Who designed the first electronic computer ENIAC ?
Explanation:
The question asks about the designers of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), which was one of the earliest electronic general-purpose digital computers. Option A, 'Von Neumann' (John von Neumann), is renowned for his contributions to the stored-program concept and the Von Neumann architecture, which became fundamental to modern computing. While he was involved in the EDVAC project, which followed ENIAC, he was not the primary designer of ENIAC itself. Option B, 'Joseph M Jacquard', is known for inventing the Jacquard loom in the early 19th century, which used punch cards to control patterns, a concept that later influenced computing, but he was not involved in electronic computers. Option C, 'Presper Eckert and John W Mauchly', were the lead engineers and principal designers of ENIAC at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering. Their work on ENIAC, completed in 1945, marked a pivotal moment in the history of computing. This is the correct answer. Option D, 'John Napier', was a Scottish mathematician who invented logarithms and Napier's bones in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, long before the advent of electronic computers. Therefore, J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly are correctly credited with designing ENIAC.