Imagine a world where complex calculations took days to complete manually. It was in this context that ENIAC emerged in 1946, revolutionizing computing as the first large-scale electronic computer. Created by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania, its primary purpose was to speed up military calculations, such as those used in ballistics.
Programming the ENIAC was a true challenge: six pioneering women, known as the "ENIAC programmers," had to manually connect wires and adjust switches to configure each new task. Additionally, the machine used punch cards to store information, a common method at the time.
With 17,468 vacuum tubes, occupying 167 square meters, and weighing 30 tons, the ENIAC performed 5,000 operations per second, an astonishing achievement for its era. Though primitive compared to modern computers, it marked the beginning of the digital age, paving the way for the innovations that shape technology in our daily lives today.
Squadron of Lockheed P-38 Lightnings on their way to France on D-Day, from England.