old IBM calculator questions

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_ncal.verio.com>
Date: Sat Oct 24 16:27:21 1998

On Sat, 24 Oct 1998, Max Eskin wrote:

> Here are a couple of questions inspired by my encounter with the
> IBM Automatic Sequence-Controlled Calculator Mark I.
> For one thing, if this thing could perform all of the basic
> calculations to many decimal places in a short time, why build an
> ENIAC, many times bigger, and less reliable, when this machine
> could have been scaled if necessary? It had been in development, and
> I'm sure the military was working on relay-based machines as well.
> So why the choice of digital with vacuum tubes?

Speed for one.

Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Sat Oct 24 1998 - 16:27:21 BST

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