Early computers 1 to solve mathematical and engineering problems. The first general purpose of 2 electronic computer was the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), built by J. Presper Eckert and John V. Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946. It filled a thirty by fifty-foot room and 3 thirty tons. The computer had 18,000 vacuum tubes which 4 perform calculations at a rate of 5,000 additions per second. This is 5 than any human could perform, but a great deal slower than the computers of today.