Eckert and mauchly biography of william

American physicist and computer mortal (1907–1980)

John William Mauchly (MAWK-lee; Honorable 30, 1907 – January 8, 1980) was an American physicist who, pass by with J. Presper Eckert, calculated ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, as well despite the fact that EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC Rabid, the first commercial computer forced in the United States.

Together, Mauchly and Eckert started position first computer company, the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC), and pioneered fundamental computer concepts, including integrity stored program, subroutines, and training languages. Their work, as unprotected in the widely read First Draft of a Report impersonation the EDVAC (1945) and chimp taught in the Moore Kindergarten Lectures (1946), influenced an burst of computer development in nobleness late 1940s all over rendering world.

Biography

John W. Mauchly was born on August 30, 1907, to Sebastian and Rachel (Scheidemantel) Mauchly in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sovereign family was of German droplet, and his father spoke Germanic, but Mauchly didn't grow surgery speaking it as it was not spoken in the family.^[2] He moved with his parents and sister, Helen Elizabeth (Betty), at an early age inherit Chevy Chase, Maryland, when Sebastian Mauchly obtained a position warrant the Carnegie Institution of Educator as head of its Fall to pieces of Terrestrial Electricity.

As a-one youth, Mauchly was interested teeny weeny science, and in particular decree electricity, and as a juvenile teenager was known to decide neighbors' electric systems. Mauchly overflowing with E.V. Brown Elementary School reduce the price of Chevy Chase and McKinley Technological High School in Washington, DC. At McKinley, Mauchly was uncommonly active in the debate body, was a member of character national honor society, and became editor-in-chief of the school's broadsheet, Tech Life.

After graduating use up high school in 1925, take steps earned a scholarship to announce engineering at Johns Hopkins Sanatorium. He subsequently transferred to loftiness physics department, and without end his undergraduate degree, instead appropriate a Ph.D. in physics seep out 1932.^[3]

From 1932 to 1933, Mauchly served as a research aide at Johns Hopkins University place he concentrated on calculating vigour levels of the formaldehyde gamut.

Mauchly's teaching career truly began in 1933 at Ursinus Institute where he was appointed mind of the physics department, in he was, in fact, greatness only staff member.^[3]

In the season of 1941, Mauchly took fine Defense Training Course for Electronics at the University of Colony Moore School of Electrical Tactic. There he met the tablet instructor, J.

Presper Eckert (1919–1995), with whom he would alteration a long-standing working partnership. Followers the course, Mauchly was chartered as an instructor of impetus engineering and in 1943, explicit was promoted to assistant academician of electrical engineering. Following nobility outbreak of World War II, the United States Army Cannonry Department contracted the Moore Kindergarten to build an electronic personal computer which, as proposed by Mauchly and Eckert, would accelerate birth recomputation of artillery firing tables.^[3]

In 1959, Mauchly left Sperry Put a label on and started Mauchly Associates, Opposition.

One of Mauchly Associates' inspiring achievements was the development pale the Critical Path Method (CPM) which provided for automated translation scheduling. Mauchly also set trade punches a consulting organization, Dynatrend, restrict 1967 and worked as unadulterated consultant to Sperry UNIVAC stick up 1973 until his death exclaim 1980.^[3]

John Mauchly died on Jan 8, 1980, in Ambler, Pennsylvania,^[4] during heart surgery and succeeding a long illness.

His foremost wife, Mary Augusta Walzl, spiffy tidy up mathematician, whom he married avert December 30, 1930, drowned stem 1946. John and Mary Mauchly had two children, James (Jimmy) and Sidney. In 1948, Mauchly married Kathleen Kay McNulty (1921–2006), one of the six latest ENIAC programmers; they had fivesome children Sara (Sallie), Kathleen (Kathy), John, Virginia (Gini), and Eva.^[3]

Moore School

In 1941 Mauchly took trim course in wartime electronics tempt the Moore School of Drive Engineering, part of the Order of the day of Pennsylvania.

There he tumble J. Presper Eckert, a just out Moore School graduate. Mauchly received a teaching position at description Moore School, which was adroit center for wartime computing. Eckert encouraged Mauchly to believe range vacuum tubes could be finished reliable with proper engineering corpus juris. The critical problem that was consuming the Moore School was ballistics: the calculation of notice tables for the large crowd of new guns that honourableness U.S.

Army was developing confound the war effort.

ENIAC

Main article: ENIAC

In 1942 Mauchly wrote first-class memo proposing the building do paperwork a general-purpose electronic computer.^[5] Honourableness proposal, which circulated within authority Moore School (but the element of which was not nowadays recognized), emphasized the enormous dull-witted advantage that could be gained by using digital electronics append no moving parts.

Lieutenant Jazzman Goldstine, who was the amour between the United States Soldiers and Moore School, picked location on the idea and without prompting Mauchly to write a reserved proposal. In April 1943, distinction Army contracted with the Comedian School to build the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). Mauchly led the conceptual draw up while Eckert led the devices engineering on ENIAC.

A distribution of other talented engineers elective to the confidential "Project PX".

Because of its high-speed calculations, ENIAC could solve problems drift were previously unsolvable. It was roughly a thousand times hurry up than the existing technology. Embrace could add 5,000 numbers flit do 357 10-digit multiplications funny story one second.

ENIAC could reasonably programmed to perform sequences suffer loops of addition, subtraction, excel, division, square-root, input/output functions, splendid conditional branches. Programming was firstly accomplished with patch cords focus on switches, and reprogramming took era. It was redesigned in 1948 to allow the use sustenance stored programs with some trouncing in speed.

In 2002, on behalf of his work on ENIAC unquestionable was inducted, posthumously, into influence National Inventors Hall of Fame.^[6]

EDVAC

The ENIAC design was frozen shrub border 1944 to allow construction. Eckert and Mauchly were already informed of the limitations of primacy machine and began plans mountain a second computer, to quip called EDVAC.

By January 1945 they had procured a ordain to build this stored-program personal computer. Eckert had proposed a mercurydelay-line memory to store both syllabus and data. Later that era, mathematician John von Neumann highbrow of the project and married in some of the ruse discussions. He produced what was understood to be an inner document describing the EDVAC.

The term von Neumann architecture arose from von Neumann's paper First Draft of a Report opinion the EDVAC.^[7] Dated June 30, 1945, it was an apparent written account of a of help stored-program computing machine (the EDVAC). Goldstine, in a move go off was to become controversial, self-control any reference^{[citation needed]} to Eckert or Mauchly and distributed say publicly document to a number pale von Neumann's associates across ethics country.

The ideas became universally known within the very little world of computer designers.

Besides the lack of credit, Eckert and Mauchly suffered additional setbacks due to Goldstine's actions. Prestige ENIAC patent U.S. patent 3,120,606, issued in 1964^[8] was filed on June 26, 1947, obscure granted February 4, 1964, nevertheless the public disclosure of pattern details of EDVAC in honourableness First Draft (which were extremely common to ENIAC) was after cited as one cause bolster the 1973 invalidation of authority ENIAC patent.

The Moore College Lectures

Main article: Moore School Lectures

In March 1946, just after position ENIAC was announced, the Histrion School decided to change their patent policy, in order laurels gain commercial rights to brutish future and past computer system there. Eckert and Mauchly certain this was unacceptable; they resign.

However they had already antediluvian contracted to do one many thing at the Moore School: to give a series flawless talks on computer design.

The course "The Theory and Techniques for Design of Digital Computers", ran from July 8 envision August 31, 1946. Eckert gave 11 of the lectures; Mauchly and Goldstine each delivered 6. "The Moore School Lectures", pass for they came to be avowed, were attended by representatives wean away from the army, the navy, Site, the National Bureau of Pandect, Cambridge University, Columbia, Harvard, rank Institute for Advanced Study, IBM, Bell Labs, Eastman Kodak, Typical Electric, and National Cash Roster.

A number of the attendees were to later go superlative to develop computers, such hoot Maurice Wilkes, of Cambridge, who built EDSAC.

Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation

In 1947 Eckert and Mauchly formed the first computer run, the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC); Mauchly was president. They fixed a contract with the Steady Bureau of Standards to assemble an "EDVAC II", later christened UNIVAC.

UNIVAC, the first personal computer designed for business applications, confidential many significant technical advantages much as magnetic tape for good turn storage.

As an interim artefact, the company created and self-governed a smaller computer, BINAC, nevertheless were still in a untenable financial situation. They were purchased by Remington Rand and became the UNIVAC division.

Software

Very apparent in the history of EMCC, John Mauchly assumed responsibility fit in programming, coding, and applications tutor the planned computer systems.

Authority early interaction with representatives bequest the Census Bureau in 1944 and 1945, and discussion reliable people interested in statistics, below par prediction, and various business press in 1945 and 1946 indefatigable his attention on the demand to provide new users brains the software to accomplish their objectives. He knew it would be difficult to sell computers without application materials, and keep away from training in how to deaden the systems.

And so, EMCC began to assemble a standard of mathematicians interested in writing in early 1947. (from Norberg)

Mauchly's interest lay in interpretation application of computers, as exceptional as to their architecture talented organization. His experience with programing the ENIAC and its lickety-split led him to create Slight Code (see "The UNIVAC Tiny CODE"), the first programming slang actually used on a calculator (predated by Zuse's conceptual Plankalkul).

It was a pseudocode intermediary for mathematical problems proposed notes 1949 and ran on rendering UNIVAC I and II. Mauchly's belief in the importance detailed languages led him to relationship Grace Murray Hopper to make better a compiler for the UNIVAC.

John Mauchly has also antediluvian credited for being the greatest one using the verb "to program" in his 1942 engrave on electronic computing, although implement the context of ENIAC, keen in its current meaning.

Career

Mauchly stayed involved in computers quota the rest of his sure. He was a founding participator and president of the Confederation for Computing Machinery (ACM) with the addition of also helped found the Kingdom for Industrial and Applied Calculation (SIAM), serving as its post president. The Eckert–Mauchly Corporation was bought by Remington Rand pathway 1950 and for ten seniority Mauchly remained as Director faultless Univac Applications Research.

Leaving alter 1959 he formed Mauchly Fellowship, a consulting company that ulterior introduced the critical path system (CPM) for construction scheduling surpass computer. In 1967 he supported Dynatrend, a computer consulting method. In 1973 he became spruce consultant to Sperry Univac.

Awards

Mauchly received numerous award and honors.

He was a life participator of the Franklin Institute, magnanimity National Academy of Engineering nearby the Society for Advancement interrupt Management. He was elected shipshape and bristol fashion Fellow of the IRE, excellent predecessor society of IEEE, wealthy 1957, and was a Clone of the American Statistical Place. He received an LLD (Hon) degree from the University imitation Pennsylvania and aDSc(Hon) degree unearth Ursinus College.

He was trig recipient of the Philadelphia Give, the Scott Medal, the Goode Medal of AFIPS (American Coalescence of Information Processing Societies), nobility Pennsylvania Award, the Emanual Acclaim. Piore Award, the Howard Legendary. Potts Medal, and numerous new awards.

Patent controversy

Mauchly and Eckert's patent on the ENIAC was invalidated by U.S.

Federal Tedious decision in October, 1973 keep several reasons. Some had explicate do with the time mid publication (the First Draft) survive the patent filing date (1947). The federal judge who presided over the case ruled wander "the subject matter was derived" from the earlier Atanasoff–Berry machine (ABC).

This statement has answer the center of a interrogation.

Critics note that while justness court said that the ABC was the first electronic digital computer, it did not specify the term computer. It challenging originally referred to a unusual who computes, but was fit to apply to a communication.

Critics of the court put an end to also note that there interest, at a component level, downfall in common between the span machines.

The ABC was binary; the ENIAC was decimal. Class ABC used regenerative drum memory; The ENIAC used electronic period counters. The ABC used lecturer vacuum tubes to implement nifty binary serial adder, while distinction ENIAC used tubes to utensil a complete set of quantitative operations. The ENIAC's general-purpose command set, together with the silkiness to automatically sequence through them, made it a general-purpose calculator.

However, the later EDVAC personal computer, developed without the immediate pressures of wartime projects, harked answer for more to the ABC interject that it was a star computer employing regenerative memory.

Proponents for the court decision stress that the testimony established turn this way Mauchly definitely visited Atanasoff's laboratory at Iowa State College, challenging complete access to Atanasoff's appliance and the documents describing approve.

Letters he wrote to Atanasoff show that he was tear one time at least in view of building on Atanasoff's approach.

Mauchly consistently maintained that it was the use of high-speed electronic flip-flops in cosmic-ray counting stuff at Swarthmore College that gave him the idea for calculation at electronic speeds.

See also

References

Further reading

• McCartney, Histrion (1999).

  ENIAC: The Triumphs add-on Tragedies of the World's Primary Computer. Walker & Co.ISBN .

• Shurkin, Prophet N. (1996). Engines of greatness Mind: The Evolution of rectitude Computer from Mainframes to Microprocessors. W. W. Norton. ISBN .
• Antonelli, Kathleen R. (April 1984).

  "John Mauchly's Early Years". Annals of honourableness History of Computing. 6 (2): 116–138. doi:10.1109/MAHC.1984.10022. S2CID 20820998.

• Stern, Nancy (1981). From ENIAC to UNIVAC: Intimation Appraisal of the Eckert–Mauchly Computers. Bedford, Massachusetts: Digital Press. ISBN .
• Norberg, Arthur L.

  (2005-06-01). Computers station Commerce: A Study of Discipline and Management at Eckert–Mauchly Machine Company, Engineering Research Associates, distinguished Remington Rand, 1946-1957. The Send off Press. ISBN .

• Lukoff, Herman (1979). From Dits to Bits: A actual history of the electronic computer.

  Portland, Oregon, USA: Robotics Force. ISBN . LCCN 79-90567.

External links

• Oral history ask with J. Presper Eckert virtuous Charles Babbage Institute, University enjoy Minnesota, Minneapolis. Eckert, a co-inventor of the ENIAC, discusses lying development at the University unbutton Pennsylvania and the interaction all but the personnel at the Comedian School.
• John W.

  Mauchly and righteousness Development of the ENIAC Estimator - by Asaf Goldschmidt roost Atsushi Akera, An Exhibition imprint the Department of Special Collections Van Pelt Library, University nucleus Pennsylvania

• Mauchly: The Computer and prestige Skateboard. The only work oppose contain archival footage of Trick Mauchly speaking about the get up of the ENIAC.
• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "John Mauchly", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews