ENIAC

It has often considered the first general purpose electronic computer, but this title actually belongs to the German Z3 computer. It is also related to the Colossus, which was used to decipher German code during World War II and destroyed after use to avoid leaving evidence, being recently refurbished to a British museum. It was totally digital, that is, processes and operations executed by machine-language instructions, unlike other contemporary computing machines analog processes. Presented to the public on 15 February 1946.
The ENIAC was built at the University of Pennsylvania by John Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly, occupied an area of ​​167 m² and operated a total of 17,468 electronic valves or vacuum tubes, which in turn allowed for about 5000 additions and 300 multiplications second. Physically, ENIAC had 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7,200 crystal diodes, 1,500 relays, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors and solder 5 million. It weighed 27 tons, measuring 2.4 mx 0.9 mx 30 m; 1500 using electromagnetic switches and relays, manual operation required about 6,000 switches, and software program or when required modifications, delayed weeks of manual installation.
The ENIAC local temperature rose to 50 ° C. For the various operations had to be changed, connect and reconnect the cable as it was, at that time in telephone exchanges, hence the concept. This work could take several days depending on the calculation to be performed.
One of the myths surrounding this device is that the city of Philadelphia, where he was installed, was suffering from blackouts when the ENIAC came into operation, the consumption was 160 kW.
At 2345 of October 2, 1955, the ENIAC was turned off forever.