Early stage computers, government projects, were designed to calculate arithmetic functions at a more rapid speed than humans could perform on paper or in their heads, save for a few savants with amazing math skills. Computations at rapid pace, thus the name computers. The first US Government computer was an acronym,
ENIAC. Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.
ENIAC was enormous. Bigger than any one room, it was positioned in a 50-by-30-foot basement. The massive structure contained 40 panels U-shaped, along three walls. Each unit was roughly 2 feet wide by 2 feet deep by 8 feet high. And it required a lot of power! With ±18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 6,000 switches, and 1,500 relays, ENIAC was the most complex electronic system ever built. ENIAC ran continuously, in part to extend tube life, generated 150 kilowatts of heat, and could execute up to 5,000 addition problems per second, several orders of magnitude faster than its electromechanical predecessors. Begun as a WWII project, it was completed by February 1946, at a cost to the government of $400,000. The war was over. But the US led the way into computing and computers. ENIAC was used in the development of the HydrogenBomb.
From New York City
DIGITAL STRATEGY IN ENERGY AND COMPUTING
by Dean Landsman