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Cyhist Jan 23 1997 M
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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 12:16:45 -0700
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: "Michael R. Williams" <williams@cpsc.ucalgary.ca>
Subject: Re: Early Microsoft history
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Don Hyde wrote:
>The ENIAC machine is sometimes credited as being the first electronic digital computer. It
>was originally programmed with a maze of patchcords, and had a bank of thousands of
>10-position rotary switches with which to enter numerical constants.
>
>Programming with all those patchcords proved too time-consuming, so some clever person
>patched it to interpret a program which was dialed in via the constant
knobs. I
>think that patch job could just possibly have been the first emulator.
>
>Since this machine lived sometime before 1950, all those dates for early emulators in the
>80's, 70's, or even 60's seem pretty far off.
>
>I wish I could cite the book I originally read about this emulator in, but I can't find
>it and fear that I must have sold it back when I was a poor student (some decades ago).
>I will search the boxes in the basement again, since it was a cyberhistory goldmine.
The wiring scheme for the ENIAC was originally suggested by R. F. (Dick) Clippinger [it is often incorrectly said that von Neumann suggested it]. The first attempt to implement it was done by A. Goldstine but it proved unsuccessful because it required facilities that were in excess of the ENIAC's capabilities at the time. A second attempt by Nick Metropolis when he managed to get some extra facilities added to the machine. The first program was run, using this new read-only programming scheme in early 1948.
The system has been mentioned by a few authors (but without much detail - the full detail of how it was done is VERY complex and not easy to understand). One source you might have seen it in was one of my own books "A History of Computing Technology" (now out of print, but due to be redone by the IEEE Computer Society Press in Feb. of this year). If anyone is interested in this and other computer history books (for example "King of the Seven Dwarfs" which describes the entry and demise of GE in the computer field) you might try out:
http://www.computer.org/cspress/catalog/new.htm
For some further info on the ENIAC situation you could look at the Volume 18, Number 1, (January 1996) issue of the Annals of the History of Computing which was devoted to the subject.
Mike Williams
--------------------------------------------------- Dr. Michael R. Williams
Editor-in-Chief, Annals of the History of Computing Department of Computer Science
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta
Canada T2N 1N4
Ph: (403) 220-6781
Fax: (403) 284-4707
email: williams@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: "Michael R. Williams" <williams@cpsc.ucalgary.ca>
Subject: Re: Early Microsoft history
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Don Hyde wrote:
>The ENIAC machine is sometimes credited as being the first electronic digital computer. It
>was originally programmed with a maze of patchcords, and had a bank of thousands of
>10-position rotary switches with which to enter numerical constants.
>
>Programming with all those patchcords proved too time-consuming, so some clever person
>patched it to interpret a program which was dialed in via the constant
knobs. I
>think that patch job could just possibly have been the first emulator.
>
>Since this machine lived sometime before 1950, all those dates for early emulators in the
>80's, 70's, or even 60's seem pretty far off.
>
>I wish I could cite the book I originally read about this emulator in, but I can't find
>it and fear that I must have sold it back when I was a poor student (some decades ago).
>I will search the boxes in the basement again, since it was a cyberhistory goldmine.
The wiring scheme for the ENIAC was originally suggested by R. F. (Dick) Clippinger [it is often incorrectly said that von Neumann suggested it]. The first attempt to implement it was done by A. Goldstine but it proved unsuccessful because it required facilities that were in excess of the ENIAC's capabilities at the time. A second attempt by Nick Metropolis when he managed to get some extra facilities added to the machine. The first program was run, using this new read-only programming scheme in early 1948.
The system has been mentioned by a few authors (but without much detail - the full detail of how it was done is VERY complex and not easy to understand). One source you might have seen it in was one of my own books "A History of Computing Technology" (now out of print, but due to be redone by the IEEE Computer Society Press in Feb. of this year). If anyone is interested in this and other computer history books (for example "King of the Seven Dwarfs" which describes the entry and demise of GE in the computer field) you might try out:
http://www.computer.org/cspress/catalog/new.htm
For some further info on the ENIAC situation you could look at the Volume 18, Number 1, (January 1996) issue of the Annals of the History of Computing which was devoted to the subject.
Mike Williams
--------------------------------------------------- Dr. Michael R. Williams
Editor-in-Chief, Annals of the History of Computing Department of Computer Science
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta
Canada T2N 1N4
Ph: (403) 220-6781
Fax: (403) 284-4707
email: williams@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
______________________________________________________________________
