Editing MANIAC I (section)

{{Short description|Computer built in 1952 for Los Alamos Scientific Lab}}
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[[File:The MANIAC’s arithmetic unit nearing completion in 1952.jpg|thumb|The MANIAC's arithmetic unit nearing completion in 1952.]]
The '''MANIAC I''' (Mathematical Analyzer Numerical Integrator and Automatic Computer Model I)<ref>{{cite book
  |last = Pang
  |first = Tao
  |title = An Introduction to Computational Physics
  |publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]
  |year = 1997
  |isbn = 0-521-48143-0
  |oclc = 318210008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fnslAAAAMAAJ&q=%22MANIAC+Mechanical+and+Numerical+Integrator+and+Computer%22|title=Anglo-American and German Abbreviations in Data Processing|last=Wennrich|first=Peter|date=1984|publisher=De Gruyter|isbn=9783598205248|pages=362|language=en|quote=MANIAC Mathematical Analyzer, Numerical Integrator and Computer<br>MANIAC Mechanical and Numerical Integrator and Calculator<br>MANIAC Mechanical and Numerical Integrator and Computer}}</ref> was an early computer built under the direction of [[Nicholas Metropolis]] at the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory]].  It was based on the [[von Neumann architecture]] of the [[IAS machine|IAS]], developed by [[John von Neumann]]. As with almost all computers of its era, it was a one-of-a-kind machine that could not exchange programs with other computers (even the several other machines based on the IAS).  Metropolis chose the name MANIAC in the hope of stopping the rash of silly acronyms for machine names,<ref>[[#maniac_name|Metropolis 1980]]</ref> although [[John von Neumann|von Neumann]] may have suggested the name to him.

The MANIAC weighed about {{convert|1000|lb|ST MT}}.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://paw.princeton.edu/article/daybreak-digital-age|title=Daybreak of the Digital Age|date=2016-01-21|work=Princeton Alumni Weekly|access-date=2018-05-25|others=Published in the April 4, 2012 Issue|language=en|quote=MANIAC was a single 6-foot-high, 8-foot-long unit weighing 1,000 pounds.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/computing-and-manhattan-project|title=Computing and the Manhattan Project|date=July 18, 2014|website=Atomic Heritage Foundation|at=It's a MANIAC|language=en|quote=MANIAC was substantively smaller than ENIAC: only six feet high, eight feet wide, and weighing in at half a ton.}}<br />
{{convert|1|ST|lb|disp=b}}</ref>

The first task assigned to the Los Alamos MANIAC was to perform more precise and extensive calculations of the thermonuclear process.<ref>Declassified AEC report RR00523</ref> In 1953, the MANIAC obtained the first equation of state calculated by modified [[Monte Carlo integration]] over configuration space.<ref>Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines. Journal of Chemical Physics 1953</ref>

In 1956, MANIAC I became the first computer to defeat a human being in a chess-like game.  The chess variant, called [[Los Alamos chess]], was developed for a 6×6 chessboard (no bishops) due to the limited amount of memory and computing power of the machine.<ref>Pritchard (2007), p. 112</ref>

The MANIAC ran successfully in March 1952<ref>See ''Computing & Computers: Weapons Simulation Leads to the Computer Era'', p. 135</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BX3BBAAAQBAJ&q=maniac+computer+1952&pg=PA109|title=A Chronicle of Permutation Statistical Methods: 1920–2000, and Beyond|last1=Berry|first1=Kenneth J.|last2=Johnston|first2=Janis E.|author2-link= Janis Johnston |last3=Mielke|first3=Paul W. Jr.|date=2014-04-11|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9783319027449|pages=109|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qB819m2ibUQC&q=maniac+computer+1952&pg=PA16|title=Computing at LASL in the 1940s and 1950s|date=1978|publisher=Department of Energy|pages=16|language=en}}</ref> and was shut down on July 15, 1958.<ref>''Turing's Cathedral'', by George Dyson, 2012, p. 315</ref>  It was succeeded by [[MANIAC II]] in 1957. MANIAC I was<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qB819m2ibUQC&q=maniac+computer+1952&pg=PA16|title=Computing at LASL in the 1940s and 1950s|date=1978|publisher=Department of Energy|pages=21|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Oral-History:Marjorie 'Marge' Devaney |url=https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Marjorie_%22Marge%22_Devaney#Designing_the_Operating_System_for_the_MANIAC_II_Computer |website=Engineering and Technology History Wiki |accessdate=2 July 2019}}</ref>
transferred to the [[University of New Mexico]] in bad condition, and was restored to full operation by Dale Sparks, PhD. It was featured in at least two UNM Maniac programming dissertations from 1963.<ref>{{cite web |title=Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs |url=https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ece_etds/index.4.html#year_1963 |website=The University of New Mexico Digital Repository |publisher=UNM |accessdate=2 July 2019}}</ref> It remained in operation until it was retired in 1965.

A third version, [[MANIAC III]], was built at the [[Institute for Computer Research]] at the [[University of Chicago]] in 1964.