Vacuum Tube Valley, the mouse test, and ENIAC

Here's a nifty interview from Computerworld with J. Presper Eckert, co-inventor of ENIAC, the first practical, all-electronic computer, built at the University of Pennsylvania in the mid-1940s. ENIAC sported 18,000 off-the-shelf vacuum tubes and wiring tested by mice (to see what kind of insulation they were least likely to chew off), and marked the beginning of the modern computer age.

[Co-inventor] Mauchley thought the world would need maybe six computers. No one had any idea the transistor and chip technologies would come along so quickly. It is shocking to have your life work reduced to a tenth of a square inch of silicon.

It's interesting to note Eckert's reference to the Philadelphia area as "Vacuum Tube Valley," so called because most US manufacturing of radios and televisions were located in the area, and Eckert's own interest in electronics as having been nurtured by exposure to this industry. For much the same reason the Connecticut River valley where I live was once the world leader in tool making for its proximity to the Springfield Armory. And the Industrial Revolution took hold in the United States around the knitting mills of Massachusetts' Merrimack Valley. And the San Jose area has become Silicon Valley. Concentrations of industry become breeding grounds of innovation. By "outsourcing" our industries we give up not only jobs for today, but also whole new industries for tomorrow.

Well that's a downer, huh? It's really a charming interview, with Eckert. Go read it. And if you've never seen a vacuum tube you can read about them here - the tubes pictured would be about the size of your thumb. 18,000 of them would not only take up a whole lot of space (forget "laptop") but also throw off a whole lot of heat.

A modern microprocessor chip may contain as many as 10 million transistors.

Technorati Tags: Miscellany