MANIAC I

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The MANIAC I (Mathematical Analyzer Numerical Integrator and Automatic Computer Model I) is an early computer that was built under the direction of Nicholas Metropolis at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and was completed in 1952. It was based on the von Neumann architecture of the IAS, developed by John von Neumann. As with almost all computers of its era, it was a one-of-a-kind machine that could not exchange programs with other computers (even the several other machines based on the IAS). Metropolis chose the name MANIAC in the hope of stopping the rash of silly acronyms for machine names, although von Neumann may have suggested the name to him. The MANIAC weighed about 1,000 pounds (0.50 short tons; 0.45 t). The first task assigned to the Los Alamos MANIAC was to perform more precise and extensive calculations of the thermonuclear process. In 1953, the MANIAC obtained the first equation of state calculated by modified Monte Carlo integration over configuration space. In 1956,...

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