Aiken 1900 was born in Hope, New Jersey, USA on March 8th. Ken (hoboken, New Jersey), but grew up in Pohris, Indiana. Because Aiken's family is a single-parent family, the family is relatively poor. I attended an arsenal technical school in high school, went to school during the day and worked 12 hours night shift in a local power supply and heating company at night, and was responsible for operating the switchboard. Later, the headmaster of the vocational high school knew about his situation and specially arranged some exams for Aiken to graduate early after passing.
After graduation, Aiken came to Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, and worked for Madison Gas Company. Electric Co) found a job that allowed him to study at the University of Wisconsin at the same time. 1923, graduated from Aiken University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, and was immediately promoted to chief engineer of the company. 1928, he left his former company and went to Westinghouse electric manufacturing company. Three years later, he went to Milwaukee line material company .. 1933. Aiken felt that he had chosen the wrong major in electrical engineering, so he made up his mind to quit his job and go back to school to study physics. At this time, he was 33 years old. Aiken advanced to the University of Chicago, but soon transferred to Harvard University, where he obtained a master's degree in 1937 and a master's degree in 1939.
Aiken's doctoral thesis is entitled "Theory of Space Charge Conduction". The research of this subject requires the calculation of complex nonlinear differential equations, but Aiken has only one hand-operated desktop computer available, and it often takes a lot of time to solve an equation, which leads to the idea of developing an automatic computer. Aiken put forward the first proposal of automatic computer in 1937 on the basis of deeply studying the work of Charles Babbage (1791—1871), the famous document "Proposing Automatic Computer". In this 22-page document printed on both sides, Aiken put forward his design goal, that is, four characteristics of the computer later called Mark I:
1. It can handle both positive and negative numbers.
2. Can solve various transcendental functions, such as trigonometric function, logarithmic function, Bessel function, probability function, etc.
3. Fully automatic. That is to say, once the processing starts, the operation is completely automatic, without human intervention.
4. In the process of calculation, the subsequent calculation depends on the result of the previous calculation.
Aiken had hoped to get financial support from the school to develop his computer, but failed. Fortunately, he was recommended by Professor Ted Brown of Business School and Professor harlow shapley of Astronomy Department, and got in touch with Watson, the boss of IBM. Watson, a visionary, is committed to transforming IBM from a company that only manufactures office equipment into a company that manufactures computers, so he fully supports Aiken's plan and signed an agreement to manufacture Mark I in March 1939. Watson put the company's main technical backbone such as Lake (Clair D.Lake, 1888- 1958), Hamilton (Frank Hamilton, 1898- 1972), Du Fei (BenjaminDurfee,/Kloc-0).
Lake is a senior engineer at IBM. 19 15 years from the automobile industry to IBM. He is a famous inventor. However, due to the outbreak of World War II, Aiken was enlisted as an instructor at the Naval Mine Warfare School in Yorktown. He can only develop Mark I intermittently. Fortunately, one day, an influential senior naval officer who knew Aiken's situation met Aiken and asked him in surprise why he was here instead of developing Mark I? Aiken replied, didn't you order me to work here? This became a turning point: a few hours later, a new order was issued, appointing Aiken as the head of the naval computing project, and immediately leaving the naval school to work at Harvard University. Later Aiken joked that he was the only computer commander in the world.
After 5-6 years of cooperation and efforts between Aiken and IBM (including inevitable friction and collision, of course), Mark I was finally completed and put into use in May of 1944. It uses more than 3,000 motor-driven relays, and it is a 5-ton behemoth with a cost as high as 500,000 US dollars (some data even say that it exceeds 6,543.8+0,000 US dollars), of which IBM's investment accounts for 2/3, and the rest 654.38+0/3 is funded by the navy. Its core is 7 1 rotation register (the device that temporarily stores operands in operation is called register, starting with Mark), and each register can store a positive or negative 23-bit number. Data and instructions are input through punch card machine, and output is realized by teletypewriter. The addition speed is 300ms, the multiplication speed is 6 s, and the division speed is11.4s. Of course, it can't be compared with modern computers. Even compared with the world's first electronic computer ENIAC, which was born two years later, it is very backward, but it is actually the world's first automatic digital computer to realize sequence control. IBM named it ASCC, that is, automatic sequence control calculator, which is a major breakthrough in the history of computing technology. In the past, it took four experts three weeks to complete the task, and it only took 19 hours on Mark I, and it was very reliable, working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which was incomparable to the original electronic computer.
Mark I is mainly used to calculate the trajectory and compile the firing table of the Ship Bureau, and also used to calculate the atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project. In addition, it also serves scientists inside and outside Harvard University. For example, Wassily Leontief, a famous professor of economics at Harvard University, used Mark I to solve various linear equation problems in input-output analysis. 1949, Harvard University's computing laboratory (1946 Aiken was founded after he officially retired from the navy and returned to Harvard University, and Aiken served as the director until his retirement), that is, the chronicle of Harvard University's computing laboratory, published 19 mathematical tables, all of which were the results of Mark I, especially in the calculation of Bessel function. When American Weekly reported Mark I in June1944+1October 14, it called Mark I a "super brain", saying that it can solve various problems such as physics, mathematics, atomic structure and so on. To put it mildly, it may also solve the problem of human origin.
Mark I did not retire until 1958 and was carefully preserved in the United States.
After Mark I, Aiken successively developed Mark II (1946), Mark III (1950) and Mark IV (1952), but IBM did not continue to support the development of these projects. It was because Watson received a cold reception at the ceremony to celebrate the inauguration of Mark I, and Aiken attributed almost all the credit for Mark I's success in his speech, which made Watson extremely angry and stopped all support for Aiken and Harvard University. Mark Ⅱ was produced for the navy at Dalgren proving ground in Virginia, and its reliability has been strictly tested at the proving ground. According to the records, on June 26th, 1947, 19 guns were fired from the main gun group of the warship. In the earth-shattering gunfire, none of the relays near Mark broke down. The report concluded that the shelling did not cause any interference to the normal operation of the computer, so special protective measures were not needed. Since Markⅲⅲ, Aiken began to use electronic components. Its register consists of electronic tube circuits, and data and instructions are placed on the magnetic drum, with a capacity of 4350 words 16 bits and about 4000 instructions. The user is still the Dalgren proving ground. Aiken's last computer, Mark ⅳ, was developed for the Air Force. A core shift register and a semiconductor diode circuit are added. The basic data about MarkI to markiv are shown in the table. (Form cannot be added)
While developing Mark computer, Aiken also devoted himself to computer education and training. 1947- 1948 In the academic year, Aiken took the lead in setting up the course of "Organization of Large Digital Computers" at Harvard University, and soon after that, he set up the computer "Numerical Analysis". Thanks to Aiken's efforts, Harvard University became one of the first universities in the world to introduce computer postgraduate courses and award master's and doctor's degrees in computer science. Aiken himself brought out 15 doctoral students and more master students, most of whom became the backbone of the early computer field. Among them are Frederick Phillips Brooks (Jr.) and Kenneth Eugene Iverson (father of APL), winners of Turing Award and Computer Pioneer Award, and Gerrit A.Blaauw, a Dutch scholar who also won the Computer Pioneer Award with 1994. Aiken has also held countless training courses, seminars and academic seminars on computers, from which computer scholars in the United States and other countries have benefited greatly and played an important role in promoting and promoting the development of computing technology. Some critics believe that Aiken's contribution in these aspects is even more remarkable than the Mark computer he developed.
Aiken's works are rare. 195 1 year, he and his colleagues edited and published the book Synthesis of Electronic Computing and Control Circuits, which is the first monograph in this field. However, the 30-volume Annalsof Computation Laboratory, edited by Aiken and published by Harvard University Press, is an extremely precious treasure left by Aiken, including 3-volume annual reports detailing Mark I—MarkⅳIV, 4-volume conference proceedings on large digital computers and switch theory, and 23-volume mathematical tables. In addition, Aiken also submitted a large number of relevant technical reports to the Naval Ship Bureau, Atomic Energy Commission, Air Force, Bell Telephone Laboratory, NSF of the American Natural Science Foundation, American Gas Association and Edison Electric Society, with a total volume of 140, which is amazing in number and richness.
Aiken has won many honors and awards. In addition to the computer pioneer award, IEEE also awarded him the John Award and the Edison Award. Franklin Institute awarded him the John Prize. The navy awarded him the Distinguished Public Service Award, while the Air Force awarded him the Distinguished Citizen Service Medal. His alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, awarded him a certificate of outstanding professional service. The French and Belgian governments also awarded Aiken the highest honorary title or award as a citizen of the country (the French Knights of Honor and the Royal Belgian Officer Cross). Aiken is an academician of the American Academy of Arts and one of the first members of the High-speed Computer Committee established by NSC of American Research Institute 1946. In addition, he is an honorary consultant or foreign academician of national academic institutions in Spain and Sweden.
Aiken retired from Harvard University on 196 1 and moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was hired by the University of Miami as a professor of information technology, helped the school to formulate the syllabus of computer science, designed its computing center, and founded his own company called Aiken Industries, mainly engaged in technical consulting. 1March, 973 14, just one week after his 73rd birthday, Aiken died of a heart attack in St. Louis, Missouri.