ENIAC co-inventor explodes myths

14.02.2006

Was ENIAC programmable?

Yes and no. We programmed the machine by plugging wires in from place to place. That's not hard-wired; it's not software; it's not memory. It's pluggable programming. And we had switches to set the functions.

What was the first thing you did with ENIAC?

It was designed to calculate trajectory tables, but it came too late to really help with the war effort. The first real use was Edward Teller using ENIAC to do calculations for the Hydrogen bomb.

What's the zaniest thing you did while developing ENIAC?