Eckert, John Presper

John Presper Eckert (1919-1995), an electrical engineer, worked with John W. Mauchly (1907-1980). They built the ENIAC (1941-1945), viewed by many as the first electronic digital computer. Mauchly designed the system. Eckert built the electronic circuits. Then, they started the Electronic Control Company, which built the Binary Automatic Computer (BINAC), the first business computer to store data on magnetic tape, instead of punch cards. Then, Electronic Control Company became the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corp., which built the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC 1). In 1950, the firm had financial trouble and was acquired by Remington Rand Corp.