ENIAC Then and Now

February 16, 2017 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

On Febuary 15, 1946, the ENIAC was dedicated. Although this machine differed significantly from the

computers that followed, this WWII-era creation was the testbed on which the human race learned how to

build and program computers. It became a national resource, contributing to a wide variety of research and

development until it was decommissioned in 1955. In its original form, the machine was programmed by

rewiring it for each new problem. Later it was reconfigured to operate as an instruction set processor with

programs dialed into panels of rotary switches. In this presentation, we will discuss how the ENIAC worked

and how it was used in both modes of operation. We will look at a number of details of the internal operation

of the ENIAC. These details will be illustrated though demonstrations of the ENIAC in the form of a recently

developed pulse-level simulator. The presentation will also include some discussion of the simulator

implementation.

Speaker(s): Dr. Brian Stuart,

Location:
Room: CS 105
Bldg: Computer Science Building
35 Olden Street
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey
08540