See the world’s very first computer and compare its now laughably limited capabilities with those of the amazing supercomputers of today.
The Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer ( ENIAC ) , the modern historic period ’s first computer .
It ’s virtually impossible to think what the world would look like today without the data processor . Though you might not call back it , everything from the food we eat up to the football helmet we don to the rockets we transmit into place needed a reckoner ’s service in some path . Needless to say , history ’s very first computer , the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer ( ENIAC ) , is on a very short list of the most important inventions human race have ever made .
Military scientist started contrive the ENIAC during World War IIto reckon the trajectories of artillery shells . By the time the might electric switch was flipped in November of 1945 , however , the state of war was over . rather , ENIAC became a instrument for Cold War weapons — the developers of the first hydrogen bomb go so far as to say that the H - Bomb would never have existed without the ENIAC .
The Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), the modern age’s first computer.
And while the ENIAC was a marvel for its time , it was , of course , a dinosaur by today ’s standard .
The ENIAC had 17,468 vacuum tubes that blew out every twain of 24-hour interval . It took up 1,800 square foot of warehouse space and consider more than 25 slews ( which is as much as some of the heaviestactualdinosaurs ) . And for all that , it could execute 5,000 instruction per moment . The iPhone 6 , weighing in at 4.55 ounces ? 25 billion command per secondly .
Meanwhile , today ’s supercomputers , likeIBM ’s Blue Gene / P , bare almost no comparison . The advanced supercomputer execute so many instructions per second that computerscientists do n’t even quantify their speed in instructions per secondly .
IBM’s Blue Gene/P, one of the fastest modern supercomputers on Earth. Image Source:Wikimedia Commons
The Blue Gene / P has perform uncomprehensible exploit such as helping to map the human genome , assume radioactive decay , wing airplanes , and even replicating human mind power . Sure , at 1720 pounds , it ’s tremendous compare to the modernistic laptop or pad , but it is capable to calculate mind - boggling equations and serve an unheard of amount of datum — all while being 30 prison term smaller than the ENIAC .
IBM ’s Blue Gene / P , one of the fastest modern supercomputers on Earth . Image Source : Wikimedia Commons