Innovation in Computing: The UNIVAC and ENIAC Revolution

UNIVAC which is also known as the Universal Automatic computer was invented by John P. Eckert and John Mauchly. After years of research and all the formalities, the first version of the UNIVAC was delivered on March 31, 1951. The specifications of the UNIVAC are as follows, an add time of hundred twenty microseconds, multiply time of eighteen hundred microseconds. Its magnetic tape had a speed of 12,800 characters per second; its read-in speed was 100 inches per second. I’m not really sure how much space it had on its hard drive, even though that is a major part of the specifications of the Univac computer.

The Univac had 5,200 vacuum tubes. It weighed around 13 tons. It used about 125 kilowatts of electricity to work. The total space the UNIVAC took up was about 35. 5 m squared or more. The Univac seems have had about 1000 words of memory? Interesting Fact: in a presidential election, the Univac was able to predict who would win the race, Eisenhower in this case.

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UNIVAC was the first computer made in the United States of America. The Univac was also a very expensive piece of equipment, as like now people go ballistic for new stuff. And I bet computers back in the day required a great deal of intellect to actually operate one.

Okay so the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical integrator And Computer) was the first general-use electronic computer. It was able to solve a whole mess of computing problems. Computing problems such as military related stuff, like stuff for the United States Army Ballistic Research Laboratory.

The American Military funded the research, since it would really help them; it was also to their gain as well. As with the UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) the ENIAC was invented by the same two, Joseph Mauchly and John P. Eckert. John Mauchly was the chief consultant and John P. Eckert was the chief engineer of the project.

With their team, Eckert and Mauchly took around a year or so to design the ENIAC. But it took about a year and a half to actually make the vision a reality; it also cost quite a pretty penny, about 500,000 pennies that came from taxes. The Inside of the ENIAC had around 17. 4 thousand vacuum tubes; it had 70k resistors too. It even had 10,000 capacitors (A device used to store an electric charge), 1,600 relays (which are electrically operated switches. ) Let’s just say the ENIAC had a whole lot of bits and pieces that made it run. It was huge! It was about 1800 square feet in size.