Abstract
The Second World War motivated researchers to investigate faster ways to perform calculation to solve practical problems. This led to research into the development of digital computers to determine if they could provide faster methods of computation. We discuss the first digital computers including the Atanasoff-Berry computer developed in the United States, the ENIAC and EDVAC developed in the United States, the Colossus computer developed in England, Zuse’s computers developed in Germany and the Manchester Mark I computer developed in England.
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- 1.
The ABC was ruled to be the first electronic digital computer in the Sperry Rand vs. Honeywell patent case in 1973. However, Zuse’s Z3 computer which was completed in Germany in 1941 preceded it.
References
O’Regan G (2013) Giants of computing. Springer, London
von Neumann J (1945) First draft of a report on the EDVAC. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
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O’Regan, G. (2016). The First Digital Computers. In: Introduction to the History of Computing. Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33138-6_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33138-6_4
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