The ENIAC, the verb "to program" and the emergence of digital computers

Grier, David Alan

doi:10.1109/85.476561

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…For instance, the American press used terms such as "the super-brain," "man-made mental giant" (Martin 1993), and "the robot Einstein" (Bowles 1996). This anthropomorphic terminology perhaps derived from the language of the pioneers of early computing (Grier 1996).…”

Section: Pre-modern Computingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ENIAC team had a grand vision for the new computing machine: Grier (1996) wrote that the designers and constructors of the ENIAC believed that the ENIAC would revolutionize science by establishing a new scientific method based on electronic computing. To make this change clear, the researchers attempted to delineate a clear boundary between the new world of electronic computers and the older world of human computers by using words that could not be connected with human computing (e.g., they talked about "programs" instead of "calculation").…”

Section: Shift To Digital Electronic Turing-complete Computingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been argued that the theoretical and practical developments at the University of Pennsylvania would at any other time, in all likelihood, have been dismissed as interesting, but impractical and expensive (Winegrad 1996). Grier (1996) noted that, unfortunately, the ENIAC became a burden before it was even completed. The ENIAC became operational just as the development team at the Moore School began to understand and appreciate the power of stored programs and serial arithmetic.…”

Section: Convergences and Contingenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Crossing the Newton-Maxwell Gap: Convergences and Contingencies

Tedre¹,

Sutinen²

2009

Spon. Ge.

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The shift from electromechanical computing to fully electronic, digital, Turing-complete computing was one of the most influential technological developments of the twentieth century. The social, economic, political, interdisciplinary, and cultural aspects behind that shift were significant, but are often ignored. When the contingencies and controversies behind the birth of modern computing are forgotten, the history of computing is often misrepresented as one of uncomplicated linear progress. In this article some of the sociocultural aspects of the birth of modern computing are reviewed. The significance of interdisciplinary work is discussed. The concept of the stored-program paradigm is introduced, and some sociocultural factors behind its birth are discussed. Finally, it is argued that some traits of research that are often considered to be negative, such as opportunism, eclecticism, and stubbornness, have played a positive role in the birth of modern computing technology. *

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Section: Pre-modern Computingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Shift To Digital Electronic Turing-complete Computingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Convergences and Contingenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Crossing the Newton-Maxwell Gap: Convergences and Contingencies

Tedre¹,

Sutinen²

2009

Spon. Ge.

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“…Comparatively little has been written about the evolution and spread of concepts, for which see [7,51,52,131,223,256]. These articles about intellectual history and the books [10,132,324,334] are especially recommended for further reading.…”

Section: Notes On Computersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some lectures and Goldstine's bibliography can be found in [47]. The antecedents of modern control units include the sequencers that operated linked IBM tabulating machines [51], which in later forms were called selective when different sequences of activity could be chosen, but the word program was first used as a verb with its modern meaning at the Moore School Lectures [131]. 17 Colossus became well known only 30 years after the machines were destroyed [226].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

John von Neumann's Analysis of Gaussian Elimination and the Origins of Modern Numerical Analysis

Grcar¹

2011

SIAM Rev.

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Abstract. Just when modern computers (digital, electronic, and programmable) were being invented, John von Neumann and Herman Goldstine wrote a paper to illustrate the mathematical analyses that they believed would be needed to use the new machines effectively and to guide the development of still faster computers. Their foresight and the congruence of historical events made their work the first modern paper in numerical analysis. Von Neumann once remarked that to found a mathematical theory one had to prove the first theorem, which he and Goldstine did for the accuracy of mechanized Gaussian elimination-but their paper was about more than that. Von Neumann and Goldstine described what they surmized would be the significant questions once computers became available for computational science, and they suggested enduring ways to answer them.

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The ENIAC, the verb "to program" and the emergence of digital computers

Cited by 18 publications

References 9 publications

Crossing the Newton-Maxwell Gap: Convergences and Contingencies

Crossing the Newton-Maxwell Gap: Convergences and Contingencies

John von Neumann's Analysis of Gaussian Elimination and the Origins of Modern Numerical Analysis

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