> On Feb 15, 2021, at 7:23 AM, osi.superboard via cctalk
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> 75 years ago, February 15, 1946
> The ENIAC, presented to the public in 1946, is - depending on the definition
> - the first programmable digital computer in the world. Its first programmers
> were primarily women: so-called refrigerator ladies (seen here: Gloria Ruth
> Gordon and Ester Gerston) spent hours flipping switches and swapping cable
> connections - the first computer input devices -
Not so much input devices as rather program storage devices. ENIAC wasn't a
stored-program machine. And of course read-only program memories have a long
history, going back to the Atanasoff-Berry digital computer years earlier,
through the ROM of the Electrologica X1 and the Apollo Guidance Computer, to
the deadstart panel toggle switch boot ROM of the CDC mainframes.
paul
