When did the first electron tube computer appear?

The world's first general-purpose computer "ENIAC" was born in the University of Pennsylvania on February 14th, 1946. Inventors are American Moakley and J.PresperEckert. ?

the U.S. department of defense uses it for ballistic calculation. It is a behemoth, which uses 18, tubes, covers an area of 17 square meters, weighs 3 tons, consumes about 15 kilowatts of power, and can perform 5, operations per second, which is insignificant now, but it was unprecedented at that time. ?

ENIAC uses electron tubes as components, so it is also called electron tube computer, which is the first generation of computers. The electron tube computer can't work for too long because of its large volume, high power consumption and easy heating.

Source development

The world's first electronic computer was a colossus: it weighed more than 3 tons, occupied an area of about 17 square meters, and contained 18, electron tubes in its belly. It was born in the University of Pennsylvania on February 14th, 1946.

In World War II, both opposing sides used planes and artillery to bombard each other's military targets. If you want to hit accurately, you must accurately calculate and draw a "shooting chart". Only by looking up the table to determine the angle of the muzzle can the fired shells hit the flying target.

However, every number has to be worked out through four operations for thousands of times, and it takes more than a dozen people several months to complete a "chart" by hand-operated mechanical computers.

in view of this situation, people began to study using electron tubes as "electronic switches" to improve the operation speed of computers. Many scientists took part in experiments and research, and finally made the world's first electronic computer, named "Eniac".

in the mid-194s, the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania, led by Molic and Eckert, developed an Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC for short) for the Aberdeen Ballistic Research Laboratory of the Ordnance Department of the United States Army.

This computer called "Eniac" covers an area of 15 square meters and weighs 3 tons. It uses 18, tubes, 6, switches, 7, resistors, 1, capacitors, 5, wires, consumes 14 kilowatts of power and can perform 5, addition/second operations. This behemoth was unveiled in the United States on February 15th, 1946.

the advent of this computer marks the beginning of the computer age.

The predecessor of the computer is a thing called "adder", which was invented by a French mathematician "blaise pascal" and then gradually improved ... a "difference extension" that can do four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Extended information:

ENIAC is a modular computer, which consists of independent panels that perform different functions. Twenty modules are accumulators, which can not only add and subtract, but also store ten decimal numbers.

when numbers are called, they are passed between these units through some common buses. In order to achieve high speed, the panel needs to complete sending and receiving numbers, calculating, storing results and triggering the next operation independently. This series of operations do not need any moving parts. The key to its versatility lies in its ability to "branch"-it can trigger different operations according to the symbol of the calculation result.

apart from speed, the most striking thing about ENIAC is its size and complexity. ENIAC contains 17,468 electron tubes, 7,2 crystal diodes, 1,5 relays, 1, capacitors, and about 5 million manual welding heads.

It weighs 27 tons (3 US tons), is about 2.4m× 6m× 3.48m (8× 3× 1ft), covers an area of 167 square meters (1,8 square feet), weighs 3 British tons, and consumes 15 kilowatts of electricity (leading to rumors that the lights in Philadelphia are dimmed every time this computer is started).

IBM's card reader is used for input and the punch is used for output. Using an IBM accounting machine (such as IBM 45), these cards can be used to generate output offline.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-the first generation of electronic computers.