Early Computer History

Discussions debate the definition and history of the first computers, including ENIAC, Konrad Zuse's Z3, Charles Babbage's designs, human computers, and precursors like calculators or mechanical devices.

📉 Falling 0.5x Hardware
3,525
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#6954
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
4
2008
17
2009
34
2010
62
2011
60
2012
96
2013
105
2014
152
2015
159
2016
207
2017
198
2018
217
2019
246
2020
256
2021
307
2022
372
2023
325
2024
396
2025
293
2026
19

Keywords

RC e.g CPU youtube.com records.aspx upenn.edu ENIAC RSA Z3 DRAM computers computer computing ibm general purpose magnetic machines turing hp printing press

Sample Comments

dorgo Dec 24, 2017 View on HN

atm yes. First computers were huge, slow and impractical too.

anonymousiam Jan 3, 2021 View on HN

Your comment seems to be in conflict with this source: https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~jan/eniacproj.html

iwontberude Apr 1, 2024 View on HN

Humans were computers at one point, does that count?

userbinator Dec 10, 2021 View on HN

I guess the definition of "computer" you have is "stored program machine", but a lot of other machines were called computers back then.https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15108965https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1i-dnAH9Y4

sulam Feb 15, 2016 View on HN

LMGTFY: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Draft_of_a_Report_on_the...Short answer: yep!

xpuente Nov 16, 2019 View on HN

Wasn't this preceded by Konrad Zuse's Z1 and Z3?

yesbabyyes Jul 31, 2020 View on HN

Don't forget about Konrad Zuse's Z3!

agumonkey Mar 2, 2022 View on HN

in those days a computer was a thing that computes (a calculator) not necessarily featuring programs

rajesh-s Jan 11, 2020 View on HN

Found a few posters on the history of computing:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22000407

projektfu Dec 12, 2025 View on HN

You might like the IBM 1620.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1620#Anecdotes