What Was ENIAC?
The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was the first electronic digital computer, completed in 1946 for the United States military. It was used to compute information for a variety of military tasks until 1955, when it was retired in favor of other, more advanced devices. ENIAC is regarded as one of the forefathers of the modern personal computer, and represents a huge engineering and mathematics accomplishment. Pieces of ENIAC can be seen on display in various museums all over the United States. In 1943, the military awarded a contract to John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert of the University of Pennsylvania. The two were contracted to build a device which could be used to calculate artillery tables for the military. After three years of work, the end product was revealed on 14 February 1946. Although it was initially designed to work on artillery tables, ENIAC’s first major project was calculations related to the development of the hydrogen bomb. The first iteration o
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, was the first large-scale, electronic, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems, although earlier computers had been built with some of these properties. ENIAC was designed and built to calculate artillery firing tables for the U.S. Army’s Ballistics Research Laboratory.
