ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer), the first programmable electronic computer, was unveiled on February 14th 1946. It had been designed according to the rules set out in 1936 by the British mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954), the engineering being undertaken by John Mauchly and J. Prosper Eckert of the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of John Von Neumann. The ENIAC was funded on a contract signed on 5th June 1943 with the United States Army which wanted a machine to calculate artillery firing tables, but its wider significance was that its creation proved the enormous potential power of computing and attracted the attention of business interests. Its launch therefore signalled the beginning of the computer age.
114 words
Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "ENIAC, the first entirely electronic computer, announced". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 May 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=6582, accessed 19 April 2024.]
