The Mark I ran by using prepunched paper tape. The Mark I was slow, and required 3 to 5 seconds to perform multiplication. But the computer was fully automatic and could complete long math problems without any human intervention. John P. Eckert, and John W. Mauchley in 1942 decided to build a high-speed electronic computer to do the job. This machine became known as ENIAC, for "Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator". Dolotta explains: ENIAC used 18,000 standard vacuum tabes, occupied 1800 square feet of floor space, and used about 180,000 watts of electricity. ENIAC is generally accepted as the first successful high-speed electronic digital computer and was used in many applications from 1946 to 1955 (Dolotta 50). A new look at the wonderful advancements in the world of computers, at this stage in time many things were beginning to happen with the computer. Shallis says:In 1971 Marcian E. Hoff Jr, an engineer at the Intel Corporation, invented the microprocessor and another stage in the development of the computer began (Shallis 121).In the 1980's large scale integration, in which hundreds of thousands of transistors are placed on a single chip, become common.Computers are taking us places where a lot of us thought was not possible. For instance the so called virtual reality is now being tested. This is a way to make reality come to life on a computer monitor. One wears these special electronic glasses and an electronic suit, and fastened to the suit are sensors, which send information to the main computer. The computer works with the data, and gives a three-dimensional view, as one looks through the electronic spectacles. If you wanted to be soldier, all you had to do was simply change the scenery on the main computer, and you would be in the battle field fighting. Today many kids have computer games that will just blow you away, computer games so realistic, they c...
