Yeah, there were plenty of precursors (hence the MB was arguably the first). But the Manchester Baby was the first stored-program general purpose computer. Gotta pick a point somewhere.
Yeah, the whole history is fascinating. I also like to remind my college students that computer science/engineering is one of the rare branches of science/engineering that was founded at least in equal part by women, if not more (again, an arguable point, but undeniable that there is a larger influence from women compared to other scientific disciplines).
Also before the ENIAC was the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC)
Yeah, there were plenty of precursors (hence the MB was arguably the first). But the Manchester Baby was the first stored-program general purpose computer. Gotta pick a point somewhere.
I think it’s a fun debate between all of them. It doesn’t really matter, but I enjoy reading the reasoning behind each argument.
Yeah, the whole history is fascinating. I also like to remind my college students that computer science/engineering is one of the rare branches of science/engineering that was founded at least in equal part by women, if not more (again, an arguable point, but undeniable that there is a larger influence from women compared to other scientific disciplines).
Colossus is still early then all of those are we still really don’t know exactly when construction started because of state secrets and whatnot.
Not one I was familiar with, thanks for sharing!