Editing EDVAC (section)

{{Short description|Early computer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2021}}
[[File:Edvac.jpg|thumb|275px|The EDVAC as installed in Building 328 at the [[Ballistic Research Laboratory]]]]
'''EDVAC''' ('''Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer''') was one of the earliest [[electronics|electronic]] [[computer]]s. It was built by [[Moore School of Electrical Engineering]] at the [[University of Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The History of Computing at BRL|url=http://chimera.roma1.infn.it/SPENG/COMMON/ftp.arl.mil/mike/comphist/hist.html|access-date=2021-12-03|website=chimera.roma1.infn.it}}</ref><ref name="EoCS2003" >{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/436846454|title=Encyclopedia of computer science.|date=2003|publisher=Wiley|others=Edwin D. Reilly, Anthony Ralston, David Hemmendinger|isbn=978-1-84972-160-8|edition=4th|location=Chichester, Eng.|oclc=436846454}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=626–628}} Along with [[ORDVAC]], it was a successor to the [[ENIAC]]. Unlike ENIAC, it was [[binary numeral system|binary]] rather than [[decimal]], and was designed to be a [[stored-program computer]].  

ENIAC inventors, [[John Mauchly]] and [[J. Presper Eckert]], proposed the EDVAC's construction in August 1945.  A contract to build the new computer was signed in April 1946 with an initial budget of [[United States dollar|US$]]100,000. EDVAC was delivered to the [[Ballistic Research Laboratory]] in 1949. The [[Ballistic Research Laboratory]] became a part of the [[US Army Research Laboratory]] in 1952.

Functionally, EDVAC was a binary [[serial computer]] with automatic addition, subtraction, multiplication, programmed division and automatic checking with an [[delay-line memory|ultrasonic serial memory]]<ref name="Wilkes"/> having a capacity of 1,024 44-bit [[word (data type)|word]]s.  EDVAC's average addition time was 864 [[microsecond]]s and its average multiplication time was 2,900 microseconds.