<computer> (ENIAC) The first ever general-purpose digital electronic computer and the ancestor of most computers in use today. ENIAC was developed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert during World War II at the Moore School of the University of Pennsylvania and was released publicly in 1946.
ENIAC could perform thousands of calculations per seconds and was used for a variety of purposes including scientific research and weather prediction.
Johann Von Neumann, a member of the Mauchly and Eckert team, suggested that instead of changing around cables that connected one part of the computer with another in order to set up a particular computing function, a set of standard connections between machine components be established and that a special area of computer memory should be developed to store both data and programming orders. Von Neumann also proposed the Fetch-Execute cycle.
[Tim Rauenbusch <rauenbus@eniac.seas.upenn.edu>]
(16 Feb 1995)