DocumentCode
1106407
Title
Exploring the architecture of an early machine: the historical relevance of the ENIAC machine architecture
Author
Marcus, Mitchell ; Akera, Atsushi
Author_Institution
Dept. of Comput. & Inf. Sci., Pennsylvania Univ., Philadelphia, PA, USA
Volume
18
Issue
1
fYear
1996
Firstpage
17
Lastpage
24
Abstract
After presenting the historiographical background to the ENIAC development, this paper examines the technical history of the machine. The technical section looks at the architecture of the accumulators and the master programmer unit in an attempt to illustrate both the advantages and the shortcomings of the design. In particular a description of a conditional branch mechanism and parallel operations are provided-together with a discussion of reasons why they were not used in any extensive way
Keywords
computer architecture; history; mainframes; ENIAC machine architecture; accumulators; computer design; conditional branch mechanism; historical relevance; historiographical background; master programmer unit; parallel operations; technical history; Computer architecture; Computer industry; Electron tubes; History; Industrial electronics; Large-scale systems; Military computing; Nuclear electronics; Physics; Programming profession;
fLanguage
English
Journal_Title
Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE
Publisher
ieee
ISSN
1058-6180
Type
jour
DOI
10.1109/85.476558
Filename
476558
Link To Document