1. Calculator of the Future
EDVAC
Calculator of the Future
Ryan Kidder

2. Quotable Quotes
Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1 ½ tons. - Popular Mechanics, 1949
Never trust a computer you can't lift. - Stan Mazor, 1970
If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get one million miles to the gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. - Robert X. Cringely

3. The Birth of EDVAC Engineering design of ENIAC frozen
Ballistic Research Lab at Aberdeen, MD elects Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. von Neumann’s “First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC”

4. Dr. von Neumann’s Report
Proposed “a very high-speed automatic digital computing system, and in particular with its logical control”
Automatic computing system defined as “a device which can carry out instructions to perform calculations of a considerable order of complexity”
Five distinctions of device

5. Dr. von Neumann’s Report
Device should contain specialized organs for elementary arithmetic
Logical control of device can be best carried out by central organ
A device which carries out complicated operation sequences must have sufficient memory capacity
Must have device to transfer information from outside recording medium to central control and memory
Must have device to transfer information from central control and memory to outside recording medium

6. The Birth of EDVAC
Contract signed on April 12th, 1946 between the Ordinance Department and the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
To design and develop a preliminary model of a small Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Calculator
Originally allotted $100,000 ($962,000 today)
Final cost $467,000 ($4.5 Million today)

7. Design
EDVAC I – Automatic addition, subtraction, multiplication, programmed division, no internal checking. Memory of 1,000 words.
EDVAC II – Fixed decimal point, basic arithmetic processes automatic, added automatic checking. Memory of 1,000 words.
EDVAC III – Automatic floating decimal point, same features as EDVAC II, memory of 4,000 words.
Decided on EDVAC 1.5

8. Features Binary system of numeration Serial arithmetic mode
Four-address command structure
Duplicate circuitry for check purposes
Major improvement over ENIAC, which required considerable human effort to change programs, EDVAC uses magnetic wires

9. Organization
Reader-recorder – contains equipment required to transfer information from the heads to the processing delay and vice versa
Control – contains all operating buttons, lamps, control switches. Sends orders to the dispatcher to start the machine; may also send words to high-speed memory
Dispatcher – decode orders received from control and memory, emit control signals to other units

10. Organization
High-Speed Memory – used for temporary storage of operands during arithmetic operations; contain apparatus to decode addresses received from dispatcher and select memory position whose contents are to be transferred out of memory or to be replaced by incoming data
Computer – performs rational operations on pairs of numbers; answers compared with arithmetic unit
Timer – emits clock pulses at intervals of 1 microsecond and timing pulses at intervals of 48 microseconds

11. Finished Product Delivered to Computing Proving Ground in August, 1949
Problems with marginal circuits solved within 18 months, started operation in late 1951
Averaged hours per week of solving mathematical problems by 1952
145 hours by 1961

12. Later Improvements 1953 - IBM card input-output adapter unit
Magnetic drum for an additional
4,608 words of medium-speed storage
1958 – Built-in floating point arithmetic unit
1960 – Magnetic tape system for additional storage

13. Uses at Ballistic Research Lab
Exterior ballistics problems such as high altitude, solar and lunar trajectories, computation for the preparation of firing tables, and guidance control data for Ordnance weapons, including free-flight and guided missiles.
Interior ballistics problems, including projectile, propellant and launcher behavior, e.g., physical characteristics of solid propellants, equilibrium composition and thermodynamic properties of rocket propellants, computation of detonation waves for reflected shock waves, vibration of gun barrels and the flow of fluids in porous media.
Terminal ballistics problems, including nuclear, fragmentation, and penetration effects in such areas as explosion kinetics, shaped charge behavior, ignition, and heat transfer.
Ballistic measurement problems, including photogrammetric, ionospheric, and damping of satellite spin calculations, reduction of satellite doppler tracking data, and computation of satellite orbital elements.
Weapon systems evaluation problems, including antiaircraft and antimissile evaluation, war game problems, linear programming for solution of Army logistical problems, probabilities of mine detonations, and lethal area and kill probabilities of mine detonations, and lethal area and kill probability studies of missiles.

14. EDVAC Statistics Addition – 864 microseconds
Subtraction – 864 microseconds
Compare – 696 microseconds
Multiply – 2,928 microseconds
Floating point add – 960 microseconds
Floating point multiply – 1,248 microseconds

15. EDVAC