Parallel computation

Paul Koning paulkoning at comcast.net
Mon Jan 23 19:33:09 CST 2017


> On Jan 23, 2017, at 5:09 PM, Toby Thain <toby at telegraphics.com.au> wrote:
> 
> On 2017-01-23 6:55 PM, Paul Koning wrote:
>> 
>>> On Jan 23, 2017, at 3:52 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> ...
>>> It's just that I bridle a bit when hearing the young 'uns refer to any
>>> physically large machine as a "supercomputer".
>>> 
>>> It's the same feeling that I get when I see press releases today that
>>> relate that David Gelernter single-handedly developed the parallel
>>> computation.  He's not old enough; at 61, he was still in high school
>>> during the ILLIAC IV era.
>> 
>> Even earlier...
>> 
>> From what I've read, ENIAC supported parallel computing, but in practice it wasn't used because it was too hard to get the code right.  At least, that's what a computer design course from 1948 states.
>> 
> 
> Has this been scanned anywhere?

Yes, it's on the CWI website in Amsterdam.  The trouble for most readers is that it's in Dutch.  I'm working on translating it.  Report CR3, Principles of electronic computers, course Feb 1948, by A. van Wijngaarden.

His comments on ENIAC should be able to be confirmed (or refuted) from ENIAC documentation.

	paul




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