The world's first general-purpose computer "ENIAC" was born in February 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania. Inventors are American Moakley and J. Press perrett.

The U.S. Department of Defense uses it for ballistic calculations. It is a giant, with 18000 electron tubes, an area of 170 square meters, weighing 30 tons, consuming about 150 kilowatts of electricity, and performing 5000 operations per second, which is insignificant now, but unprecedented at that time. ? ENIAC uses electron tubes as components, so it is also called electron tube computer, which is the first generation computer.

Electron tube computers are bulky, consume high power, are prone to heat, and cannot work for long.

Extended data:

application area

1, information processing. Information processing, also known as data processing, refers to the collection, storage, processing, transmission and output of a large amount of data in scientific research, production and economic activities. Information processing is the most important application field of computer at present. This kind of processing may not be complicated, but the amount of data to be processed is very large.

Personnel management, population statistics, warehouse management, banking, literature retrieval and air ticket reservation are all information processing problems, while various office automation, management information systems and expert systems are all software used for information processing, and accounting computerization belongs to the application field of information processing.

2. Scientific calculation. Scientific calculation, also known as numerical calculation, refers to the complex and data operation involved in scientific research and engineering technology with computers. Scientific computer is the earliest application field of computer, such as aerospace, military, meteorology, bridge design, etc., and there are complex mathematical problems that need computer calculation.

3. Process control. Process control, also known as real-time control, refers to the automatic control and adjustment of the controlled object according to the optimal value by collecting test data through the computer, so as to realize effective control. Process control involves a wide range, such as automatic control of industry and transportation, tracking and control of missiles, satellites and aircraft, and so on.

4. Computer-aided system. Computer-aided system refers to the use of computers to help people complete some related work, mainly including computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided teaching (CAI), computer-aided engineering (CAE) and so on. For example, CAD is widely used in aviation, machinery, architecture, clothing, electronics and other fields, thus improving design quality, shortening design cycle and improving design automation.

5. Computer communication. Computer communication is the product of the combination of computer technology and communication technology, and its typical representative is computer network. With the rapid popularization of Internet and multimedia technology, telecommuting activities based on computer communication, such as online meeting, telemedicine, online banking, e-commerce and online accounting, have been or will be popularized.

6. artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the use of computers to simulate human intelligence activities, so that computers have the ability to judge, understand, learn and solve problems. At present, the research of artificial intelligence has made some achievements, such as breakthroughs in medical diagnosis, text translation, cryptanalysis, intelligent robots and other fields.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-the first generation of electronic computers