ENIAC contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7,200 crystal diodes, 1,500 relays, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors and around 5 million hand-soldered joints. It weighed 30 short tons (27 t), was roughly 8.5 feet by 3 feet by 80 feet (2.6 m by 0.9 m by 26 m), took up 680 square feet (63 m²), and consumed 150 kW of power.
Impressive, huh? The ENIAC could also perform 5000 simple addition or subtraction operations per second, with capacity to work much faster if strung to operate in parallel. It could also do 385 multiplications per second. I really suggest reading the Wikipedia entry for this. The details are fascinating. However, I wonder how many people would want to have the ENIAC as their personal computer. It's not even that old, just from the 1950s. I am sure vacuum tubes and diodes have become better these days, and a modern ENIAC could certainly outperform the original one by a huge factor.
Would you buy an ENIAC?
Consider this in contrast though: the Internal Combustion Engine was first conceived of in 1206 AD. That's 9 years before the Magna Carta was written. There have been various people who have made designs of it, till Nikolaus Otto came up with the 4-stroke engine in 1876. Then Karl Benz made the first automobile using a variant of the 4-stroke engine in 1879.
1879. That's 71 years before 1950. And we still drive 4-stroke engine automobiles. And we celebrate Benz (as we rightfully should) in the Mercedes-Benz. But we dismiss the Prius, which uses a hybrid system by combining an electrical motor and a 4-stroke engine, as a hype and as a political statement. The Prius actually uses the Atkinson cycle which was invented in 1882. So whichever way you look at it, the Prius uses more modern technology than any other car out there on the road. But people want the pricier BMWs, Ferraris, Mustangs and what not.
Why not buy a new ENIAC in a newly built concrete housing, with fresh paint, with voice operated climate control, with retina scan entry systems? Isn't that what the new cars offer? An engine technology nearly 130 years old with marginal, if any, modifications, packaged in shiny bodies with fancy interior gadgets.
Fortunately, the ENIAC now exists in the museum and we now use microprocessor powered PCs and Macs. Hopefully the Prius will send the 4-stroke Otto cycle engine to the museum as well. With a little help from the rising price of gasoline.
Would you buy an ENIAC?
Consider this in contrast though: the Internal Combustion Engine was first conceived of in 1206 AD. That's 9 years before the Magna Carta was written. There have been various people who have made designs of it, till Nikolaus Otto came up with the 4-stroke engine in 1876. Then Karl Benz made the first automobile using a variant of the 4-stroke engine in 1879.
1879. That's 71 years before 1950. And we still drive 4-stroke engine automobiles. And we celebrate Benz (as we rightfully should) in the Mercedes-Benz. But we dismiss the Prius, which uses a hybrid system by combining an electrical motor and a 4-stroke engine, as a hype and as a political statement. The Prius actually uses the Atkinson cycle which was invented in 1882. So whichever way you look at it, the Prius uses more modern technology than any other car out there on the road. But people want the pricier BMWs, Ferraris, Mustangs and what not.
Why not buy a new ENIAC in a newly built concrete housing, with fresh paint, with voice operated climate control, with retina scan entry systems? Isn't that what the new cars offer? An engine technology nearly 130 years old with marginal, if any, modifications, packaged in shiny bodies with fancy interior gadgets.
Fortunately, the ENIAC now exists in the museum and we now use microprocessor powered PCs and Macs. Hopefully the Prius will send the 4-stroke Otto cycle engine to the museum as well. With a little help from the rising price of gasoline.
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