ABSTRACT
Digital computers have burst into public awareness so recently that it is sometimes difficult to realise that they have any history or antecedents at all. The first electronic computer built was the eniac at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946. It had no moving parts and used valves in its electronic circuits. A digital computer consists of four main parts: a part to read information in and out of the computer, a part for storing information in the computer, a part for actually carrying out computations, and a part for controlling the computer. There are two kinds of information which must be entered into the computer in order for it to carry out a computation: the program, or instructions for carrying out the computation, and data for the program to work on.
