Computer scientists celebrate their day on February 14th. It was on this February day in 1946 that the world's first truly programmable electronic computer ENIAC. ENIAC weighed 30 tons and consisted of 18,000 vacuum tubes. ENIAC was a tortoise compared to modern PCs - its speed was only 5,000 operations per second. The computer worked for nine years until 1955.

Before him, there were more than early models computers, but they were all experimental options that did not receive practical use. If you look at the root, then the first computer was Babbage's English analytical engine ...

In 1912, according to the project of the Russian mathematician A.N. Krylov, the first machine was created designed to work with differential equations.

Behind her, in 1927 in America, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the first analog computer of its kind was invented. In 1938, in Germany, a graduate of the Berlin Polytechnic Institute, engineer Konrad Zuse created his own car, later called the Z1. The name of the co-inventor was Helmut Schreyer. The Z1 was a programmable fully mechanical digital machine. Her model was trial. It has not received practical use. In the Berlin Technical Museum you can see its restored version. On its basis, Konrad Zuse immediately began to create its modification Z2.

The original name of his computers was V1 and V2. In German, it sounded like "V 1" and "V 2". The confusion that soon arose with the names of German missiles led to the renaming of Konrad Zuse's computers.

They became known as Z1 and Z2. In 1941, Konrad Zuse creates the next Z3 computer. It already possessed almost all the properties that a modern computer has.

In 1942, at the American University of Iowa, John Atanasoff, together with his graduate student Clifford Berry, developed the revolutionary electronic digital computer (Atanasoff-Berry Computer -ABC). They begin to assemble it, but Atanasov was called up to the active army and the installation of the ABC was never completed. John Mauchly saw the unfinished ABC and, under the impression, set about creating his Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer - ENIAC for short. At the beginning of 1943, another Mark I computer was successfully tested in America. It was designed to perform complex ballistic calculations for the US Navy. Strictly speaking, the Mark I was not yet a computer. At the end of 1943, the British launched their Colossus computer. He wasn't a computer either. The machine was of a narrow purpose and successfully coped with deciphering the secret codes of the Third Reich. In 1944, Konrad Zuse, already known to us, created the next, even more fast version your computer - Z4.

But the recognized year of the creation of the first universal computer was 1946, when ENIAC was launched in America. ENIAC was the first real practical tasks COMPUTER. The ENIAC computer used the binary system that all modern computers adopted from it.

It was developed by order of the army to solve one of the urgent tasks of wartime. In artillery and aviation, ballistic tables were used for bombing. Whole departments of calculators worked to compile them. They used slide rules and therefore their number of calculations performed by them and their speed did not satisfy the huge needs of the army in wartime. In early 1943, the army turned to cybernetics with a request to develop a conceptually new programmable computing device. This is how the ENIAC computer was created.

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To simplify the process of programming, Mouchly and Eckert began to design a new machine that could store a program in its memory. In 1945, the famous mathematician John von Neumann was involved in the work, who prepared a report on this machine. In this report, von Neumann clearly and simply formulated general principles functioning of universal computing devices, i.e. computers. This is the first working machine built on vacuum tubes, it was officially put into operation on February 15, 1946. They tried to use this machine to solve some problems prepared by von Neumann and related to the atomic bomb project. Then she was transferred to the Aberdeen Proving Ground, where she worked until 1955.

ENIAC became the first representative of the 1st generation of computers. Any classification is conditional, but most experts agreed that generations should be distinguished based on the element base on which machines are built. Thus, the first generation is represented by tube machines.

The device and operation of the computer according to the "von Neumann principle"

It should be noted the enormous role of the American mathematician von Neumann in the development of first-generation technology. It was necessary to comprehend the strengths and weaknesses of ENIAC and make recommendations for subsequent developments. In the report of von Neumann and his colleagues G. Goldstein and A. Berks (June 1946), the requirements for the structure of computers were clearly formulated. We note the most important of them:

· machines on electronic elements should work not in decimal, but in binary number system;

The program, as well as the initial data, must be located in the memory of the machine;

The program, like numbers, must be written in binary code;

Difficulties in the physical implementation of a storage device, the speed of which corresponds to the speed of the logic circuits, require a hierarchical organization of memory (that is, the allocation of operational, intermediate and long-term memory);

The arithmetic unit (processor) is designed on the basis of circuits that perform the addition operation; the creation of special devices for performing other arithmetic and other operations is impractical;

The machine uses the parallel principle of organization of the computational process (operations on numbers are performed simultaneously for all digits).

The following figure shows what the connections between computer devices should be according to the von Neumann principles (single lines show control connections, dotted lines show informational ones).

Almost all of von Neumann's recommendations were subsequently used in the machines of the first three generations, their totality was called "von Neumann architecture". The first computer to embody von Neumann's principles was built in 1949 by the English researcher Maurice Wilkes. Since then, computers have become much more powerful, but the vast majority of them are made in accordance with the principles that John von Neumann outlined in his 1945 report.

New cars of the first generation succeeded each other quite quickly. In 1951, the first Soviet electronic computer MESM was put into operation, with an area of ​​about 50 square meters. MESM had 2 types of memory: random access memory, in the form of 4 panels 3 meters high and 1 meter wide; and long-term memory in the form of a magnetic drum with a capacity of 5000 numbers. In total, the MESM had 6,000 vacuum tubes, and it was possible to work with them only after 1.5-2 hours after turning on the machine. Data input was carried out using a magnetic tape, and the output was carried out by a digital printer coupled with memory. MESM could perform 50 mathematical operations per second, remember random access memory 31 numbers and 63 commands (there were 12 different commands in total), and consumed power equal to 25 kilowatts.

The capabilities of the first generation machines were quite modest. So, their speed, according to current concepts, was small: from 100 (Ural-1) to 20,000 operations per second (M-20 in 1959). These figures were determined primarily by the inertia of vacuum tubes and the imperfection of memory devices. The amount of RAM was extremely small - an average of 2,048 numbers (words), this was not enough even to accommodate complex programs, not to mention data. Intermediate memory was organized on bulky and low-speed magnetic drums of relatively small capacity (5,120 words for BESM-1). Printing devices, as well as data entry blocks, also worked slowly. If we dwell in more detail on input-output devices, then we can say that from the beginning of the appearance of the first computers, a contradiction was revealed between high speed central devices and low speed of external devices. In addition, it turned out

imperfection and inconvenience of these devices. The first storage medium in computers, as you know, was a punched card. Then there were perforated paper tapes or just punched tapes. They came from telegraph technology after the beginning of the 19th century. Chicago father and son Charles and Howard Kram invented the teletype.

The first generation of computers, these hard and low-speed computers, were the pioneers of computer technology. They quickly disappeared from the scene, as they did not find wide commercial use due to unreliability, high cost, and programming difficulties.

Computers of the 1st generation. Eniac (ENIAC)

Starting in 1943, a group of specialists led by Howard Aiken, J. Mouchli and P. Eckert in the USA began to design a computer based on vacuum tubes, and not on electromagnetic relays. This machine was called ENIAC (Electronic Numeral Integrator And Computer) and it worked a thousand times faster than the Mark-1. ENIAC contained 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighed 30 tons, and consumed 150 kilowatts of power. ENIAC also had a significant drawback - it was controlled using a patch panel, it had no memory, and in order to set a program, it took several hours or even days to connect the wires in the right way. The worst of all the shortcomings was the terrifying unreliability of the computer, since about a dozen vacuum tubes managed to fail in a day of work.

To simplify the process of programming, Mouchly and Eckert began to design a new machine that could store a program in its memory. In 1945, the famous mathematician John von Neumann was involved in the work, who prepared a report on this machine. In this report, von Neumann clearly and simply formulated the general principles of the functioning of universal computing devices, i.e. computers. This is the first working machine built on vacuum tubes, it was officially put into operation on February 15, 1946. They tried to use this machine to solve some problems prepared by von Neumann and related to the atomic bomb project. Then she was transferred to the Aberdeen Proving Ground, where she worked until 1955.

ENIAC became the first representative of the 1st generation of computers. Any classification is conditional, but most experts agreed that generations should be distinguished based on the element base on which machines are built. Thus, the first generation is represented by tube machines.

Almost all of von Neumann's recommendations were subsequently used in the machines of the first three generations, their totality was called "von Neumann architecture". The first computer to embody von Neumann's principles was built in 1949 by the English researcher Maurice Wilkes. Since then, computers have become much more powerful, but the vast majority of them are made in accordance with the principles that John von Neumann outlined in his 1945 report.

New cars of the first generation succeeded each other quite quickly. In 1951, the first Soviet electronic computer MESM was put into operation, with an area of ​​about 50 square meters. MESM had 2 types of memory: random access memory, in the form of 4 panels 3 meters high and 1 meter wide; and long-term memory in the form of a magnetic drum with a capacity of 5000 numbers.

In total, the MESM had 6,000 vacuum tubes, and it was possible to work with them only after 1.5-2 hours after turning on the machine. The input of data was carried out using a magnetic tape, and the output was carried out by a digital printing device coupled with a memory. MESM could perform 50 mathematical operations per second, memorize 31 numbers and 63 commands in RAM (there were 12 different commands in total), and consumed power equal to 25 kilowatts.

In 1952, the American EDWAC machine was born. It is also worth noting the English computer EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) built earlier, in 1949, the first machine with a stored program. In 1952, Soviet designers commissioned the BESM, the fastest machine in Europe, and the following year, Strela, the first high-class serial machine in Europe, began operating in the USSR.

Among the creators of domestic machines, first of all, the names of S.A. Lebedeva, B.Ya. Bazilevsky, I.S. Brook, B.I. Rameeva, V.A. Melnikova, M.A. Kartseva, A.N. Myamlin. In the 50s, other computers appeared: Ural, M-2, M-3, BESM-2, Minsk-1, which embodied more and more progressive engineering solutions.

The first generation of computers, these hard and slow computers, were the pioneers computer technology. They quickly disappeared from the scene, as they did not find wide commercial use due to unreliability, high cost, and programming difficulties.

Today, computer technology has become so deeply embedded in people's lives that it is perceived as something mandatory and has existed for a long time in human society. However, the very first computer in the world actually appeared quite recently. Especially if we compare this time period with the history of human civilization as a whole, which goes back many millennia.

ENIAC

ENIAC is considered the first computer. This is an abbreviation of the full name of the device - electronic digital calculator and integrator. On the English language- Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer. This electronic machine was commissioned in the USA in 1946. A lot of money was invested in the manufacture of ENIAC on the scale of that time. The total investment amounted to half a million dollars.

The construction of the machine took place in 1943-1945, during the raging World War II at that time. Like most high-tech, modern inventions, the computer was created for military purposes, namely, artillery and aviation. His main task was to calculate ballistic tables. Further smart technology began to be used in the project to create a hydrogen bomb, as well as for peaceful purposes - to analyze radiation from space.

Leviathan

If we compare ENIAC with modern personal computers, then it can be called a real leviathan. Its dimensions were gigantic, comparable to the size of the largest animal on earth - the whale. In particular:

• area 85 meters2;
• weight 28 tons;
• length 30 meters;
• power consumption up to 200 kW;
• the number of electronic lamps - 19 thousand pieces.

If you compare its energy consumption with something ordinary, then it was equal to the needs of a huge supermarket in the winter season. The computer consisted of 42 metal cabinets, the contents of which were cooled by multiple fans. Five mobile racks on wheels were provided for equipment diagnostics. And all this was entangled with many cables. The programming and configuration of the very first computer in the world was carried out in a similar way to the old corded telephone switches. No keyboards or monitors. of course he didn't.

How did it work

ENIAC was assembled in Pennsylvania on the campus of the University of Philadelphia. Its creators were John Macley (developed the computer architecture) and J. Presper Eckert (realized the theoretical developments of John Macley).

The computer could handle ten digit numbers. Its design included electromechanical elements: a punch card reader and a puncher. They were needed for the output and input of information. Of course, the device often failed due to a large number of lamps, overheating or high humidity. However, ENIAC worked for more than a decade and became a solid basis for the further development of computer technology.

There are opinions that thanks to this smart machine, the dreams of Gottfried Leibniz and the ideas of the mathematician J. Von Neumann about a binary device that solves all questions with the answers "yes" or "no" came true. Of course, there were earlier attempts in this area before it, but it is the ENIAC designed in the USA with its functionality that is considered the world's first computer.

The Eniac machine (ENIAC, an abbreviation for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer - an electronic digital integrator and computer), like Howard Aiken's Mark-1, was also intended to solve ballistics problems. But in the end, she turned out to be able to solve problems from the most various areas.
ENIAC
From the very beginning of the war, employees of the US Department of Defense Ballistic Research Laboratory, located in the Aberdeen Proving Ground area, pcs. Maryland, worked on the creation of ballistic tables, much needed by gunners on the battlefield. The value of these tables is difficult to overestimate. With their help, gunners could make corrections when aiming guns, taking into account the distance to the target, its height above sea level, as well as meteorological conditions - wind and air temperature. However, the construction of tables required very long and tedious calculations - to calculate only one trajectory, it was necessary to perform at least 750 multiplication operations, and each table included at least 2000 trajectories. True, the differential analyzer made it possible to somewhat speed up the calculations, but this device gave only approximate results, for the refinement of which dozens of people who worked with ordinary desktop calculators were then involved.
The war escalated, military developments needed to be accelerated, the laboratory could not cope with the work and was eventually forced to call for help. An auxiliary computing center has been set up at the nearby Technische Hochschule of the University of Pennsylvania. The school had a differential analyzer, but two people at the computer center, John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, set out to come up with something better.


John W. Mauchly (left) and J. Presper Eckert (right)
Mauchly, a physicist who was fond of meteorology, had long dreamed of creating a device that would allow the use of statistical methods for weather forecasting. Before the war, he made some simple digital counting devices on electronic tubes. Perhaps his interest in electronic computers arose under the influence of the ideas of John Atanasoff, who worked in pc. Iowa. In June 1941, Mauchly stayed with Atanasoff for five days, watching him and his assistant Clifford Berry work on a prototype computer containing about 300 vacuum tubes.
Significant or not, Atanasoff's influence turned out to be - later this issue became the subject of a lawsuit - but Pres Eckert inspired Mauchly to this work. Younger than Mauchly by 12 years, Eckert was truly a virtuoso in technology. At the age of eight, he built a miniature receiver. As Mauchly later recalled, Eckert convinced him that "computer dreams can be realized in practice."
In August 1942, Mauchly wrote something like a five-page proposal summarizing his joint proposal with Eckert for a high-speed vacuum tube computer. The application was lost in the authorities. However, a few months later, Lieutenant Herman Goldstein, a military representative attached to the school, accidentally heard about this idea. At that time, the army was in dire need of new ballistic tables. Artillerymen reported from North Africa that, due to the very soft ground, the guns recoil far on recoil and the shells do not reach the target.

Goldstein, who had taught mathematics at the University of Michigan before the war, immediately appreciated the importance of the proposed computer project and began to petition on behalf of the military command to have the project accepted for development. Finally, on April 9, 1943, Eckert's 24th birthday, the army awarded the school a $400,000 contract to build the Eniac computer.
The group of specialists working on this project eventually grew to 50 people. Mauchly was the chief consultant of the project, Eckert was the chief designer. Different in character and habits, these two people perfectly complemented each other. The quick and sociable Mauchly generated ideas, while the restrained, cool and cautious Eckert subjected these ideas to rigorous analysis, wanting to make sure they worked. “He had an amazing ability to translate everything into a practical level, using simple technical means, - this is how one of the members of the group described Eckert, - Presper was not the kind of person who could get lost in a thousand equations.
The design of the machine looked fantastically complex - it was supposed to contain 17468 lamps. Such an abundance of lamps was partly due to the fact that Eniac had to work with decimal numbers. Mauchly preferred decimal system reckoning, because he wanted "the machine to be understandable to man." However, such a large number of lamps, which, when overheated, failed, led to frequent breakdowns. With 17 thousand lamps simultaneously operating at a frequency of 100 thousand pulses per second, 1.7 billion situations arose every second in which at least one of the lamps could not work. Eckert solved this problem by adopting a technique that was widely used in the operation of large electric organs in concert halls: the lamps were supplied with slightly lower voltage, and the number of accidents was reduced to one or two per week.

Eckert also developed a program for strict control of the health of the equipment. Each of the more than 100,000 electronic components The 30-ton machine was subjected to a thorough check, then all of them were carefully placed in their places and sealed, and sometimes re-soldered more than once. This work required a lot of effort from all members of the group, including Mauchly, her "think tank".


At the end of 1945, when the ENIAC was finally assembled and ready for its first official test, the war it had been called upon to serve ended. However, the very task chosen to test the machine - calculations that were supposed to answer the question of the fundamental possibility of creating a hydrogen bomb - indicated that the role of the computer in the post-war years and the years of the Cold War did not decrease, but rather increased.
Eniac successfully passed the test, having processed about a million IBM punched cards. Two months later, the car was shown to the press. In size (about 6 m in height and 26 m in length), this computer was more than twice the size of Howard Aiken's Mark-1.
Aiken Howard Hathaway
However, doubling the size was accompanied by a thousandfold increase in performance. In the words of one admiring reporter, Eniak worked "faster than thought."


No sooner had Eniac entered service than Mauchly and Eckert were already working on a new computer for the military. The main drawback of the Eniac computer was the difficulty that arose when changing the instructions entered into it, i.e., the program. volume internal memory the machine was barely enough to store the numerical data used in the calculations. This meant that the programs had to be literally “soldered” into complex electronic circuits cars. If you wanted to go from calculating ballistic tables to calculating wind tunnel parameters, you had to run around the room, connecting and disconnecting hundreds of contacts, like on a manual telephone exchange. Depending on the complexity of the program, such work took from several hours to two days. This was a strong enough argument to abandon attempts to use Eniac as a general purpose computer.