When was first electronic computer made?

Answer 1

I think it was the ENIAC

Answer

The first "electronic computer" was the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, or ABC. This machine wasn't programmable--if you wanted to change the function of the ABC you would have had to go in and rewire it. It also output through a Hollerith Card punch, and the one Atanasoff had was unreliable.

The first programmable computer was the ENIAC. This machine also used a card punch for output.

So...what is a card punch and how would you use one for output? In the days before computers, any sort of automated data processing had to be done by punching holes, in a specific format with a huge machine called a keypunch, into paper cards. They had machines that punched the cards, read the cards, sorted them in all sorts of useful ways, and printed the information on them. (A bank would punch a card every time a customer made a payment on his loan. The data center officers would then sort the cards and print reports that showed who hadn't paid yet. This was slow and cumbersome but easier than doing it completely by hand...and as you guessed, it employed a LOT of keypunch operators.) By creating a card punch that connected to the first computers, they could add a computer to their operation and still be able to use the punched card technology they were comfortable with.

Answer 2

Professor John Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry built the world's first electronic-digital computer at Iowa State University between 1939 and 1942. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer represented several innovations in computing, including a binary system of arithmetic, parallel processing, regenerative memory, and a separation of memory and computing functions.

During a similar time period Alan Turing of Cambridge University , Max Newman and Mr Tommy Flowers of British GPO need a mention. Alan Turing developed the thery for the code breaking and Mr Newman & Tommy Flowers made a practical design. It was no mean technical feat to keep thousands of tubes working long enough to do useful work. They developed a several working large dedicated Tube (valve) computers for breaking the code from the Enigma machine used by Germany in WWII. Both worked at the Bletchley Park Code breaking centre As they worked for the UK Government and thus covered by the "Official Secrets Act" much of their work and achievements were kept secret for many years. They have recently rebuilt one of the Computers for the Museum.

In more recent times, Alice Burks, wife of an early computer engineer Arthur Burks, claims to have established paternity by analyzing documents and reviewing oral testimony for her 2003 book entitled 'Who Invented The Computer?: The Legal Battle That Changed Computer History'. She concluded that the father of the electronic computer is John Vincent Atanasoff - not J. Prespert Eckert and John W. Mauchly, who are named as inventors of Patent No. 3,120,606 for 'Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer' (ENIAC) that issued in 1964 based on a 1947 filing date.

Answer 3

Which type? Analog or digital?

Analog computers were as far back as the first Abacus.

Analog computers were around and being used during WWII -- they were HUGE (occupying many rooms) and use d Vacuum Tubes and mechanical switches in their operational logic.

Digital systems are historically noted as being invented when systems stopped using vacuum tubes - circa 1974 when Intel manufactured the 80186 microchip microprocessor.

Answer 4

In the late 1930s and early 1940s several different early digital computers were invented. Historians still debate which was the first and which were computers or not. Some were motivated by the need to solve specific problems (ABC: simultaneous equations, Colossus: cryptography), some to solve general problems (Harvard Mark I, Zuse Z-3), some for the war (Colossus, ENIAC), etc.

Answer 5

In 1837, Charles Babbage, a British professor of mathematics described his idea for the Analytical Engine, the first stored-program mechanical computer.

Answer 6

1954, if I'm not wrong.

It was a gigantic computer.

Answer 7

Ames, Iowa

Answer 8

1945