« Friday Sez, "Just the Stacks, Mam. Just the Stacks." | Main | This Is The First Bear To Get Brain Surgery »

April 12, 2013

The Maniac (Mathematical Analyzer, Numerator, Integrator, and Computer)

ias_computer.jpg
John Von Neumann with MANIAC
The Maniac was first tested in the summer of 1951, “with a thermonuclear calculation that ran for 60 days nonstop.”
About 6 by 2 by 8 feet and weighing a trim half-ton, the computer was much smaller than the room-size Eniac. But it inherited some of its predecessor’s reliability issues. Dyson quotes engineers’ exasperated entries from the Princeton machine’s logbook. May 7, 1953: “What’s the use? good night.” June 14, 1953: “Damnit — I can be just as stubborn as this thing.” June 17, 1956: “the hell with it.” -- ‘Turing’s Cathedral,’ by George Dyson

Posted by gerardvanderleun at April 12, 2013 7:07 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

Post a comment




Remember Me?

(you may use HTML tags for style)