ENIAC, the triumphs and tragedies of the world's first computer
By: Scott McCartney.
Publisher: Walker
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 262
Subjects: Computing and Information Technology; History of engineering & technology; United States; ENIAC (Computer); Digital Computer Design; Science; Computers - General Information; Computer Books: General; History; COM059000; COM; SCI; SCI021000; SCI034000; Electricity; Computer Engineering; Computer industry; Electronic digital computers; Computer Bks - General Information
First sentence: In early 1997, Garry Kasparov, the Russian grand master of chess, squared off against "Deep Blue," an International Business Machines Corporation computer built with circuits designed specifically for the kind of computations-the kind of "thinking"-that goes on during chess.
Description: John Mauchly and Presper Eckert designed and built the first digital, electronic computer. The story of their three-year race to create the legendary ENIAC and their three-decade struggle to gain credit for it has never been told and is a compelling tale of brilliance and misfortune.

Mauchly and Eckert met by chance in 1941 at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Engineering. They soon developed a revolutionary vision: to use electricity as a means of computing - in other words, to make electricity "think." Ignored by their colleagues, in early 1943 they were fortuitously discovered and funded by the U.S. Army, itself in urgent need of a machine that could quickly calculate ballistic missile trajectories in wartime Europe and Africa.

In the wake of their triumph, Mauchly and Eckert would be shadowed by personal tragedies and professional setbacks that are as absorbing as their invention is fascinating. They built the famous UNIVAC machine and formed the world's first computer company, only to be outflanked and outfinanced by IBM and other emerging competitors. They filed a patent on ENIAC and would spend the next twenty-five years defending their inventions against a host of claims.

Based on original interviews with surviving participants and the first study of Mauchly's and Eckert's personal papers, ENIAC is a vital contribution to the history of technology.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-251) and index.