diff --git a/.zk/notebook.db b/.zk/notebook.db index b482c3a..d187fde 100644 Binary files a/.zk/notebook.db and b/.zk/notebook.db differ diff --git a/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md b/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md index 92f6f2a..b8673ae 100644 --- a/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md +++ b/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md @@ -446,3 +446,52 @@ variety of different electronic methods for memory: memory. Data and memory was input via punched cards. ### Further applications of the EDSAC architecture + +### LEO I + +- Built by Lyons Tea Company to manage business affairs (payroll, inventory, + stock management) + +- Marked a shift from military and academic contexts for computers to business + and data management. + +### IAS machines + +![The MANIAC computer](../img/MANIAC_computer.jpg) + +Several machines were built at the Institute for Advanced Study utilising the +"von Neumann" architecture and associated advancements such as vacuum-tubes and +Williams' tubes. There was the original IAS machine (1952) as well as the +JOHNNIAC (1954) and MANIAC (1956). + +Although their purpose was military (Los Alamos), their designs were public and +widely studied making them influential outside of academia. + +### UNIVAC (1951) + +Mauchley and Eckert, who had designed the ENIAC left the Moore School and went +into business: Eckert-Mauchley Computer Corporation. This was bought by +Remington Rand and in subsequent years became the main competitor to IBM. + +In this capacity they built the UNIVAC: _Universal Automatic Computer_. It's +name being an embodiment of its nature as a general-purpose, electronic digital +computer. + +It used vacuum-tubes for logic and mercury delay lines for memory. It had +multiple means of input/output including: directly via an operator console +(basically a typewriter keyboard), magnetic tape for input and output, along +with punched cards. + +It was the first computer specifically designed to include business and +administrative use. This was underscored by its first client: the US Census +Bureau. + +A key event was its succesful prediction of the 1952 general election. It +correctly predicted a landslide for Eisenhower (against expectations). (This was +so unlikely, they actually fudged the data because they thought the machine was +way off.) It was a novelty on the results night but it cemented a certain +concept of the computer in the public imagination - large, room sized machines +with blinking lights. + +Swade notes that Eckert and Mauchley effectively launched the US commercial +computer industry with the UNIVAC.