Computer Pioneers and Pioneer Computers
Computer pioneer Gordon Bell hosts this two-part program on the evolution of electronic computing from its pre-World War II origins through the development of the first commercial computers. His narration traces the development of the stored program computer architecture which remains the foundation of today's modern computers. In Part 1 The builders of the first five computer machines: the Bell Labs Model 1, the Zuse Z1-3, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, the Harvard Mark 1 and the IBM SSEC tell their stories. In Part 2 Vintage films and first hand accounts enliven the stories of the ENIAC and the three lines of computing machines descended from it: the Eckert-Mauchly EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC; Maurice Wilkes EDSAC; and John Von Neumann's IAS machines and their clones, the ILLIAC, MANIAC, etc.
| Part 1 - Dawn of Electronic Computer, 1935-1945 |
Part 1 - Dawn of Electronic Computer, 1935 - 1945
The builders of the first five computer machines: the Bell Labs Model 1, the Zuse Z1-3, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, the Harvard Mark 1 and the IBM SSEC tell their stories.
Part 2 - The First Computers, 1946 - 1950
Vintage films and first hand accounts enliven the stories of the ENIAC and the three lines of computing machines descended from it: the Eckert-Mauchly EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC; Maurice Wilkes EDSAC; and John Von Neumann's IAS machines and their clones, the ILLIAC, MANIAC, etc.
| Related Links |
| History of Computing Hardware - wikipedia Computing hardware evolved from machines that needed separate manual action to perform each arithmetic operation, to punched card machines, and then to stored-program computers. |
| The Machine That Changed the World The Machine That Changed the World is a 1992 documentary series on the history of electronic digital computers, from the dawn of the computer in the 1800s to the early 1990s. |
| The Creation of the Computer Rudimentary calculating devices first appeared in antiquity and mechanical calculating aids were invented in the 17th century. |
| Personal Computing: Historic Beginnings The roots of "personal computers" - that is, machines that are not shared between users - date back to at least the late 1950s. |