... stood for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. It was developed in order to calculate firing tables (in other words, to model the paths of ballistic missiles). It was designed by the physicist John Mauchly and the electronics engineer John Presper Eckert, and the project was led by the electronics engineer John Brainerd.
The name (particularly the inclusion of the word 'computer') was chosen to signify that the machine could be reprogrammed to serve purposes other than the one it was designed for. ENIAC has been described as "the first general–purpose electronic digital computer".
© Haydn Thompson 2017