<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)