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Abacus, 3, 98
Aberdeen, Md., 95, 121, 127-128, 138.
See also Ballistic Research Lab
Accumulators, 53, 110-112; on ENIAC,
113-114
ACE (Automatic Computing Engine),
135, 137
Ackermann, W., 24
Ada Augusta, Countess of Lovelace,
56-57, 65, 145-146
Adding machines, 3, 5, 111
Addition, decimal, 52-53. See also
Arithmetic, decimal
Aerodynamics Research Institute (DVL),
28-29
Aiken, Howard H., xi, 6, 43, 68; and Babbage, 56-57, 62, 64-65; construction
of ASCC, 49; education, 44; first thoughts on computing, 45; postwar activities,
68-70
ALGOL (programming language), 23
Analog computing, 73, 107-108
Analytical Engine. See Babbage,
Charles
APL (programming language), 70
Apollonius, 77
Architecture, computer, 14-15, 96,
139-141
Arithmetic, 4; binary, 17, 21, 47, 87, 109-110; complex, 34, 76-81, 89; decimal,
16, 47, 53, 117, 133-134; floating vs. fixed point, 31, 35, 47; serial vs. parallel,
118-119, 138-139
ASCC (Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator), xi, 6, 43, 46, 48, 52; construction,
49; cost, 51; description of, 52-58; programming, 56-61; and punched card machines,
51; specifications, 58; use, 65-68
Atanasoff, John V., 105-106, 109-110, 122
AT&T, 74, 92, 100
Atomic bomb, 66, 126-127, 138
Babbage, Charles, 17, 46-48, 56, 62, 64; and Analytical Engine, 14-15, 124-125,
145; and Difference Engine, 62-63, 67
Ballistic Research Lab, 108. See also Aberdeen, Md.
Bardeen, John, 92
BASIC (programming language), 147
Bell, Alexander Graham, 73-74
Bell Laboratories, xi, 6, 73-75, 78, 85, 93, 123
Bell Labs Model I. See Complex Number Computer
Bell Labs Models II-VI, 89, 94-96; specifications of II-V, 95
Bell Telephone Company. See AT&T
Berkeley, Edmund, 73
Berlin, 14, 16, 18-19, 37-38; Technical College of Berlin-Charlottenberg, 1011,
15; University of Berlin, 18
Bessel functions, 66-67
Binary arithmetic. See Arithmetic, binary
Binary-coded decimal (BCD), 81-84, 87,
101. See also Arithmetic, binary
Bi-quinary notation, 97-98
Bloch, Richard, 56
Brainerd, John G., 108, 110
Brattain, Walter, 99
Brooks, Fred, 70
Brown, T. H., 48
Bryce, James, 49
Bush, Vannevar, 48, 93, 107
Buttmann, W., 18
Calculators: and computers, 18, 47, 51, 55, 78, 132-133, 150; mechanical, 3,
5, 16, 52-53, 75, 108; pocket programmable, 132, 140 Cambridge, England, 135
Cambridge, Mass. See Harvard University; MIT Clippinger, R. H., 121 Colossus,
104-105, 112113, 116, 131-132, 135, 137 Compiler programs, 144 Complements,
53, 55, 83-84, 123 Complex Number Computer (Bell Labs Model 1), 76, 8185, 89-91,
118, 120; public demonstration, 92-93; specifications, 86 Computer: analog,
107-108; definition, xi-xii, 4, 5, 7, 92, 128, 132, 135, 145; digital, 53, 108-109;
electromechanical, 52; electronic, 105, 109, 112, 145-146; human, xi, 38, 136,
150; prehistory, xi, 3. See also Architecture, computer Connie, L. J.,
68 Conant, James B., 51 Conditional branch capability, 55, 65, 120, 134, 137,
144 Control, devices for, 4, 18, 46-47, 81, 96. See also Plugboards Copernicus,
N., 151 Counters, 54, 111
Dartmouth College, 92-93 de Beauclair, W., 34, 37 de Forest, Lee, 74 Descartes,
Rene, 147
Determinants, 35-36, 37 Differences, method of finite, 62-64
Differential Analyzer, 48, 107-108, 127 Differential equations,
44, 66, 106-108, 119, 128; numerical solution of, 44, 107,126-128
Digital vs. analog computation, 53, 73, 108
Dreyer, H. J., 37Luftfahrtforschung). See Aerodynamics Research Institute
Eccles-Jordan flip-flop. See Flip-flop
Eckert, J. Presper, 106, 108, 109, 111, 138
Eckert, Wallace, 48, 51ENIAC (Electronic Numeric Integrator and Computer), xii, 7, 28, 104-106, 108, 131-133, 138, 150-151; construction, 110; and EDVAC, 138; patent, 109; programming, 115, 116, 117-120, 137; proposal for, 108, 112 specifications, 122-123; use, 126-128
Errors, computer: ASCC, 61-62, 65, 67 Bell Labs Computers, 96-98; ENIAC, 125
Fast, August, 37
Firing tables, 66, 106-107, 128. See alsoGate, electronic, 116-117
Gauss, Karl F., 77
General Electric Co., 77, 78
German Army Command (OKH), 28
Gillon, Paul, 108
Goldstine, Adele, 127
Goldstine, Herman H., 127, 132
Good, I. J., 131
Gottingen, 17, 39, 77, 135
Grohmann, A., 18, 21
Hamilton, Frank, 49
Hamming, Richard, 98
Handbook of Mathematical Functions (U.S. National Bureau of Standards),
68
Hartree, D. R., 127-128, 131
Harvard Mark I. See ASCC
Harvard University, 43, 48-49, 132;
Computation Laboratory, 65, 67-69
Henschel Aircraft Company, 15, 18; HS
293 Flying Bomb, 38
Hilbert, David, 24, 135
Hinterstein, 38
Hollerith, Herman, 4, 47
Hydrogen bomb, 126-127
IBM Corporation, 43, 48-49, 52, 68, 100, 111, 123; Card Programmed Calculator
(CPC), 69; Endicott, N.Y., plant, 49, 57; Poughkeepsie, N.Y., plant, 51; Selective
Sequence Electronic Computer (SSEC), 69, 150; Type 601 and 603 Multipliers,
48-49, 51, 57, 122 ILLIAC IV, 98 Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 139;
IAS Computer, 139-140 Institute for Applied Mathematics, Darmstadt, 37 Iowa
State College, 105, 109-110 Iverson, Kenneth, 70
Jacquard, J. M., 46-47
Kepler, Johannes, 77
Kettering, Charles, 78
Kussner, H. G., 37
Lake, Clair, 49
Lehmer, D. H., 127
Leibniz, G. W., 17, 24
Leitz Optical Works, 39
Logic. See Symbolic logic; Propositional Calculus
M-9 Gun Director, 94
Manual of Operation for the ASCC, 52,
60, 64
Mark I. See ASCC
Mark II, III, IV (Harvard), 68
Mauchly, John, 105-110 passim; education, 108, 111; and the EDVAC, 138,
142; and the ENIAC, 110-112; proposal for a computer, 108
Memory, computer, 139-140, 145, 151; EDVAC, 138; mechanical, 18, 19; readonly
(ROM), 146, 152; Z3, 30
Metropolis, N., 126
MIT, 93
Monroe Calculating Company, 48
Moore School of Electrical Engineering (University of Pennsylvania), 105-107;
conferences held at, 132
Multiplication, machine, 16, 21, 51, 87,
121-122, 133-134
NACA (National Advisory Committee on
Aeronautics), Langley, Va., 95
National Cash Register (NCR), 105
National Defense Research Committee
(NDRC), 94
Northrop Aircraft Company, 69
Operating Systems, 96
Palmer, R. L., 51
Pannke, Kurt, 21
Parallel vs. serial computing. See
Programming
Parity checking, 98
Pascal, Blaise, 3
Philadelphia, Penn., 104-106, 127
Plan Calculus (plankalkul) 39,
142-144
Plugboards, 47, 110, 116-119. See also
Programming
Postfix notation, 36
Prefix notation, 89
Programming, 14, 81, 144-146; by perforated tape or film, 26, 56, 116; by plugboard,
47, 116-117; sequential vs. parallel, 45-46, 60, 91, 117-119, 138139. See
also Control, devices for Programming languages, 23, 143-144, 147, 150.
See also Plan Calculus
Propositional Calculus, 23-25
Punched card equipment, 4, 45-47, 51, 54, 109, 122; IBM 601 and 603, 49-50
RCA, 105
Registers, 54
Reich, H. J., 111
Relays: crossbar, 85, 87; electromechanical, xii, 22, 26, 29-32, 5859, 84-87,
97, 123; electronic, 26; mechanical 21; notation, 22; and vacuum tubes, 6
Reliability. See Errors, computer
Richardson, Lewis F., 108
Russell, Bertrand, 24
Rutishauser, Heinz, 144
Sl, S2 Computers, 38
Schreyer, Helmut, 18, 26, 28-29, 38; proposed electronic computer, 28-29
SEAC (Standards Eastern Automatic
Computer), 93
Sequential vs. parallel programming. See
Programming, sequential vs. parallel
Shannon, Claude, 84, 100
Shapley, Harlow, 48
Shockley, William, 99
Simultaneous linear equations, solution of, 109
Slide rule, 11
SSEC (Selective Sequence Electronic
Computer), 69, 150
Static indeterminate equations, 11, 15
Steinmetz, Charles P., 77
Stibitz, George R., xi, 6, 73-75, 98, 100, 125; and Complex Number Computer,
81-84, 86-87; education, 78-79; first work on computing, 78-79; later activities,
94-95, 125
Stored program principle, 7-8, 57, 69, 121, 132-133, 137, 144-146, 150
Strowger, Almon, 75, 85
Subtraction, 53, 55
Symbolic logic, 23, 24, 84, 87. See also Propositional Calculus
Tables, mathematical, 45, 55, 58, 66, 102; function, 122; NBS, Handbook of
Mathematical Functions, 68. See also Firing tables; Bessel functions
Teichmann, Alfred, 29, 37
Telefunken Corporation, 28
Telephones, 73, 99; and computers, 31, 97; dial, 75; switchboards, 81
TRADIC (Bell Labs Transistorized Computer), 99
Transistor, 99-100
Trigger circuit, 111. See also Flip-flop
Turing, Alan M., 8, 131, 134-136, 146
Turing, Sarah, 131
Turing "machine," 136
UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), 147 University of Pennsylvania. See
Moore School of Electrical Engineering
Ursinus College, 105, 111
U.S. Bureau of the Census, 147
U.S. Navy, 49, 51
VI, V2, etc., computers. See ZI, Z2, etc., computers
Vacuum tubes, 2628, 74, 111-113, 125-126
Vail, Theodore N., 74, 75
Viete, F., 147
von Neumann, John, 6, 127, 137139; computer architecture, 139-140
Walther, Alwin, 34, 37
Watson, Thomas, 48-49, 51. See also IBM Corporation
Watt, James, 4, 105
Weather forecasting, 108, 127
Weaver, Warren, 94
Western Union, 74
Whitehead, Alfred North, 24
Wiener, Norbert, 17, 93
Williams, Samuel, 84, 86-87, 92, 123
World War 11, 28-29, 43, 93, 106, 126, 149
Z1 Computer, 25, 29
Z2 Computer, 29
Z3 Computer: cost, 30; description, 29-35; destroyed, 39; programming, 35-38;
specifications, 34-35
Z4 Computer, 38-39, 55-56, 132
Z5-Z11 Computers, 39
Zurich, 39
Zuse, Konrad, xi, 6, 79-80, 109, 151; and army, 29; and binary system, 17-18,
47, 84, 110, 125, 132; builds prototype computers, 18-21, 24, 29; and concept
of "reckoning," 14; education, 10-11, 15; first thoughts on computing, 11-14;
and Plan Calculus, 141-143; and Plan Preparation Machine, 144; and Propositional
Calculus, 22-23, 84; postwar activities, 39-40, 140-141, 151; and the Z4, 38-39
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