Computing · 1931

Differential analyzer

A room of shafts and wheel integrators that solved differential equations.

Vannevar Bush's MIT machine linked six wheel-and-disc integrators through shafts and torque amplifiers to solve differential equations. Copies computed ballistics tables in World War II until electronic machines replaced them.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Electric motor 1834
Newtonian mechanics 1687

What it led to 1

ENIAC 1945

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Fastest computer in the world Latest: 2.2×10¹⁸ operations per second (2026) Source: Wikipedia: List of fastest computers; Wikipedia: History of supercomputing

Computation per constant dollar, 1850-2006 Latest: 7.3B million units of computer power per 2006 $ (2003) Source: Nordhaus 2007, Two Centuries of Productivity Growth in Computing, J. Econ. Hist. 67(1), Table 6