15 Feb
2021
15 Feb
'21
7:13 a.m.
On Feb 15, 2021, at 7:23 AM, osi.superboard via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
75 years ago, February 15, 1946
The ENIAC, presented to the public in 1946, is - depending on the definition - the first
programmable digital computer in the world. Its first programmers were primarily women:
so-called refrigerator ladies (seen here: Gloria Ruth Gordon and Ester Gerston) spent
hours flipping switches and swapping cable connections - the first computer input devices
-
Not so much input devices as rather program storage devices. ENIAC wasn't a
stored-program machine. And of course read-only program memories have a long history,
going back to the Atanasoff-Berry digital computer years earlier, through the ROM of the
Electrologica X1 and the Apollo Guidance Computer, to the deadstart panel toggle switch
boot ROM of the CDC mainframes.
paul