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Project Management with a Systems Framework
Published in Adedeji B. Badiru, Project Management Essentials, 2021
In 1938, Claude Shannon demonstrated that Boolean logic consisting of only two-variable states (e.g., on–off switching of circuits) can be used to perform logic operations. Based on this premise, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was built in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC was a large-scale, fully operational electronic computer that signaled the beginning of the first generation of digital computers. It could perform calculations 1,000 times faster than its electromechanical predecessors. It weighed 30 tons, stood two stories high, and occupied 1,500 square feet of floor space. Unlike today’s computers, which operate in binary codes (0s and 1s), ENIAC operated in decimal (0, 1, 2,…, 9) and required ten vacuum tubes to represent one decimal digit. With over 18,000 vacuum tubes, ENIAC needed a great amount of electrical power, so much so that it was said that it dimmed the lights in Philadelphia whenever it operated.
Emerging Roles of Artificial Intelligence in Project Management
Published in Adedeji B. Badiru, Project Management, 2019
In 1938, Claude Shannon demonstrated that Boolean logic consisting of only two-variable states (e.g., on–off switching of circuits) can be used to perform logic operations. Based on this premise, Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was built in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC was a large-scale, fully operational electronic computer that signaled the beginning of the first generation of computers. It could perform calculations 1,000 times faster than its electromechanical predecessors. It weighed 30 tons, stood two stories high, and occupied 1,500 square feet of floor space. Unlike today’s computers, which operate in binary codes (0s and 1s), ENIAC operated in decimal (0, 1, 2, …, 9) and required ten vacuum tubes to represent one decimal digit. With over 18,000 vacuum tubes, ENIAC needed a great amount of electrical power, so much so that it was said that it dimmed the lights in Philadelphia whenever it operated.
High-Performance Computing for Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer
Published in W.J. Minkowycz, E.M. Sparrow, Advances in Numerical Heat Transfer, 2018
The development of the electronic computer first began in 1939 with the Model I developed by Bell Labs. It operated at around 0.5 flops. A few years later, the Z3 and ABC were constructed at Iowa State University. In 1944, the Mark I was built by Harvard University and IBM. The Bletchley Park Colossus Mark I and Mark II were built in 1943 and 1944 to break the German Enigma code. After the war, the University of Pennsylvania built ENIAC, which was used to calculate the ballistics of cannon shells. The ENIAC proved to be over 800 times faster than the Model I computer. The UNIVAC computer, built in 1951, proved to be five times faster than the ENIAC and is considered the machine that launched the performance race among commercial companies, e.g., IBM, CDC, and Remington-Rand.
Trinity by the Numbers: The Computing Effort that Made Trinity Possible
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2021
As von Neumann searched for new developments in computing between 1944 and 1945, he conducted a series of invited lectures at Los Alamos, discussing the implications of new computing technologies and methods for the future of scientific research. Metropolis and others argued that von Neumann inspired in T Division an enthusiasm for large-scale computers and for mechanizing weapons calculations that continued long after the war. In early 1945, von Neumann brought news of the ENIAC project, the first fully electronic, general-purpose computer, which he discovered after a chance encounter with one of its codevelopers, Herman Goldstine. The technical approach that the ENIAC represented had the potential to improve computing speeds thousands of times over conventional methods. A calculation that a human computer needed 20 h to complete, the ENIAC could perform in 30 s. However, the ENIAC would not be complete until the end of 1945, making it of little use for the immediate implosion problem. Teller, who worked closely and well with von Neumann, took notice of the ENIAC’s potential for his group’s work on the Super. Von Neumann arranged for Los Alamos to run the first large-scale program ever, a thermonuclear feasibility study, on the ENIAC, and Frankel, having been moved to Teller’s group, was one of those who programmed the problem.12,15,25,35
Neutronics Calculation Advances at Los Alamos: Manhattan Project to Monte Carlo
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2021
Avneet Sood, R. Arthur Forster, B. J. Archer, R. C. Little
The ENIAC, built at the University of Pennsylvania, is generally acknowledged as the first electronic, general-purpose, digital computer. It consisted of 18 000 vacuum tubes, 70 000 resistors, 10 000 capacitors, 1500 relays, 6000 manual switches, and 5 million soldered joints. It was 8 ft high, covered 1800 ft2 of floor space, weighed 30 tons, and consumed 150 kW of electrical power during normal operation. The total cost of the ENIAC was about $7 200 000 in today’s dollars.