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ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, developed in 1946, was so large that it was housed in a room of its own.

While ENIAC, Colossus, and others might look like dinosaurs compared to to- day’s computers, they were nothing short of groundbreaking. The Soviets were not to be outdone. In 1949 they built MESM, the Russian acronym for “Small Electronic Counting Machine.” With its 6,000 vacuum tubes and its insatiable thirst for elec- tricity, MESM made quick calculations that the Soviets then used to build better and more destructive nuclear weapons. By 1951, scientists had upgraded MESM and increased its speed to 50 operations per second. During those early years of the Cold War, advances in computer science and tech- nology seemed to come nearly every day. Transistors—small electronic devices that carry and enhance the power of an electrical current—eventually replaced the vacuum tube and changed the face of computing yet again. By 1953, transistorized computers were in operation, including a portable computer that was installed in the bombing control of a U.S. Air Force C-131 aircraft. Integrated Circuits W hile transistors were groundbreaking, the invention of the integrated circuit took computer technology to a completely new level. The integrated circuit was the brain- child of Jack Kilby, a scientist at a technology company called Texas Instruments. He invented the circuit in 1958. By that time, transistors were common in phones, radios, and toys. Scientists wanted something smaller.

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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY