MANIAC I facts for kids
The MANIAC I was an early computer built a long time ago. It was created by Nicholas Metropolis at a place called Los Alamos National Laboratory. This computer was special because it was one of a kind. It couldn't share programs with other computers. Nicholas Metropolis chose the name MANIAC to try and stop people from making silly names for computers!
The MANIAC I was quite heavy, weighing about 1,000 pounds (0.50 short tons; 0.45 t).
What MANIAC I Did
The first big job for the MANIAC I was to help with very important calculations about a powerful process. In 1953, it helped figure out a complex math problem using a method called Monte Carlo integration.
A really cool thing happened in 1956: MANIAC I became the first computer to beat a human in a chess-like game! This game was called Los Alamos chess. It was played on a smaller board (6x6 squares) because the computer didn't have much memory or power.
Life of MANIAC I
The MANIAC I started working successfully in March 1952. It was turned off on July 15, 1958. After that, it was moved to the University of New Mexico. It was in bad shape, but a person named Dale Sparks fixed it. It was used for some important computer studies there until it was finally retired in 1965.
The MANIAC I had a successor, or a next version, called MANIAC II, which was built in 1957. A third version, MANIAC III, was built in 1964 at the University of Chicago.
People Who Programmed MANIAC I
Many smart people worked with the MANIAC I. Here are some of them:
- Mary Tsingou - She helped create an important math method used in a famous problem.
- Klara Dan von Neumann - She wrote some of the very first programs for MANIAC I.
- Dana Scott - He programmed the MANIAC in 1958 to find all the ways to solve a pentomino puzzle.
- Marjorie Devaney - She was one of the first people to program the MANIAC I.
- Arianna W. Rosenbluth - She wrote the first full version of a widely used math method called Markov chain Monte Carlo.
- Paul Stein and Mark Wells - They created the Los Alamos chess game for the computer.
See also
In Spanish: MANIAC I para niños
