Eckert, John Presper Junior

Presper Eckert, Jr. (full name Presper Eckert, John Junior, Eckert J. Presper, Jr.) (April 9, 1919, Philadelphia,. Pennsylvania - June 3, 1995, Bryn Mawr, ibid), an American engineer and inventor (1946, together with J. Soaking), the first universal computer, which became the prototype of most modern computers.

Eckert was educated at the Higher School of electrical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where in 1941 became a bachelor, and in 1943 - Master. While still a student, Eckert, together with his professor J. Soaking made several useful developments in the field of computer hardware.

In 1946, commissioned by the government, they built a digital computer, which was called "ENIAC" (ENIAC - Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). In this primitive-looking machine was an electric circuit, essentially used in all modern high-speed computers. Instead of electromechanical relays in it as an internal storage device used vacuum tubes, which allowed in 1000 to increase the performance machinery compared with "Mark-1". The machine is operated on binary numbers. ENIAC was used in the U.S. armed forces for defensive purposes.

Then they began work on a new machine - Edvak "(EDVAC - Electronic Discret Variable Automatic Computer - electronic automatic computer with discrete variables), the program which was supposed to be stored in computer memory. As the internal memory to be used mercury in the tube used in the radar. Ideas for a new machine were published by John von Neumann, which later were attributed

. In 1948, Eckert and soaking, . leaving university, . founded his own computer firm, . which presented its new model - "Binak" (BINAC - Binary Automatic Computer), . in which to store the information has already been applied magnetic tape as opposed to punch cards,
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The third model Eckert and soaking presented in 1951 - "universal automatic computer-1" (UNIVAC I - Universal Automatic Computer), was designed to solve a variety of business tasks. He was free to handle both numeric and symbolic information. The first copy was handed over to the U.S. Census Bureau. It was then created many different models of UNIVAC, which found application in various fields. Thus, UNIVAC was the first serial computer. Can say that initiated the UNIVAC computer boom.

In the years 1948-66 Eckert received 85 patents, mostly related to the inventions in the field of electronics.

In 1950 the company acquired the firm Eckert "Remington Rand" (Remington Rand, Inc.), Which in 1955, in turn merged with the "Sperry Rand Corporation" (Sperry Rand Corp., Later Unisys Corp.).

In 1967, Eckert was elected a member of the National Technical Academy and was awarded the National Medal for contribution to science in 1969.