Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/01/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thanks, Nathan. Maybe next time. Herbert Kanner kanner at acm.org 650-326-8204 Question authority and the authorities will question you. On Jan 20, 2013, at 7:50 AM, Nathan Wajsman wrote: > Fascinating, both the technological and social aspects you touch on. > Thanks! > > I really regret not visiting the museum during our trip to California in > August/September. > > Cheers, > Nathan > > Nathan Wajsman > Alicante, Spain > http://www.frozenlight.eu > http://www.greatpix.eu > PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws > Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/ > > YNWA > > > > > > > > > > On Jan 10, 2013, at 7:16 AM, Herbert Kanner wrote: > >> This story is about a computer called Univac. It was the first computer >> sold commercial in this country; the first purchase made by the U.S. >> Census Bureau. The picture is of its console, one of the more spectacular >> consoles around. >> >> Here is some background. During World War II, the army had a bunch of >> women math majors calculating ballistics tables for artillery. The work >> couldn't keep up with the demand, and two guys named John Mauchly and J. >> Presper Eckert, at the University of Pennsylvania Moore School of >> Electrical Engineering, proposed building an "electronic brain" to do >> these computations. It wasn't a programmable computer in today's sense; >> you programmed it by how you connected various panels together--basically >> you rewired the room. The thing had seventeen thousand vacuum tubes. >> >> Some of these women that I mentioned above were hired to figure out the >> rewiring. This was a formidable task; they had to start by studying the >> logic diagrams of the device and went on from there. Ironically (sign of >> the age), when the war was over, military secrecy abandoned, and the >> thing shown to the press, these women were totally concealed and ignored. >> All honors went to the male engineers. >> >> In a very valid sense, this machine, called ENIAC, was the legitimate >> ancestor of today's computers. When military secrecy ended, the Moore >> School held an internationally attended seminar on computer design, one >> in which some basic ideas were formulated. John Von Neumann wrote a >> summary paper on those ideas which his secretary unfortunately >> distributed all around the world, the result being that Von Neumann got >> erroneously credited with the basic design ideas; computers were said to >> have the "Von Neumann architecture". >> >> Here is the direct connection between ENIAC and conventionally >> programmable computers. Several of the panels of the ENIAC were called >> "function tables". They had row upon row of ten-position switches into >> which the values of a table, e.g. logarithms, could be set. John von >> Neumann, the famous mathematician, working at Los Alamos on the hydrogen >> bomb, heard about the ENIAC and wondered if it could help in the >> calculations he was organizing. Somehow, the idea arose that maybe the >> machine could be wired in such a way that a program (instead of a >> mathematical function) could be put into a function table and the machine >> wired up to obey any such program. The idea worked. It slowed down the >> machine by about a factor of six but made the execution of more complex >> programs feasible and cut immensely the programming time. The machine was >> actually used then for calculations on the hydrogen bomb. >> >> Eckert and Mauchly went on to found the company that made the Univac. In >> addition to the Census Bureau, early models were bought by the Pentagon >> and the Atomic Energy Commission. The company was eventually bought by >> Remington Rand and ultimately became Sperry-Rand. >> >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002780.jpg.html >> >> I also throw in for your entertainment a few detail shots of the Babbage >> Difference Engine. >> >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002717-2.jpg.html >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002720-2.jpg.html >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002716-2.jpg.htmlr >> >> >> >> Herbert Kanner >> kanner at acm.org >> 650-326-8204 >> >> Question authority and the authorities will question you. >> >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information