ENIAC
(Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer)
The person who proposed the idea for a electronic digital computer was John Mauchley, an American physicist. It was built at the Moore School of Engineering at the University of Pensilvania in Philadelphia. J. Presper Eckert, an American engineer assisted Mauchley to build it. It was completed in 1945 and weighed more than 27 000 kg (60 000 lb). It contained more than 18 000 vacuum tubes. About 2000 of the computer's vacuum tubes were replaced each month.
The ENIAC's first tasks included military calculations, such as calculating balistics charts and designing atomic weapons. The ENIAC was not a stored program machine it had to be reprogramed for each task.
Eckert and Mauchley then formed their very own company, which was then bought by the Rand Corporation. They then invented and produced the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC). This machine could be used for a wider variety of tasks and by 1957, 46 UNIVACs were in use.
ENIAC required so much electricity that the lights in a nearby town dimmed every time it was used.
ENIAC Computer System (above)
UNIVAC Computer System (left)