Editing ENIAC (section)

{{Short description|First electronic general-purpose digital computer}}
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{{Use American English|date=March 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox PAhistoric
| name                 = ENIAC
| PAhistoric_type      = PA
| image                = ENIAC Penn1.jpg
| caption              = Four ENIAC panels and one of its three function tables at the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the [[University of Pennsylvania]]
| coordinates          = {{coord|39.9523|N|75.1906|W|region:US-PA_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
| location             = [[University of Pennsylvania]] Department of Computer and Information Science, 3330 [[Walnut Street (Philadelphia)|Walnut Street]], [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]], U.S.
| built                = 1945
| architect            =
| architecture         =
| governing_body       =
| designated_PAhistoric_type = Thursday, June 15, 2000
}}
[[File:Glen Beck and Betty Snyder program the ENIAC in building 328 at the Ballistic Research Laboratory.jpg|thumb|Glenn A. Beck (background) and [[Betty Holberton|Betty Snyder]] (foreground) program ENIAC in [[Ballistic Research Laboratory|BRL]] building 328. (U.S. Army photo, {{Circa}} 1947–1955)]]

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'''ENIAC''' ({{IPAc-en|'|ɛ|n|i|æ|k|}}; '''Electronic Numerical  Integrator and Computer''')<ref>Eckert Jr., John Presper and Mauchly, John W.; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, United States Patent Office, US Patent 3,120,606, filed 1947-06-26, issued 1964-02-04; invalidated 1973-10-19 after court ruling in ''[[Honeywell v. Sperry Rand]]''.</ref><ref name="ENIACstory">{{cite journal |last=Weik |first=Martin H. |title=The ENIAC Story |journal=Ordnance |issue=January–February 1961 |publisher=American Ordnance Association |url=http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/comphist/eniac-story.html |access-date=2015-03-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814181522/http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/comphist/eniac-story.html |archive-date=2011-08-14 |location=Washington, DC}}</ref> was the first [[Computer programming|programmable]], [[Electronics|electronic]], general-purpose [[digital computer]], completed in 1945.<ref>{{cite web |title=3.2 First Generation Electronic Computers (1937-1953) |url=https://www.phy.ornl.gov/csep/ov/node10.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308160220/https://www.phy.ornl.gov/csep/ov/node10.html |archive-date=8 March 2012 |website=www.phy.ornl.gov}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=ENIAC on Trial – 1. Public Use |url=http://www.ushistory.org/more/eniac/public.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209080918/http://www.ushistory.org:80/more/eniac/public.htm |archive-date=9 February 2019 |access-date=2018-05-16 |website=www.ushistory.org |at=Search for ''1945'' |quote=The ENIAC machine [...] was reduced to practice no later than the date of commencement of the use of the machine for the Los Alamos calculations, December 10, 1945.}}</ref> Other computers had some of these features, but ENIAC was the first to have them all. It was [[Turing-complete]] and able to solve "a large class of numerical problems" through reprogramming.<ref>{{Harvnb|Goldstine|Goldstine|1946|p=97}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Shurkin |first=Joel |title=Engines of the mind: the evolution of the computer from mainframes to microprocessors |date=1996 |publisher=Norton |location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-31471-7}}</ref>

ENIAC was designed by [[John Mauchly]] and [[J. Presper Eckert]] to calculate [[artillery]] [[external ballistics|firing tables]] for the [[United States Army]]'s [[Ballistic Research Laboratory]] (which later became a part of the [[United States Army Research Laboratory|Army Research Laboratory]]).<ref>{{cite web |last=Moye |first=William T. |title=ENIAC: The Army-Sponsored Revolution |date=January 1996 |publisher=US Army Research Laboratory |url=http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/comphist/96summary/index.html |access-date=2015-03-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170521072638/http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/comphist/96summary/index.html |archive-date=2017-05-21 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfn|Goldstine|1993|page=214}} However, its first program was a study of the feasibility of the [[thermonuclear weapon]].<ref>{{harvnb|Rhodes|1995|p=251|loc=chapter 13}}: The first problem assigned to the first working electronic digital computer in the world was the hydrogen bomb. […] The ENIAC ran a first rough version of the thermonuclear calculations for six weeks in December 1945 and January 1946.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|McCartney|1999|p=103}}: "ENIAC correctly showed that Teller's scheme would not work, but the results led Teller and Ulam to come up with another design together."</ref>

ENIAC was completed in 1945 and first put to work for practical purposes on December 10, 1945.<ref name="trial">*{{cite web |url=http://www.ushistory.org/more/eniac/public.htm |title=ENIAC on Trial – 1. Public Use |website=www.ushistory.org |at=Search for ''1945'' |access-date=2018-05-16 |quote=The ENIAC machine […] was reduced to practice no later than the date of commencement of the use of the machine for the Los Alamos calculations, December 10, 1945.}}</ref>

ENIAC was formally dedicated at the [[University of Pennsylvania]] on February 15, 1946, having cost $487,000 ({{Inflation|US-GDP|487000|1943|fmt=eq|r=-5}}), and called a "Giant Brain" by the press.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/books/061499mccartney-book-review.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|title='ENIAC': Creating a Giant Brain, and Not Getting Credit}}</ref> It had a speed on the order of one thousand times faster than that of [[electro-mechanical]] machines.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thocp.net/hardware/eniac.htm |title=ENIAC USA 1946 |date=2013-03-13 |website=The History of Computing Project |publisher=History of Computing Foundation |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210104011455/http://www.thocp.net/hardware/eniac.htm |archive-date=2021-01-04 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

ENIAC was formally accepted by the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps in July 1946. It was transferred to [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]] in [[Aberdeen, Maryland]] in 1947, where it was in continuous operation until 1955.

The 1948 [[Manchester Baby]] was the first machine to contain all the elements essential to a modern electronic digital computer, as it could be reprogrammed electronically to hold [[stored-program computer|stored programs]] instead of requiring setting of switches to program as ENIAC did.