Computing desk
< April 8	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 10 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 9

It's not Eddie

I am trying to remember the name of a historical computer which sounds like Eddie, but it's not Eddie (obviously not). Unhappily I can only find links to this one. Any hint about which could be?--Scicurious (talk) 23:34, 9 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

ERNIE, probs. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:40, 9 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Possibly ENIAC, EDVAC, or EDSAC. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 00:25, 10 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it was Ernie. --Scicurious (talk) 01:01, 10 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The original ERNIE wasn't a computer at all. Even now, it's not just a computer. The random number generator part of the system is some weird analog contraption that generates truly random numbers from electrical noise of some kind. The computer is just a means to conveniently read and display the output of the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment for which it's named. SteveBaker (talk) 20:00, 11 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]