Programming in 1946 - ENIAC's Birthday

Paul Koning paulkoning at comcast.net
Mon Feb 15 09:13:20 CST 2021



> On Feb 15, 2021, at 7:23 AM, osi.superboard via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> 75 years ago, February 15, 1946
> The ENIAC, presented to the public in 1946, is - depending on the definition - the first programmable digital computer in the world. Its first programmers were primarily women: so-called refrigerator ladies (seen here: Gloria Ruth Gordon and Ester Gerston) spent hours flipping switches and swapping cable connections - the first computer input devices -

Not so much input devices as rather program storage devices.  ENIAC wasn't a stored-program machine.  And of course read-only program memories have a long history, going back to the Atanasoff-Berry digital computer years earlier, through the ROM of the Electrologica X1 and the Apollo Guidance Computer, to the deadstart panel toggle switch boot ROM of the CDC mainframes.

	paul




More information about the cctech mailing list