Dictionary of Computers - Eckert, J(ohn) Presper

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US electronics engineer best known for his pioneering work on the design and construction of digital computers. He also held patents on numerous other electronic devices.

Eckert was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 9 April 1919. He attended the William Pema Charter School and went on to graduate in 1941 from the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He remained at the Moore School for five years as a research associate. During this time he worked on the design of radar ranging systems and then, to help with the complex calculations that these involve, turned to the design of electronic calculating devices. From 1942 to 1946, with John William Mauchly, he devised the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC), one of the first modern computers.

ENIAC was first used in 1947, and proved to be successful although open to various improvements. Eckert had left Pennsylvania University the year before to become a partner in the Electric Control Company, and in 1947 began a three-year term as a vice-president of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. During this period design improvements were incorporated into new computer models.

In 1950, the company was incorporated in Remington Rand. Eckert became director of engineering within the Eckert–Mauchly division, becoming vice-president in 1954. A year later the company came under the control of the Sperry Rand Corporation, and Eckert stayed on as vice-president when the company became UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer Division) and later the Unisys Corporation. In 1989 he retired from Unisys but continued to act as a consultant for the company until his death on 3 June 1995.

Eckert's important contributions to computer design were recognized with awards and honorary degrees from various organizations and universities.

The need for improved accuracy and, particularly, speed in routine calculations became most apparent during World War II, when ballistic firing tables had to be rapidly recalculated to suit new weaponry and battle conditions. Eckert realized that normal calculators were ineffective and inefficient. With the assistance of Mauchly he used electronics to construct an integrator, and produced a flexible digital computer that could be used for calculating firing tables and much more.

The ENIAC, although only a prototype of present-day computers, incorporated many modern design features and could perform mathematical functions. It lacked a memory, but could store a limited amount of information. Its major drawbacks were its size (it weighed many tonnes and included thousands of resistors and valves) and its high running cost (it consumed 100 KW of electric power). Nevertheless it formed applications to various military, meteorological, and research problems.

ENIAC was superseded by BINAC, also designed in part by Eckert, which (by virtue of even more sophisticated design) was smaller and faster. In the early 1950s Eckert's group began to produce computers for the commercial market with the construction of the UNIVAC I. Its chief advance was the capacity to store programs.

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