Lecture slides (PowerPoint) on the ENIAC. Part of slide collection of Tim Bergin's lectures from the class CSIS 550, History of Computing. We are providing two formats of lecture slides - MS PowerPoint for download and HTML to vie  ... more

Lecture slides (PowerPoint) on the ENIAC. Part of slide collection of Tim Bergin's lectures from the class CSIS 550, History of Computing. We are providing two formats of lecture slides - MS PowerPoint for download and HTML to view.   less

Engineering Pathway's "Today in History" blog for February 14 by Lucinda (Lucy) Sanders, CEO and Founder for the National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT). Excerpt: "Today in History - February 14, 1946 - EN  ... more

Engineering Pathway's "Today in History" blog for February 14 by Lucinda (Lucy) Sanders, CEO and Founder for the National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT). Excerpt: "Today in History - February 14, 1946 - ENIAC, the world's first digital electronic computer, is unveiled. ENIAC - Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer - the world's first operational, general purpose, electronic digital computer, developed at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania. The ENIAC and the invention of the computer is considered one of the most influential and pervasive developments coming out of World War II. The history of computing owes much to contributions of talented women. Ada Byron Lovelace is credited first envisioning programming with her statement: "The analytical engine weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves". Six of the ENIAC programmers were women at the University of Pennsylvania during World War II who had been calculating ballistics trajectories by hand. Admiral Grace Hopper, inventor of the first computer compiler, coined the term "computer bug" and is the namesake for the Grace Hopper Conference - Celebration of Women in Computing."   less

Women have been making an impact on computing since the days of the Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer (ENIAC). Yet, the contributions of women in information technology (IT) have been largely down-played or ign  ... more

Women have been making an impact on computing since the days of the Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer (ENIAC). Yet, the contributions of women in information technology (IT) have been largely down-played or ignored. Two of the greatest challenges facing early women IT pioneers were the lack of feminine role models and gender bias. Unfortunately, those challenges have yet to be entirely overcome today and more significantly, there are still few role models for women in IT fields.The disinterest and decline of women in computer-related degrees and consequently, in IT careers, has its roots embedded in a society that typically still pays its female workers far less than their male counterparts. More significantly, gender-related bias has found fertile ground to flourish in our nation's secondary and higher education institutions, where genetics, as recently as January 2005, was held up as a determining factor in women's IT aptitude and success.In this paper, the authors will focus on the historic and current challenges faced by women who pursue IT careers and the reasons for the growing decline of women in these fields. In addition, the authors will discuss the methods that educational institutions can implement to recruit and retain women in IT degrees such as gender myth debunking and mentoring programs, female-centric professional development opportunities and the establishment of role models.   less

"Happy Birthday, ENIAC! This year marks 60 years since ENIAC launched the world into the Computing Age. Today, it is difficult to imagine how we could manage without the myriad electronic devices that we utilize each day. From our  ... more

"Happy Birthday, ENIAC! This year marks 60 years since ENIAC launched the world into the Computing Age. Today, it is difficult to imagine how we could manage without the myriad electronic devices that we utilize each day. From our cell phones, PDAs, and cameras to our automobiles, airplanes, medical equipment and devices, electronics is the engine driving us forward. And it was here at the University of Pennsylvania that it all began."   less

A group of young women college graduates involved with the ENIAC are identified. As a result of their education, intelligence, as well as their being at the right place and at the right time, these young women were able to perfor  ... more

A group of young women college graduates involved with the ENIAC are identified. As a result of their education, intelligence, as well as their being at the right place and at the right time, these young women were able to perform important computer work. Many learned to use effectively ?the machine that changed the world? to assist in solving some of the important scientific problems of the time. Ten of them report on their background and experiences. It is now appropriate that these women be given recognition for what they did as ?pioneers? of the Age of Computing.   less

" A group of students at the Department of Electrical Engineering have designed "ENIAC(TM)-on-a-Chip", under supervision of Professor J. Van der Spiegel, in collaboration with Dr. F. Ketterer. This was done as part of Eniac's 50th  ... more

" A group of students at the Department of Electrical Engineering have designed "ENIAC(TM)-on-a-Chip", under supervision of Professor J. Van der Spiegel, in collaboration with Dr. F. Ketterer. This was done as part of Eniac's 50th Anniversary Celebration. They have integrated the whole "ENIAC" on a 7.44 by 5.29 sq. mm chip using a 0.5 micrometer CMOS technology. A clickable picture of the ENIAC(TM)-on-a-Chip is available here. Their goal was to recreate the original ENIAC, following its architecture and basic circuit building blocks as much as possible. Vacuum tube circuits were modeled with transistors. Mechanical switches were replaced with electronic ones, which are essentially transmission gates, decoder and memory elements. The ENIAC used a base 10 number system as opposed to base 2, not because the engineers were not aware of base 2 but that it was thought that it would require more vacuum tubes. The units of the ENIAC are: 1. Accumulator: the work horse of arithmetic; it also serves as a memory element. 2. Constant transmitter: Allows the accumulator to be initialized to some constant integer. 3. Cycling Unit: the master clock that synchronizes all modules. 4. Initiation Unit: tells all modules when to start computation. 5. Function Table: gives arbitrary functional dependence for the inputs. 6. Master Programmer: A higher level arithmetic coordinator that allows the ENIAC to be programmed in a more sophisticated way. 7. High Speed Multiplier: Auxiliary modules that use the accumulators in such a way that it allows them to perform multiplication. 8. Divider: Auxiliary modules that use the accumulators in such a way that it allows them to perform division. 9. Square Rooter: Auxiliary modules that use the accumulators in such a way that it allows them to perform square roots. The original ENIAC was programmed by physically connecting one module to another with cables. For "ENIAC-on-a-Chip", this has been accomplished by pre-connecting every possible input and output of every module and mediating the conduction of the connections with programmable switches. These switches can be programmed by an external source, e.g. a PC, which will determine the "cables" that conduct, thus achieving the desired effect. This is the part of the project where modern circuit design ideas will be used. The generation of the data file for setting the switches will be done through the aid of a PC, complete with graphical interface that will mimic the various panels of the ENIAC. The operator will be able to make connections from one module to another, as was done 50 years ago, and the settings will be sent to "ENIAC-on-a-chip" which will then generate outputs that will be fed back to the PC to be displayed."   less

Abstract: Long before the electronic computing era, women were already a part of the information processing industry. For the first fifty years of information processing, women had an important role to play-from the women data en  ... more

Abstract: Long before the electronic computing era, women were already a part of the information processing industry. For the first fifty years of information processing, women had an important role to play-from the women data entry operators of the early 1900s to the six women programmers of ENIAC in the 1940s and the scientific computation women computists of the 1950s. Sometimes an extraordinary partnership occurred, with women an integral part of a team. Sometimes a stroke of fate placed a woman at the right place at the right time to be a part of computing history. The paper provides a personal overview of the role of women in the history of information processing and computing, then gives a perspective on the workplace issues of supply and demand that continue to affect that role. Concern is expressed about the future role of women in computing and the sciences, with suggestions for consideration of new ways to approach the shortfall.   less

The first programmers, then called "computers," were over 80 women at the University of Pennsylvania during World War II calculating ballistics trajectories. "When the Army agreed to fund an experimental project, the first all-  ... more

The first programmers, then called "computers," were over 80 women at the University of Pennsylvania during World War II calculating ballistics trajectories. "When the Army agreed to fund an experimental project, the first all-electronic digital computer, six "Computers" were selected in 1945 to be its first programmers. They were Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Jean Jennings Bartik, Frances Snyder Holberton, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Frances Bilas Spence and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum. The ENIAC was the first all-electronic digital computer, a machine of approximately 18,000 vacuum tubes and forty black 8-foot panels. Because the ENIAC project was classified, the programmers were denied access to the machine they were supposed to tame into usefulness until they received their security clearances. As the first programmers, they had no programming manuals or courses, only the logical diagrams to help them figure out how to make the ENIAC work. They had none of the programming tools of today. Instead, the programmers had to physically program the ballistics program by using the 3000 switches and dozens of cables and digit trays to physically route the data and program pulses through the machine. Therefore, the description for the first programming job might have read: "Requires physical effort, mental creativity, innovative spirit, and a high degree of patience." On February 15, 1946, the ENIAC Computer was unveiled to the public and press. It ran the ballistics trajectory programmed by the six programmers and captured the world's imagination. In 1947, the ENIAC was turned into a "stored program" computer, the world's first. Thus, these six programmers were the only generation of programmers to program it at the machine level. All six women contributed to the programming the ENIAC. Many of these pioneer programmers went on to develop innovative tools for future software engineers and to teach others early programming techniques."   less

" The year 1996 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the ENIAC computer, the first large-scale general-purpose electronic computer. Built at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering, ENIAC is an acronym  ... more

" The year 1996 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the ENIAC computer, the first large-scale general-purpose electronic computer. Built at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering, ENIAC is an acronym for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer," but its birth lay in World War II as a classified military project known only as Project PX. The ENIAC is important historically, because it laid the foundations for the modern electronic computing industry. More than any other machine, the ENIAC demonstrated that high-speed digital computing was possible using the then-available vacuum tube technology. "   less

IEEE's Virtual Museum special exibit on microelectronics. Excerpt: "Electronics have become so prevalent in our world—in computers, cell phones, airplane control systems, space ships, DVD players, coffeemakers, etc., that it  ... more

IEEE's Virtual Museum special exibit on microelectronics. Excerpt: "Electronics have become so prevalent in our world—in computers, cell phones, airplane control systems, space ships, DVD players, coffeemakers, etc., that it’s difficult to imagine what life would be like without them. You couldn’t read this page without them, couldn’t walk through an automatic door at the supermarket, or have the bar code of your soda scanned, or have the cash register figure out your change, or pay with your debit card, or…well, you get the idea—our culture is powered by electronics. Eniac with people A portion of ENIAC. A modern pocket-size calculator has more computing power. It wasn’t always like this of course. At one time electronics were relegated to just a few areas, such as radio and television. A big reason for this was because electronics themselves were big. If you’ve ever seen pictures of early TV sets and radios from the 1940s and 1950s they were large, cabinet-size devices that looked more like furniture than like cutting-edge electronics. And computers? The predecessors of the latest 12 inch, five pound laptops were machines like ENIAC, the world’s first general purpose electronic computer, which was developed in the 1940s. ENIAC was so large it filled entire rooms! You would think with all that bulk it was powerful too. Wrong. Although ENIAC was a marvel for its time, its computing power is dwarfed by a simple modern pocket calculator. So, how did electronics infiltrate just about every appliance we use? They got smaller, and smaller, and smaller. Engineers have spent a good part of the last 50 years shrinking electronic components. This is the field of “microelectronics,” the guts of modern electronics." Image caption: The first commercially produced silicon transistor, developed by Texas Instruments in the early 1950s. Courtesy: Texas Instruments.   less