1900-1950 Computers
The Z1 ComputerThe Z1 was built by Konrad Zuse in 1935. Zuse built the computer in his parents house on the living room floor. This computer is considered the first electro-mechanical binary programmable computer. Zuse went on to create the Z2, Z3, and Z4 computers after he finished with the Z1. The Z4 was later known as the first commercial computer.
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The abc computer The Atanasoff-Berry Computer or the ABC was built by professor John Vincent Atanasoff and student Cliff Berry in 1937. It was built at the Iowa State College and took until 1942 to complete. The computer used vacuum tubes for digital computing and used binary code and Bolean logic. The computer had no CPU (central processing unit). Astanasoff was named the inventor of the electronic digital computer in 1973.
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The eniac computerThe Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer or ENIAC was built by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania. This was a very big computer taking up 1800 square feet, weighing 50 tons, and used 18000 vacuum tubes. It was considered to be the first digital computer but in 1873 the ABC was named the first digital computer although a lot of people still consider the ENIAC the first.
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The EDSAC and Mark 1 computers |
The EDSAC computer was the first computer ever to run a stored program and was also the first to run a graphical computer game. It was finished in 1949 and was a British computer. The Mark 1 was built at the University of Manchester and was also finished in 1949 and in June of that year it ran a program to search for Mersenne primes for nine hours without error.
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