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Technology Computing, programming, science, electronics, telecommunications, etc. |
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#1 | |
The future is unwritten
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
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First US Digital Computer
Aiken-IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator Mark I.
Here is a detailed article detailing how it was built. Quote:
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The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump. |
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#2 |
in the Hour of Scampering
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Jeffersonville PA (15 mi NW of Philadelphia)
Posts: 4,060
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The first? Depends who you ask.
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"Neither can his Mind be thought to be in Tune,whose words do jarre; nor his reason In frame, whose sentence is preposterous..." |
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#3 |
The future is unwritten
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
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The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump. |
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#4 | |
in the Hour of Scampering
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Jeffersonville PA (15 mi NW of Philadelphia)
Posts: 4,060
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Quote:
Clearly not "the first US digital computer".
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"Neither can his Mind be thought to be in Tune,whose words do jarre; nor his reason In frame, whose sentence is preposterous..." Last edited by MaggieL; 07-02-2006 at 06:32 PM. |
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#5 |
The future is unwritten
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
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Atanasoff-Berry was an unreliable one trick pony.
They had some great ideas and a solid theoretical foundation, but for lack of expertise or maybe funding they couldn't pull it off before being called for the war effort. There were several other similar machines around the world but they suffered the same limitations of being very specialized. The Aiken-IBM was a full fledged computer that could handle any type of mathematical calculations. IBM was hired as the contractor to build it because of their expertise in building business machinery (cash registers), but not because they knew anything about computers......that was all Aiken. ![]()
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The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump. |
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#6 | |
in the Hour of Scampering
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Jeffersonville PA (15 mi NW of Philadelphia)
Posts: 4,060
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IBM knew about a bit more than cash registers (although Watson was of course a fugitive from NCR who had to leave because of anti-trust problems). Their work with Hollerith card machines is not to be neglected; it was a central part of the data processiong technology of the day. And if the ABC fails by being neither fully-programmable or Turing-complete, the Mark I was neither stored-program nor fully electonic.
Aiken even went so far as to tell the NBS (today NIST) that "..you should...stop this foolishness with Eckert and Mauchly". Perhaps his only saving Grace was Hopper...she was his first programmer. But by the time ENIAC became UNIVAC, she was working on "foolishness" for Eckert and Mauchly. Quote:
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"Neither can his Mind be thought to be in Tune,whose words do jarre; nor his reason In frame, whose sentence is preposterous..." |
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