ENIAC in Action : Making and Remaking the Modern Computer

Conceived in 1943, completed in 1945, and decommissioned in 1955, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first general-purpose programmable electronic computer. But ENIAC was more than just a milestone on the road to the modern computer. ENIAC in Action tells the whole story for the first time, from ENIAC's design, construction, testing, and use to its afterlife as part of computing folklore. It highlights the complex relationship of ENIAC and its designers to the revolutionary approaches to computer architecture and coding first documented by John von Neumann in 1945. The authors look at ENIAC as a machine of war, as the "first computer", as a material artifact constantly remade by its users, and as a subject of (contradictory) historical narratives. They integrate the history of ENIAC and its applications, describing the mathematicians, scientists, and engineers who proposed and designed the machine as well as the men-and particularly the women-who built, programmed, and operated it.