours and minutes versus days. John Mauchly and John Eckert designed artillery tables using the ENIAC to make these vital calculations that were much faster than manually calculating. Unfortunately the design of the Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator was not completed until after the war.
Although the ENIAC was designed for World War II, it had other uses for that time period. One of the greatest contributions that ENIAC had was with the development of the Hydrogen bomb. The ENIAC was able to calculate the complex mathematical formulas needed to create the hydrogen bomb. “In addition to ballistics, the ENIAC's field of application included weather prediction, atomic-energy calculations, cosmic-ray studies, thermal ignition, random-number studies, wind-tunnel design, and other scientific uses (Weik, 1961).” In short, the ENIAC was designed to make everyday math and science easier, faster, and more accurate.
The ENIAC
The ENIAC
Compared to today’s computers the ENIAC was massive in size and weight. “The ENIAC contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, along with 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, 6,000 manual switches and 5 million soldered joints. It covered 1800 square feet (167 square meters) of floor space, weighed 30 tons, consumed 160 kilowatts of electrical power (Bellis).” The ENIAC dimensions are equivalent to the size of an average sized small home in today’s society. The Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator had a variety of different components that were dedicated to specific numerical functions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. To maintain all of the different components required several workers and to try and reprogram the ENAIC would take a week or sometimes longer.
Vacuum tubes

Vacuum tubes

One thing that was greatly enhanced by the creation of the ENIAC was the vacuum tubes. “An electron tube (also known as a 'Vacuum tube', or a 'Valve' ) is a glass or metal enclosure in which electrons move through the vacuum or gas from one metal electrode to another. The vacuum tube is often used to amplify weak currents or act as a one-way valve (rectifier) for electric current (IEEE Globa History Network).” The ENIAC had such a great need for the vacuum tube but needed it to be more reliable. The vacuum tubes that were used in the ENIAC had lots of problems. They generated large amounts of heat which in turn required a need for massive cooling for the rooms. The vacuum tubes also did not last long; they would burnout quite frequently. The flaws of the vacuum tubes demanded the need for something more stable.
The vacuum tubes lead to the design of transistors which further transitioned into the CPU’s of modern personal computers today. The transistors function similarly to the way the vacuum tubes did in the ENIAC. Unlike the vacuum tubes, the transistors produced less heat, were smaller, and had a much better life span than the vacuum tubes.
The ENIAC was extremely fast for its time; “working at 100 times the speed of the calculating machines of its time, but merely an amusing artifact by modern standards. A desktop personal computer today has 1,000 times the ENIAC's processing power, and several million times the capacity to store data (Lohr, 1996).” Although the ENIAC’s standards are small compared to today’s standard, it helped inspire others to go and invent faster, smaller, and significantly more powerful computers. One similarity between the ENIAC and modern computers is that both can be reprogrammed and any time. To reprogram the ENIAC was very labor intensive and time consuming compared to today. The hundreds of switches required in reprograming the ENIAC had to be moved manually and would take days sometimes weeks to be completed. The ENIAC could only do one function at a time, such as adding or subtracting, so reprogramming was necessary but time consuming. Today, reprograming a computer can take hours or sometimes just minutes.
Another similarity between the ENIAC and the personal computers that we use today is the use of the Binary code. Binary is a base two number system consisting of only zeros and ones. “Text is converted into its numerical equivalents before it is stored, so binary coding can be used to store all computer data and programs (Bronkella Publishing, 2011).” While today’s computers can run the binary system using processors, the ENIAC ran binary coding through the vacuum tubes where each one represented a one or zero.
Interfacing
Interfacing
In addition to using binary code, both the ENIAC and personal computers today require some form of interfacing. Interfacing with the ENIAC was simple to do just very time consuming. The workers would have to manually move cables and switches to tell the ENIAC what they wanted it to do. We interface quite differently with today’s computers than with the ENIAC. We have several more ways to interface with computers. We use keyboards, mice, scanners, touchscreen, and many others means to tell the computer what we want it to do. With so much more control we get better results.
On Display
On Display It had come to the point where the ENIAC had done its job. The ENIAC had successfully changed the way mathematical calculations were done and had revolutionized man’s thinking. “On 2 October 1955 at 23.45 the power finally shut off, the ENIAC retired. It’s estimated to have done more arithmetic than the entire human race has done prior to 1945. Parts of the machine are exhibited at the Smithsonian (Washington USA) and a few other locations in the USA (Computing History).” Even though the world’s first computer is out of service you can still go and admire it and be thankful that today’s personal computers are not identical to its primate. The ENIAC started the wave of the future. It put in to motion the computer age and got the ball rolling for newer and better electronic devices. The impact it has left can be seen today with all the new advancements in technology especially with computers. The ENIAC inspired others to strive for higher greatness and taught everyone that with great ideas and determination, anything is possible.

Works Cited
Bellis, M. (n.d.). The History of the ENIAC Computer. Retrieved April 20, 2013, from www.about.com: http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/Eniac.htm
Bronkella Publishing. (2011). Computer Structure and Logic. United States of America: Pearson Education, Inc.
Computing History. (n.d.). 2nd October 1955. Retrieved April 24, 2013, from The Centre for Computing History: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/5490/ENIAC%20is%20retired
IEEE Globa History Network. (n.d.). Electron (or Vacuum) Tubes. Retrieved April 20, 2013, from IEEE Global History Network: http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Electron_(or_Vacuum)_Tubes
Lohr, S. (1996, February 19). Technology: The Face of Computing 50 Years and 18,000 Tubes Ago. Retrieved 4 22, 2013, from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/19/business/the-face-of-computing-50-years-and-18000-tubes-ago.html
Weik, M. H. (1961). The ENIAC Story. Retrieved April 22, 2013, from Ordnance Ballistic Research Laboratories: http://ftp.arl.mil/mike/comphist/eniac-story.html

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