<https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/eniac-the-worlds-first-general-purpose-digital-computer-turns-80-years-old-today-legendary-hulking-machine-was-1-000x-faster-than-its-nearest-rival>

In fact the Bletchley Park ?Colossus? machine (that Alan Turing had a
hand in) was working a little before ENIAC, but the existence of that
was kept strictly secret until about the 1970s.

The hardware engineers who built the early electronic computers didn?t
really appreciate the importance and subtlety of the programming
problem -- they saw it as a mere janitorial chore, that could be
delegated to lower-paid underlings, like women.

Here <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buAYHonF968> is the testimony of
one of those women, and the clever innovations they developed to
facilitate the programming process.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

For about the first decade or so of the electronic digital computer
era, there was a fondness for naming machines with acronyms ending
with ?-AC? (mostly understood to stand for ?Automatic Computer?). For
example, after ENIAC (which seems to have started the fashion), there
were EDVAC and EDSAC, and of course UNIVAC, which spawned a computer
company of the same name. An early series of supercomputers was named
ILLIAC. And there was JOHNNIAC (the ?John? in question being the
legendary John von Neumann). One research machine was even named
MANIAC -- yes, they went there.

And if you thought that ?automatic computer? was kind of a redundant
term (surely all these computers were ?automatic? in operation?),
remember that, before this time, a ?computer? meant an actual human
being who was hired for their skill at doing complex calculations
quickly and (comparatively) accurately.

That particular job category existed for centuries. But it has been so thoroughly extinguished by the rise of digital technology that the
usage seems merely quaint, or even surprising, now.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 15/02/2026 05:53, rbowman wrote:

On Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:39:41 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

In fact the Bletchley Park ?Colossus? machine (that Alan Turing had a
hand in) was working a little before ENIAC,

As far as we know Alan Turing played no part in the development of Colossus.

but the existence of that
was kept strictly secret until about the 1970s.

Let's have some love for the Z3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer)

All these machines were, along with the SSEM at Manchester were firsts
in some way. I remember getting the thrills of getting the first program
to run on the 6800 machine that I had built myself, so how exciting it
must have been for these pioneers when their programs ran for the first
time.

So whilst ENIAC is 80 years it only ran its first modern program in
April 1948 when it was hard-wired to be a Harvard Architecture computer,
with the program stored in switches used as "ROM".

https://computerhistory.org/blog/programming-the-eniac-an-example-of-why-computer-history-is-hard/

Just a couple of months later the Manchester Baby ran its first program
this time from RAM, so a Von Neumann architecture computer. Yes it might
be slower than ENIAC but it kick started IBM into producing real
computers. They licenced its memory technology for their first
electronic computer, the 701.

As for Bletchley and computers, well I would say the folks who developed
Radar are the unsung heroes of early computing. All the electronic
elements for computing were present long before ENIAC and Baby. What was missing was a reliable, scalable memory circuit.

At this time if you wanted some kind of high capacity storage then you
either used Kilburn/Williams storage tubes, or mercury delay lines.
Both these devices were developed with the intent of de-cluttering Radar
but found extensive use in early computers, until the development of
magnetic core memory.

I think I have also missed out the folks in Australia who built CSIRAC
and of course the Cambridge machine, the ESDAC and perhaps Ferranti,
Turing, Kilburn and Williams who produced a commercial, upgraded Baby,
the Ferranti Mark I delivered in 1951 to Manchester University.

What wonderfull and exciting times these were..

Dave



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2/14/26 19:43, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

For about the first decade or so of the electronic digital computer
era, there was a fondness for naming machines with acronyms ending
with ?-AC? (mostly understood to stand for ?Automatic Computer?). For example, after ENIAC (which seems to have started the fashion), there
were EDVAC and EDSAC, and of course UNIVAC, which spawned a computer
company of the same name. An early series of supercomputers was named
ILLIAC. And there was JOHNNIAC (the ?John? in question being the
legendary John von Neumann). One research machine was even named
MANIAC -- yes, they went there.

And if you thought that ?automatic computer? was kind of a redundant
term (surely all these computers were ?automatic? in operation?),
remember that, before this time, a ?computer? meant an actual human
being who was hired for their skill at doing complex calculations
quickly and (comparatively) accurately.

That particular job category existed for centuries. But it has been so thoroughly extinguished by the rise of digital technology that the
usage seems merely quaint, or even surprising, now.

ORDVAC

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes:

On Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:39:41 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

In fact the Bletchley Park ?Colossus? machine (that Alan Turing had a
hand in) was working a little before ENIAC, but the existence of that
was kept strictly secret until about the 1970s.

Let's have some love for the Z3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer)

Or the ABC. I once had dinner with Dr. Atanasoff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_computer

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Scott Lurndal <scott@slp53.sl.home> wrote:

rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes:

Let's have some love for the Z3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer)

Or the ABC. I once had dinner with Dr. Atanasoff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_computer

When I was applying to schools with electrical engineering programs,
my father wanted me to attend Iowa State. Too close too home: I wanted
to design computers, and what would anyone at Iowa State know about
such advanced topics?

A few years later, the ENIAC folks - Mauchley and Eckert ? - would
run afoul of the patent system. Seems they knew all about Atanasoff
and his work, even to the extent of hiring his assistant to design
some of their circuits. The ABC was quite a machine, but at somthing
like $7900 in funding was not a match for the general purpose ENIAC,
other than having done actual binary floating point instead of counting
down one input digit while counting up the other to perform addition,
and actually having been the first to use dynamic RAM - in a primitive
form. But Atanasoff and Iowa State did not patent their work, and after Atanasoff left to join the war effort the machine was cannibalized by
the EE department for precious electronic components.

When the patents were up for renewal, they were challenged by a
consortium of other computer manufacturers, who hired Atanasoff as
an expert witness to point out the similarities in the circuitry
to his own. A judge in St. Paul ruled in plaintiffs' favor due to
prior art. Defendants' attorney complained to his clients that if
they had just informed him of that prior art he could thave made the
patents cover only those parts of the ENIAC that were in fact unique
so they would not have been so vulnerable to competing claims.

George

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Mon, 16 Mar 2026 07:19:05 -0000 (UTC), George Cornelius wrote:

When the patents were up for renewal, they were challenged by a
consortium of other computer manufacturers, who hired Atanasoff as
an expert witness to point out the similarities in the circuitry to
his own. A judge in St. Paul ruled in plaintiffs' favor due to prior
art.

Remarkable. Having patents overturned due to prior art is very rare in
the US patent system. Cf this, after crypto legend Whitfield Diffie
testified that he had invented the algorithm in question <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/11/jury-newegg-infringes-spangenberg-patent-must-pay-2-3-million/>
(though Newegg finally won on appeal).

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Lawrence D???Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On Mon, 16 Mar 2026 07:19:05 -0000 (UTC), George Cornelius wrote:

When the patents were up for renewal, they were challenged by a
consortium of other computer manufacturers, who hired Atanasoff as
an expert witness to point out the similarities in the circuitry to
his own. A judge in St. Paul ruled in plaintiffs' favor due to prior
art.

Remarkable. Having patents overturned due to prior art is very rare in
the US patent system. Cf this, after crypto legend Whitfield Diffie
testified that he had invented the algorithm in question <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/11/jury-newegg-infringes-spangenberg-patent-must-pay-2-3-million/>
(though Newegg finally won on appeal).

Did not say I agreed with the ruling - just reported what I knew.

BTW, the AT&T/Townes laser patent was overturned on what I think
of as relatively weak grounds as well.

In that case, it was a apparently a graduate student in Cambridge, MA,
who could produce notebooks from the time that indicated he had a full,
working laser design before Townes did.

George

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

"George Cornelius" <cornelius@decuserve.org.invalid> writes:

Scott Lurndal <scott@slp53.sl.home> wrote:

rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes:

Let's have some love for the Z3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer)

Or the ABC. I once had dinner with Dr. Atanasoff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_computer

When I was applying to schools with electrical engineering programs,
my father wanted me to attend Iowa State. Too close too home: I wanted
to design computers, and what would anyone at Iowa State know about
such advanced topics?

A few years later, the ENIAC folks - Mauchley and Eckert ? - would
run afoul of the patent system. Seems they knew all about Atanasoff
and his work, even to the extent of hiring his assistant to design
some of their circuits. The ABC was quite a machine, but at somthing
like $7900 in funding was not a match for the general purpose ENIAC,
other than having done actual binary floating point instead of counting
down one input digit while counting up the other to perform addition,
and actually having been the first to use dynamic RAM - in a primitive
form. But Atanasoff and Iowa State did not patent their work, and after >Atanasoff left to join the war effort the machine was cannibalized by
the EE department for precious electronic components.

When the patents were up for renewal, they were challenged by a
consortium of other computer manufacturers, who hired Atanasoff as
an expert witness to point out the similarities in the circuitry
to his own. A judge in St. Paul ruled in plaintiffs' favor due to
prior art. Defendants' attorney complained to his clients that if
they had just informed him of that prior art he could thave made the
patents cover only those parts of the ENIAC that were in fact unique
so they would not have been so vulnerable to competing claims.

Full story:

https://www.amazon.com/Atanasoff-Forgotten-Computer-Clark-Mollenhoff/dp/0813800323

The ISU Computer Science club often invited Dr. Atanasoff to
speak to the club in the spring, often around VIESHEA.

We (the CSC) would display the last remaining ABC part
(the memory Drum, which had been preserved by the grad
student that dismantled the ABC in the basement of the
physics building to make room for his office). That
graduate student (Dr. Robert Stewart) two decades
later became ISU CS department chair.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)