HIT: Names of the Worlds First Computers

["Kevin J. Sinclair" <kjs@COMPUTER.COM>]

(1) From wrs@Tymnet.COM

The ENIAC was the first electronic computer.  It was built in 1946
at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania.  It was good for 0.005 MIPS
(5,000 integer additions per second).

I don't know about the others.  The name MINIAC sticks in my mind
but I can't find a reference to it.

(2) From richard@foxtrot.rahul.net

When I was in high school (about 1957) there was a book called "Let ERMA
do it" (my best recollection).

Of course the UNIVAC I was the first commercial computer.

(3) From PEARSONN@TEN-NASH.TEN.K12.TN.US

Early computer names
        1.      ERMA = Electronic Recording Machine-Accounting.  Erma was
                built by Stanford in California for use in banking.
        2.      AUDREY = invented by Bell Telephone Laboratories to
                understand the human voice.
        3.      SAGE = helped to guard against enemy attack in case of war.
        4.      TALOS = sent up missiles to fight enemy planes.

(4) From david@dhw.vip.best.com

Well, I'm not sure where it fit chronologically, but since it is my
understanding that John von Neumann was responsible for the name, I
expect is was fairly early (as such things go):

Mathematical Analyzer, Numerical Integrator And Computer: MANIAC

(5) From rssmith@tenet.edu

   The Mark I was the first main frame computer, built in 1944 by a team
of computer researchers led by a former Harvard math professor, Howard
Aiken. The Mark I had 750,000 parts and 500 miles of wiring. It weighed
five tones and stood 8 foot tall, 51 feet in length, and 2 feet in depth.
It could multiply two 23-digit numbers in four seconds, making it the
fastest calculator ever invented.

    The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator) arrived
two years later (1946) and it was also huge (filled an entire room). The
inventors, J Presper Eckert and John Mauchly went on to create one of the
first commercial companies, UNIVAC in 1951. UNIVAC (Universal Automatic
Computer) was the first commercial computer.