Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Defining characteristics of some early digital computers of the 1940s

Defining characteristics of some early digital computers of the 1940s (In the history of computing hardware)
Name
First operational
Numeral system
Computing mechanism
Programming
Turing complete
Zuse Z3 (Germany)
May 1941
Binary
Electro-mechanical
Program-controlled by punched film stock (but no conditional branch)
Yes (1998)
Atanasoff–Berry Computer (US)
1942
Binary
Electronic
Not programmable—single purpose
No
Colossus Mark 1 (UK)
February 1944
Binary
Electronic
Program-controlled by patch cables and switches
No
Harvard Mark I – IBM ASCC (US)
May 1944
Decimal
Electro-mechanical
Program-controlled by 24-channel punched paper tape (but no conditional branch)
No
Colossus Mark 2 (UK)
June 1944
Binary
Electronic
Program-controlled by patch cables and switches
No
ENIAC (US)
July 1946
Decimal
Electronic
Program-controlled by patch cables and switches
Yes
Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (UK)
June 1948
Binary
Electronic
Stored-program in Williams cathode ray tube memory
Yes
Modified ENIAC (US)
September 1948
Decimal
Electronic
Program-controlled by patch cables and switches plus a primitive read-only stored programming mechanism using the Function Tables as program ROM
Yes
EDSAC (UK)
May 1949
Binary
Electronic
Stored-program in mercury delay line memory
Yes
Manchester Mark 1 (UK)
October 1949
Binary
Electronic
Stored-program in Williams cathode ray tube memory and magnetic drum memory
Yes
CSIRAC (Australia)
November 1949
Binary
Electronic
Stored-program in mercury delay line memory
Yes

No comments:

Post a Comment