Howard H. Aiken
Aiken’s Mark I project brought together academic, military, and industrial resources around automatic computation. It supplied an important working environment for early programmers including Grace Hopper.
Howard H. Aiken proposed an automatic sequence-controlled calculator while at Harvard. IBM built the resulting Harvard Mark I, which was placed in operation during the Second World War.
A working computing project
The Mark I was electromechanical and not a stored-program computer, but it demonstrated the organizational and engineering scale of automatic calculation. Its history also includes the work of many operators and programmers.
In memoriam
Aiken died in 1973. The Mark I remains a prominent landmark in the history of large-scale computing.
Timeline
- 1900-03-08Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, United States.
- 1937Proposes an automatic calculating machine at Harvard.
- 1944Harvard Mark I is dedicated.
- 1973-03-14Dies in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.
Howard H. Aiken
- Type
- Person
- Era
- 1930s-1973
- Born
- 1900
- Died
- 1973
- Known for
- computing; engineering; harvard-mark-i; historical-pioneer
- Tags
- computing, engineering, harvard-mark-i, historical-pioneer
Created by Joas A Santos · Something wrong or want it removed? Open an issue.