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From: webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber)
Newsgroups: news.groups,comp.sys.misc,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Info wanted on eniac computers
Message-ID: 
Date: 24 Jun 88 23:13:46 GMT
References: <198@marque.mu.edu> <8012@alice.UUCP>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 33

In article <8012@alice.UUCP>, adb@alice.UUCP writes:
> If you *really* want info on the ENIAC, go to the library of the Moore
> School of Electrical Engineering, which still has all the original design

Well it looks like eventually I will have to visit the U Penn (I
presume the Moore School is in Philadelphia with the rest of it).  
[I hate travel and big cities, but c'est la vie.]  The 1945-1955 period
in the history of computing is chock full of fascinating documents as
some very major thinkers came to grips with the notion of computing.
The ENIAC seems to have been the only major attempt at a parallel
computer during this time period [at least one author has noted that
the ILLIAC is more closely the successor of the ENIAC than either the
EDVAC or the BINIAC (the latter two being more reactions against the
percieved problems with the ENIAC by the designers of it rather than
attempts to ``upgrade'' it)].

> documents for the ENIAC on the shelf.  However, I suspect they won't be that
> useful, since there was only one ENIAC and it has long since been dismantled
> and scattered.

The BRL machine was dismantled and scattered to various museums on 2nd
day of October in the year 1955.  Whether or not any other machines were
ever made from that design is something that would be difficult to prove
(except, of course, in the positive by an example).  So far no published
references have come to my attention.  However, the documents would still
prove useful.  A software simulation of the machine requires rather detailed
knowledge of its hardware.   A hardware simulation is, at the moment,
just a dream -- but the resources are available if I can just find the 
time to master them (a direct VLSI implementation is my current
``ultimate'' goal).  A design for microcode that is functionally equivalent
to ``wiring up'' the ENIAC is still in progress.

---- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber)