Early Computers at MIT and U Penn

In The Hesperus Prophecy, the Analytical Engine Room’s computational machine is fully functional by 1939, when James and Declan tour the facility. When Germany’s Konrad Zuse unveils his work in May 1941, introducing the world to programmable computers, he gives the Nazis (and the Obturavi) a technological edge. Thankfully, the Clypeate has been sharing ALVA’s technology with American universities, principally MIT and U Penn, guaranteeing the United States doesn’t fall behind.

In response, U Penn’s School of Electrical Engineering builds ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), unveiling it in 1946 before the machine is moved to the US Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground. The first general-purpose, non-mechanical computer, it is thousands of times faster than any previous machines and contains 18,000 vacuum tubes, 10,000 capacitors, 6,000 switches, and 1,500 relays.

MIT’s Whirlwind I, unveiled in 1951, is the 3,300-square-foot precursor to modern-day computers, introducing breakthroughs like parallel digit processing, random access, and magnetic core memory still used in modern computing. Whirlwind I’s interactive visual displays become the foundation for the simulation technology used by the US Air Force.

In The Hesperus Prophecy, the Analytic Engine Room is filled with machines like those pictured, except on a grander scale. ALVA uses these computational machines to extract the designs, and build the devices, from the images placed inside Declan’s mind by the Girl in the Glass. Once Declan’s devices are built, what’s the next task for ALVA’s incalculable computing power?

U Penn’s ENIAC

MIT’s Whirlwind I