The MANIAC was an early computer built under the direction of Nicholas Metropolis

Nicholas Metropolis

Nicholas Constantine Metropolis was a Greek American physicist.-Work:Metropolis received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in physics at the University of Chicago...

 at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...

. It was based on the von Neumann architecture

Von Neumann architecture

The term Von Neumann architecture, aka the Von Neumann model, derives from a computer architecture proposal by the mathematician and early computer scientist John von Neumann and others, dated June 30, 1945, entitled First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC...

 of the IAS

IAS machine

The IAS machine was the first electronic computer built by the Institute for Advanced Study , in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. It is sometimes called the von Neuman machine, since the paper describing its design was edited by John von Neumann, a mathematics professor at both Princeton University...

, developed by John von Neumann

John von Neumann

John von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath who made major contributions to a vast number of fields, including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, geometry, fluid dynamics, economics and game theory, computer science, numerical analysis,...

. As with all computers of its era, it was a one of a kind machine that could not exchange programs with other computers (even other IAS machines). Metropolis chose the name MANIAC in the hope of stopping the rash of silly acronyms for machine names (Metropolis 1980).

The MANIAC ran successfully in March 1952. It was succeeded by MANIAC II

MANIAC II

The MANIAC II was a first-generation electronic computer, built in 1957 for use at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory....

 in 1957.

A third version MANIAC III

MANIAC III

The Maniac III was a second-generation electronic computer , built in 1961 for use at the Institute for Computer Research at the University of Chicago.It was designed by Nicholas Metropolis and constructed by the staff of the Institute for Computer...

 was built at the Institute for Computer Research at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

in 1964.