Who invented the computing machine. Scheme, description

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RADIO ELECTRONICS AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
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Who invented the computing machine. Encyclopedia of radio electronics and electrical engineering

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Encyclopedia of radio electronics and electrical engineering / Computers

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Complex modern radio systems and even many household appliances are unthinkable without computer technology, so the readers of "Radio" will be interested in learning about the origin of the computer.

At the origins of this process was the English mathematician Charles Babbage (1791-1871). His "analytical engine" anticipated the advent of computers by more than a hundred years. A man of versatile interests, he also studied geology, archeology, and astronomy. Known are Babbage's writings on economics, political science and theology. But in the annals of history, he will forever remain as the inventor of the world's first general-purpose digital machine. The idea of its creation arose from the scientist in 1833, and he devoted the rest of his life to this cause.

Babbage's machine, unlike modern computers, worked not in binary, but in decimal notation, but was based in general on the same principles. So, for example, it contained logical elements.

Theoretically, Babbage's machine could perform any mathematical operation by storing sequences of commands (in modern terms, a program) in memory and using punched cards as a mass storage device for storing mathematical tables, entering data and programs. Babbage borrowed the idea of punched cards from the textile industry: they were used in the Jacquard loom.

In technical work with the machine, Babbage was assisted by the mathematically gifted daughter of the poet Byron, Ada Byron, married to Lovelace, the world's first programmer. The programming language "ADA" is named after her. "The Analytical Engine," wrote Lady Lovelace, "embroiders algebraic structures in exactly the same way as Jacquard's loom sews flowers and leaves."

The central processing unit (in modern terminology) of the analytical engine contained fifty thousand wheels and a thousand axles.

Unfortunately, the implementation of Babbage's ideas on mechanical devices could not lead to success. Only with the advent of electronic devices it became possible to implement the ideas of the scientist.

Who built the first computer? For a long time, the first computer was considered ENIAC (abbreviation of the English name - "electronic numerical integrator and calculator"), built on more than 18 vacuum tubes during the Second World War at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) under the leadership of John W. Mauchly (000-1907) . However, the priority of creating the first computer was finally awarded (in the literal sense!) in 1980 to the American scientist of Bulgarian origin, John V. Atanasov, who was born in 1973 in Hamilton (New York).

In the late 30s, Atanasoff, a professor at Iowa State College, after trying to create analog devices for the production of complex calculations, began to work on a "proper computer", or, as they would say today, a digital computer based on the binary number system. The machine was built on electromechanical and electronic components. Atanasoff invented, in particular, regenerative memory on capacitors. With the help of graduate student Clifford E. Berry, he built a prototype machine for solving differential equations. The machine was named ABC ("Atanasov-Berry-Computer").

In 1941, Professor Mauchly, invited from the University of Pennsylvania, studied the Atanasov-Berry machine and its documentation - 35 pages outlining the principle of operation. This documentation was required to obtain research funds and was to serve as the basis for a patent application. But due to wartime, the application was never submitted. In 1942, Atanasov was already working in one of the laboratories of the US Navy.

ENIAC was declassified in 1946, and shortly thereafter Mauchly and his assistant J. Presper Eckert (b. 1919) filed a number of ENIAC-related patent applications.

Atanasov began to defend his priority only when the organization in which he worked entered into a lawsuit with the owners of the Mockley-Eckert patents. In 1973, a bench of the Minneapolis District Court ruled that Mauchley had "deduced" the ideas that formed the basis of his patents with Eckert from his long-standing visit to Atanasoff. The "first electronic computer" was recognized by the court not as ENIAC, but as ABC.

The court ruling cannot be considered a strict criterion in matters of priority, but in this case it was developed with the wide involvement of qualified specialists. Mauchly's fault consisted "only" in the fact that he did not refer to ABC - a specialized computer on the basis of which ENIAC was created.

The "Father of Computers" JV Atanasov in 1983 was awarded the medal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers of the USA, and in 1985 - the Order of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, XNUMXst degree.

What about Mokli? The reader should not get the impression of him as a "patent pirate". The contribution of this scientist to the development of computer technology is undeniable. The ABC computer remained an experimental device, while ENIAC served honestly until 1955. Isn't that why Atanasov was involved in the trial only with difficulty?

Disputes about priority for outstanding discoveries and inventions run through the entire history of science and technology. Recall that Isaac Newton (1643-1727) and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) claimed the invention of mathematical analysis. The inventor of the lightning rod is considered not only Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), but also Prokop Divish (1698-1765). For decades, disputes about the role of Alexander Stepanovich Popov (1859-1905/06) and Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) have not subsided. Paradoxically, this question occupied more subsequent generations (especially in our country) than Popov and Marconi themselves.

Benjamin Franklin did not like disputes about priority very much. He said that it is better to spend time creating new experiments than arguing about already done ones.

Author: L. Kryzhanovsky, St. Petersburg

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