The first batch of digital computers emerge directly following WWII. The hallmark of this generation is uniqueness: no two computers are the same. However, there is a machine that bucks that trend. The IAS Machine, built in Princeton in the late 1940s, served as the inspiration for at least a dozen later computers. But how similar were these Princeton-class computers? What exactly was so special about the IAS Machine? And how does good 'ol Johnny von Neumann get tied up in all of this?

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Selected Sources:

Bigelow Oral History - https://www.si.edu/media/NMAH/NMAH-AC0196_bige710120.pdf

Prelin IAS Machine Report - https://www.ias.edu/sites/default/files/library/Prelim_Disc_Logical_Design.pdf