Until the end of World War II, ENIAC was considered a secret. After its official launch in 1946, it was only used for ten years.
It was followed by the EDVAC (Electronic Delay Automatic Storage Calculator), the first computer with storage capacity. As a result, ENIAC was soon considered obsolete.
The first electronic computer was ENIAC (Electric Numerical Integrator and Computer), released in February 1946. Today, we can say that the technology of this computer corresponds to that of a simple calculator, however, for the time, it was a revolutionary invention which resulted in the creation of new and more efficient computers.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FIRST COMPUTER
The ENIAC was a gigantic machine and very fast for the time. Among the main features were the overall weight of 30 tons, roughly the weight of 5 or 6 elephants together, it had a capacity of 500 multiplications per second, while calculations could take 8 hours or more if done by hand. The history of the creation of computers is the result of human evolution in the creation and operationalization of technology. We can say that the first computers were characterized as calculating and sorting machines, closely related to mathematics. Despite ENIAC being associated with a calculator, it is interesting to note that it was considered an electronic computer because it was programmable and different from the mechanical calculators that existed at the time.
WOMEN WHO PROGRAMMED THE FIRST COMPUTER
This part of the ENIAC story is quite controversial, as over the years women programmers have not received as much recognition as the scientists who developed the computer. Despite their lack of recognition, their work was fundamental, as they were responsible for calculating the differential equations needed for ballistic trajectories. In fact, in the beginning, about 80 women who worked as programmers were called "computers". After the creation of ENIAC, six women were called to test and program the first computer: Frances Spence, "Betty" Holberton, Jean Bartik, "Kay" McNulty, Marlyn Wescoff and Ruth Lichterman. They learned to program without programming languages or tools (since none existed), just logic diagrams. When they were done, ENIAC made a ballistic trajectory, a differential calculus equation, in seconds. However, when ENIAC was introduced to the press and public in 1946, women were never mentioned, they remained invisible.
CURIOSITIES ABOUT ENIAC
Until the end of World War II, ENIAC was considered a secret. After its official launch in 1946, it was only used for ten years. After that, came the EDVAC (Electronic Delay Automatic Storage Calculator), the first computer with storage capacity. As a result, after a short time, ENIAC was considered obsolete. It is estimated that ENIAC had a construction cost of $500 (approximately $6.300.000 today). Today, ENIAC has been dismantled and some of its parts are at the Moore School at the University of Pennsylvania, where it was developed, while others are at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC and also at the Computer History Museum in California.
HOW WAS THE EVOLUTION OF COMPUTERS AFTER ENIAC
The evolution of computers was extremely fast and, in the 80s, computers for personal use began to appear. It was at this time that Microsoft was founded and the Macintosh (the computer with a built-in mouse and keyboard) was launched by Apple.
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