Скачать или смотреть From ENIAC to the Stored-Program Computer: Two Revolutions in Computers by Arthur W. Burks

The First International Research Conference on the History of Computing was a milestone in the history of computing, drawing a global elite of computer pioneers from the first generation of electronic digital computing. Most talks are approximately 45 minutes in duration and feature a lecture with a brief question and answer period afterwards.

This lecture is of particular interest to people who wonder, “Who invented the First Computer?” It’s a complicated question, as Burks makes clear, in part because the nature of invention is such that often similar things are invented simultaneously, in different locations. Burks makes clear that there are multiple people (and computers) involved in trying to understand this question as well, each with different perspectives and each supplying a separate piece of the puzzle. The ‘two revolutions’ to which Burks refers are: a) the switch from mechanical and electromechanical circuitry to electronic (vacuum tube) circuitry; and b) the concept of the stored program computer. Burks survey is wide ranging but centers on the 1946 ENIAC as the key invention.

This lecture’s transcript was included in the edited volume from the conference, viz. Burks, Arthur, W., “From ENIAC to the Stored-Program Computer: Two Revolutions in Computers,” in Metropolis, N., and Howlett, J., Rota, Gian-Carlo, A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, New York: Academic Press, 1980, pp. 311 – 344.

Catalog Number: 102695474