In what year did the Eniac computer appear? "COMPUTERHISTORY": ENIAC. The history of a unique car. · the program, like numbers, must be written in binary code

Control device

External devices

RAM

Drawing - Connections between devices

Almost all of von Neumann’s recommendations were subsequently used in machines of the first three generations; their totality was called “von Neumann architecture.” The first computer to embody von Neumann's principles was built in 1949 by the English researcher Maurice Wilkes. Since then, computers have become much more powerful, but the vast majority of them are made in accordance with the principles that John von Neumann outlined in his 1945 report.

New cars of the first generation replaced each other quite quickly. In 1951, the first Soviet electronic computer MESM, with an area of ​​about 50 square meters, began operation. MESM had 2 types of memory: random access memory, in the form of 4 panels 3 meters high and 1 meter wide; and long-term memory in the form of a magnetic drum with a capacity of 5000 numbers. In total, the MESM had 6,000 vacuum tubes, and it was possible to work with them only after 1.5-2 hours after turning on the machine. Data input was carried out using magnetic tape, and output was carried out using a digital printing device coupled to memory. MESM could perform 50 mathematical operations per second, store 31 numbers and 63 commands in RAM (there were 12 different commands in total), and consumed power equal to 25 kilowatts.

In 1952, the American EDWAC machine was born. It is also worth noting the English computer EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator), built earlier, in 1949, the first machine with a stored program. In 1952, Soviet designers commissioned the BESM, the fastest machine in Europe, and the following year, Strela, the first high-class production machine in Europe, began operating in the USSR. Among the creators of domestic cars, the names of S.A. should be mentioned first. Lebedeva, B.Ya. Bazilevsky, I.S. Bruka, B.I. Rameeva, V.A. Melnikova, M.A. Kartseva, A.N. Myamlina. In the 50s, other computers appeared: “Ural”, M-2, M-3, BESM-2, “Minsk-1” - which embodied more and more progressive engineering solutions.

The projects and implementation of the Mark-1, EDSAC and EDVAC machines in England and the USA, MESM in the USSR laid the foundation for the development of work on the creation of computers of vacuum tube technology - serial computers of the first generation. The development of the first electronic production machine, UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), began around 1947 by Eckert and Mauchli. The first model of the machine (UNIVAC-1) was built for the US Census Bureau and put into operation in the spring of 1951. The synchronous, sequential computer UNIVAC-1 was created on the basis of the MENIAC and EDVAC computer. It operated with a clock frequency of 2.25 MHz and contained about 5,000 vacuum tubes.

Compared to the USA, USSR and England, the development of electronic computer technology in Japan, Germany and Italy was delayed. The first Japanese Fujik machine was put into operation in 1956; mass production of computers in Germany began only in 1958.

The capabilities of the first generation machines were quite modest. Thus, their performance according to modern standards was low: from 100 (Ural-1) to 20,000 operations per second (M-20 in 1959). These figures were determined primarily by the inertia of vacuum tubes and the imperfection of storage devices. The amount of RAM was extremely small - on average 2,048 numbers (words), this was not enough even to accommodate complex programs, not to mention data. Intermediate memory was organized on bulky and low-speed magnetic drums of relatively small capacity (5,120 words for BESM-1). Printing devices and data input units also worked slowly. If we dwell in more detail on input-output devices, we can say that from the beginning of the appearance of the first computers, a contradiction emerged between the high speed of central devices and the low speed of external devices. In addition, the imperfections and inconvenience of these devices were revealed. The first data carrier in computers, as is known, was a punched card. Then perforated paper tapes or simply punched paper tapes appeared. They came from telegraph technology after the beginning of the 19th century. Chicago father and son Charles and Howard Crums invented the teletype.

The first generation of computers, these tough and slow-moving computers, were the pioneers of computer technology. They quickly disappeared from the scene, as they did not find wide commercial application due to unreliability, high cost, and difficulty in programming.

To simplify the process of setting programs, Mauchly and Eckert began to design a new machine that could store a program in its memory. In 1945, the famous mathematician John von Neumann was involved in the work, who prepared a report on this machine. In this report, von Neumann clearly and simply formulated the general principles of the functioning of universal computing devices, i.e. computers. This was the first operational machine built on vacuum tubes and was officially put into operation on February 15, 1946. They tried to use this machine to solve some problems prepared by von Neumann and related to the atomic bomb project. She was then transported to Aberdeen Proving Ground, where she operated until 1955.

ENIAC became the first representative of the 1st generation of computers. Any classification is conditional, but most experts agreed that generations should be distinguished based on the elemental base on which the machines are built. Thus, the first generation appears to be tube machines.

The structure and operation of a computer according to the “von Neumann principle”

It is necessary to note the enormous role of the American mathematician von Neumann in the development of first-generation technology. It was necessary to understand the strengths and weaknesses of ENIAC and make recommendations for subsequent developments. The report by von Neumann and his colleagues G. Goldstein and A. Burks (June 1946) clearly formulated the requirements for the structure of computers. Let us note the most important of them:

· machines using electronic elements should operate not in the decimal, but in the binary number system;

· the program, like the source data, must be located in the machine’s memory;

· the program, like numbers, must be written in binary code;

· the difficulties of the physical implementation of a storage device, the speed of which corresponds to the speed of operation of logical circuits, require a hierarchical organization of memory (that is, the allocation of RAM, intermediate and long-term memory);

· an arithmetic device (processor) is constructed on the basis of circuits that perform the addition operation; the creation of special devices for performing other arithmetic and other operations is impractical;

· the machine uses a parallel principle of organizing the computational process (operations on numbers are performed simultaneously in all digits).

The following figure shows what the connections between computer devices should be according to von Neumann's principles (single lines show control connections, dotted lines show information connections).

Almost all of von Neumann’s recommendations were subsequently used in machines of the first three generations; their totality was called “von Neumann architecture.” The first computer to embody von Neumann's principles was built in 1949 by the English researcher Maurice Wilkes. Since then, computers have become much more powerful, but the vast majority of them are made in accordance with the principles that John von Neumann outlined in his 1945 report.

New cars of the first generation replaced each other quite quickly. In 1951, the first Soviet electronic computer MESM, with an area of ​​about 50 square meters, began operation. MESM had 2 types of memory: random access memory, in the form of 4 panels 3 meters high and 1 meter wide; and long-term memory in the form of a magnetic drum with a capacity of 5000 numbers. In total, the MESM had 6,000 vacuum tubes, and it was possible to work with them only after 1.5-2 hours after turning on the machine. Data input was carried out using magnetic tape, and output was carried out using a digital printing device coupled to memory. MESM could perform 50 mathematical operations per second, store 31 numbers and 63 commands in RAM (there were 12 different commands in total), and consumed power equal to 25 kilowatts.

The capabilities of the first generation machines were quite modest. Thus, their performance according to modern standards was low: from 100 (Ural-1) to 20,000 operations per second (M-20 in 1959). These figures were determined primarily by the inertia of vacuum tubes and the imperfection of storage devices. The amount of RAM was extremely small - on average 2,048 numbers (words), this was not enough even to accommodate complex programs, not to mention data. Intermediate memory was organized on bulky and low-speed magnetic drums of relatively small capacity (5,120 words for BESM-1). Printing devices and data input units also worked slowly. If we dwell in more detail on input-output devices, we can say that from the beginning of the appearance of the first computers, a contradiction emerged between the high speed of central devices and the low speed of external devices. In addition, it was revealed

imperfection and inconvenience of these devices. The first data carrier in computers, as is known, was a punched card. Then perforated paper tapes or simply punched paper tapes appeared. They came from telegraph technology after the beginning of the 19th century. Chicago father and son Charles and Howard Crums invented the teletype.

The first generation of computers, these tough and slow-moving computers, were the pioneers of computer technology. They quickly disappeared from the scene, as they did not find wide commercial application due to unreliability, high cost, and difficulty in programming.

John Presper Eckert is one of the “parents” of ENIAC

We are used to thinking that at the age of 24, most young people are just finishing their studies at the university, and certainly not getting a leading role in an important and urgent project that is supervised by the military department. Eckert himself said that, despite his rather young age, he was well prepared for this work:

Eckert said that a kind of “school” that helped him start working on a computer was his passion for electrical engineering. Eckert was born in Philadelphia, in his youth known as the Vacuum Tube Valley, where most of the radios and televisions produced in the United States were initially made. It is not surprising that as a teenager, Eckert worked on a simple television project in Farnsworth's laboratory (he joined the Philadelphia Engineers Club), and, as a little older, worked on radar problems.

Eckert patented his first development at the age of 21 and subsequently (both before and after ENIAC) worked on dozens of inventions. However, despite all this, he does not believe that without him the creation of a computer would have been impossible:

Each inventor does his work based on the results of other scientists. And if I hadn't built ENIAC, someone else would have. All the inventor does is speed up the process.

Myths and reality

ENIAC had just under 18,000 vacuum tubes. According to Eckert's recollections, the project had all the lamps that suppliers could provide them. The developers used 10 types of lamps, “although [technically] four types would have been enough” - there just wasn’t enough of them in total.

This was done in the hope of thereby reducing the likelihood of breakdown. Theoretically, ENIAC had a huge number of points of failure (1.8 billion failure modes per second), which made the idea of ​​practical use of the computer seem incredible to many. However, ENIAC did not break down very often - only once every 20 hours.

Due to the fact that the machine used simply a huge number of lamps (and was an unprecedented invention at that time), various myths and rumors constantly circulated around the ENIAC. For example, a popular story is that a working ENIAC turned off the lights throughout Philadelphia - Eckert denied it in an interview. They also say that someone had to run around the car with a box of lamps and change one lamp every few minutes. This is another myth.

Many simply did not believe in the capabilities of a completely electronic computer - hence the myth that it could only perform primitive arithmetic operations. However, this would clearly not be enough to radically speed up the compilation of shooting tables - in fact, ENIAC could solve second-order differential equations. Exactly the same fiction is the exaggerated respectful attitude towards the computer - Eckert in his interview categorically denies the alleged “fact” that the military saluted the machine.

According to John Eckert, John von Neumann's role in the development of ENIAC is also greatly exaggerated. However, funny things did happen in the history of ENIAC. For example, Eckert calls the “mouse test” the pure truth:

We knew mice would chew the insulation on the wires, so we took all the wire samples we could find and put them in a mouse cage to see what insulation they wouldn't eat. We only used wires that passed the mouse test.

What happened after

Despite its importance for the military tasks of the early Cold War and for the development of the entire information technology industry, ENIAC after the end of its work (the computer would have been turned off on October 2, 1955) had an unenviable fate. A computer of historical value actually rotted in military warehouses.

40 computer panels, weighing almost 390 kilograms each, were divided after its ceremonial stop. Some of the panels ended up in the hands of universities: one was donated to the University of Michigan, and a couple more were purchased by the Smithsonian Institution. However, the remaining panels were simply sent to warehouses - the system of records in some of them was not kept carefully enough, years passed, and the new management, coming to work, no longer suspected that the pile of metal in this or that hangar was of any value.

The search for what was left of ENIAC was undertaken by the team of billionaire Ross Perot when he decided to find rarities from the world of technology to decorate his office. It turned out that some of the panels were once transported from the test site in Aberdeen (Maryland) to Fort Sill in Oklahoma to the military field artillery museum.

The museum curator was shocked to learn that the museum housed the world's largest ENIAC unit - a total of nine panels, all of which were stored in unmarked wooden boxes that had not been opened for many years. Fort Sill officials said they don't know how they ended up with almost a quarter of the ENIAC computer.

Fort Sill agreed to give the Pero panels in exchange for a promise that the remains of ENIAC would be restored, at least externally. It immediately became clear to the engineers who got down to business that it would be impossible to bring the computer into working condition, if only because this would require all 40 panels, not to mention all the other components and lost knowledge. Therefore, they were faced with a simpler task: to make what was left of ENIAC at least superficially similar to the epoch-making computer in its heyday.

The panels were cleaned of dust and rust, sandblasted and re-painted, after which new lamps were carefully soldered to them (for appearance, of course). For some time, the updated panels were in the Perot Systems office, but after its merger with Dell, management decided to return the restored ENIAC units to the Fort Sill Museum. Unfortunately, only the shell remains of the former greatness of this computer - and even that is not completely preserved.

Ross Perot's staff compares ENIAC to the Ark of the Covenant from the Indiana Jones movie - it was also completely lost, despite all its importance, because military museums and warehouses did not even suspect what had been stored in their storerooms for so many years. However, a few years ago, Dell was still talking about trying to find the remaining ENIAC panels that had not completely collapsed - we can only hope that they still exist.

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A general purpose computer, programmable to solve a wide range of problems, although originally intended to solve ballistics problems, i.e. military tasks.

In 1939, the Second World War began, and any war is not only a confrontation between armies, but also a race of scientific minds and technologies. Thus, employees of the US Department of Defense Ballistic Research Laboratory, located in the Aberdeen Proving Ground (Maryland), worked to create ballistics tables that artillerymen needed on the battlefield. The importance of the tables was very great: they helped soldiers adjust the aiming of the gun taking into account the distance to the target, its height above sea level, meteorological conditions such as air temperature, wind speed and direction, etc.

In those days, the above-mentioned calculations of ballistic tables (i.e., shooting tables) were carried out manually on desktop adding machines by special computer clerks, mostly women. To calculate just one trajectory, it was necessary to perform from 750 to 1000 arithmetic operations, while any table included almost 2000 trajectories. With the help of a differential analyzer, it became possible to speed up the calculations, but they were approximate, after which dozens of people had to refine them manually.

New states were drawn into the war, and the area of ​​hostilities expanded. The laboratory that carried out the ballistic calculations could not cope and eventually requested help. So, in the nearby Higher Technical School of the University of Pennsylvania, an auxiliary computing center appeared. The school had its own differential analyzer, however, scientists from the above-mentioned university, John William Mauchly (a teacher, sometimes spelled Mauchly) and John Presper Eckert (a student with excellent engineering abilities) proposed a more perfect solution... Engineers are truly lazy, but brilliant people!

John Mauchly, a physicist who also works in meteorology, has long thought about creating a device that could apply statistical methods to weather forecasting. Even before World War II, he designed several simple digital counting devices using vacuum tubes. It is likely that his interest in computers arose after a visit to the American scientist John Atanasov: for 5 days, Mauchly was able to observe the work of Atanasov and his assistant Clifford Berry, who were working on a prototype computer with almost 300 vacuum tubes.

Later, the Atanasov-Berry computer argued with ENIAC for the right to be called the first computer; Atanasov claimed that Mokli, while visiting him, borrowed some ideas that he embodied in his computer. One way or another is 100% unknown, but the fact that it was John Eckert who convinced Mosley that it was realistic to implement his ideas in a computer is absolutely true.

In August 1942, Mauchly wrote a seven-page paper, “The Use of High-Speed ​​Vacuum Tube Devices for Calculation,” in which he proposed that the Institute build an electronic computer based on vacuum tubes. Unfortunately, the management of the Institute did not pay attention to the work and sent it to the archive, after which traces of the work are lost.

The Moore Institute's collaboration with the Ballistics Laboratory in calculating firing tables was conducted through Herman Goldstein, a U.S. Army captain who had been a professor of mathematics at Michigan State University before enlisting. In early 1943, from a chance conversation with an Institute employee, Goldstein learned about Mauchly's idea for an electronic computer and immediately appreciating the significance of the proposed computer project, he began to lobby on behalf of the military command to have the project accepted for development. They met and Herman suggested that John draw up and submit an application to the Laboratory, because considerable funds were required to build a computer. Mauchly was able to reconstruct his 7-page document, after which work began to boil.

On April 9, 1943, the day when D. Eckert turned 24 years old, the army signed a contract with scientists for almost 400 thousand dollars to create the ENIAC computer. According to the contract, the machine was called “Electronic Numerical Integrator”, a little later “and Computer” was added to the name, resulting in the famous abbreviation ENIAC. The curator of the “Project PX” project on the part of the US Army was the already familiar Herman Goldstein.

By February 1944, all the diagrams and drawings of the future computer were ready, and a group of engineers led by Eckert and Mauchly began to translate the idea into hardware. The group itself working on the project gradually expanded and eventually grew to 50 people. The main consultant of the project was, of course, Mauchly, and Eckert was the chief designer. The sociable Mauchly was a fountain of ideas, and the main “practical hands”, the reserved and cautious John Eckert, analyzed all the thoughts, brought to mind those that he considered effective.

In January 1944, Eckert made the first sketch of a second computer with a more advanced design, in which the program was stored in the computer's memory, and was not formed using switches and rearrangement of blocks, as in ENIAC.

In the summer of 1944, the military curator of the project, Herman Goldstein, met the famous mathematician John von Neumann and recruited him to work on the machine. Von Neumann made his theoretical contributions to the project. As a result, a theoretical and engineering foundation was created for the successor to ENIAC - the next model of a computer called EDVAC (EDVAK) with a program stored in memory.

In mid-July 1944, Eckert and Mauchly assembled the first pair of number addition modules. By connecting them, they performed a simple multiplication of two numbers: 5 and 1000. Having received the correct result, the scientists demonstrated to the management of the Institute and Laboratory, as well as to all skeptics, that an electronic computer could be built.

The design of the car looked quite complex. It was planned that it would contain almost 17.5 thousand lamps. Such a large number of lamps was due to the fact that ENIAC had to work with the decimal number system. It was this that Mauchly preferred, believing that the computer should be understandable to humans. However, this also had its problems: there were a lot of lamps, they overheated and went out. The failure of one lamp, one capacitor or resistor entailed the stoppage of the entire machine, and in total there were ~1.75 billion different failure options every second. Until now, humanity has not created a single similar device of such complexity and with such stringent requirements for reliability. In order to somehow reduce the frequency of failure of vacuum lamps, Eckert proposed applying a minimum voltage to them - 5.7 volts instead of the nominal 6.3 volts, and after performing the calculations, ENIAC continued to work, maintaining the lamps in a heated state, so that the temperature difference during cooling and heating would not led to their burnout. The result was that approximately 2-3 lamps burned out per week, and the average lamp operating time was 2500 hours. Quite high demands were placed on the selection of radio components and assembly quality. Nevertheless, the engineers achieved at least 20 hours of continuous operation of ENIAC without breakdowns. This, of course, is not much by today’s standards, but for every 20 hours of operation, the computer performed a month’s worth of work by mechanical calculators!

In order to monitor the serviceability of the equipment, John Eckert developed a special program: each of the great variety of electronic components of the 27-ton computer was subjected to a thorough check, after which they were all carefully placed in certain places, then soldered (and sometimes re-soldered more than once) . Of course, such work strained every member of the team, including even John Mauchly.

By the fall of 1945, the assembly of the ENIAC was completed, and the vehicle was ready for the first test. The war had ended by that time, fortunately for the people, but the car did not stand idle. A new task was selected for ENIAC: calculations of the possibility of creating a hydrogen bomb. The nature of the task just showed that the role of such computers will only increase.

J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly with the ENIAC computer. University of Pennsylvania, 1946