ENIAC

computing history · invention · mathematics

Gigantic machine. ENIAC was so massive that it filled an entire room and weighed about 30 tons, roughly the weight of five elephants. It used about 18,000 vacuum tubes instead of the tiny computer chips we have today.

Electronic and fast. ENIAC was the first computer to use electricity and vacuum tubes to do calculations, making it much faster than mechanical adding machines. It could perform thousands of calculations in seconds.

Programmable problem solver. Unlike earlier calculators that could only do one specific job, ENIAC could be reprogrammed to solve many different kinds of math problems, from ballistics calculations to scientific research.

Built for war effort. ENIAC was completed in 1945 and was originally used to calculate artillery firing tables for the U.S. military during World War II.

Turing-complete genius. ENIAC was the first computer that could theoretically solve any math problem you could describe, making it a true general-purpose computer that inspired all computers made afterward.