ENIAC in Action: Making and Remaking the Modern Computer (History of Computing) - Hardcover

Haigh, Thomas (Associate Professor, University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee); Priestley, Mark (Honorary Research Associate, University College London); Rope, Crispin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262033984 ISBN 13: 9780262033985

Verlag: MIT Press Ltd, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

The history of the first programmable electronic computer, from its conception, construction, and use to its afterlife as a part of computing folklore.

Conceived in 1943, completed in 1945, and decommissioned in 1955, ENIAC (the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first general-purpose programmable electronic computer. But ENIAC was more than just a milestone on the road to the modern computer. During its decade of operational life, ENIAC calculated sines and cosines and tested for statistical outliers, plotted the trajectories of bombs and shells, and ran the first numerical weather simulations. ENIAC in Action tells the whole story for the first time, from ENIAC's design, construction, testing, and use to its afterlife as part of computing folklore. It highlights the complex relationship of ENIAC and its designers to the revolutionary approaches to computer architecture and coding first documented by John von Neumann in 1945.

Within this broad sweep, the authors emphasize the crucial but previously neglected years of 1947 to 1948, when ENIAC was reconfigured to run what the authors claim was the first modern computer program to be executed: a simulation of atomic fission for Los Alamos researchers. The authors view ENIAC from diverse perspectivesas a machine of war, as the first computer, as a material artifact constantly remade by its users, and as a subject of (contradictory) historical narratives. They integrate the history of the machine and its applications, describing the mathematicians, scientists, and engineers who proposed and designed ENIAC as well as the menand particularly the women whobuilt, programmed, and operated it.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Thomas Haigh is Associate Professor of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Mark Priestley is an independent researcher.

Crispin Rope is an independent researcher.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: MIT Press Ltd
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0262033984
• ISBN 13: 9780262033985
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 366
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar