write in brief the history of computers
Answers
One of the earliest machines designed to assist people in calculations was the abacus which is still being used some 5000 years after its invention.
In 1642 Blaise Pascal (a famous French mathematician) invented an adding machine based on mechanical gears in which numbers were represented by the cogs on the wheels.
Englishman, Charles Babbage, invented in the 1830's a "Difference Engine" made out of brass and pewter rods and gears, and also designed a further device which he called an "Analytical Engine". His design contained the five key characteristics of modern computers:-
An input device
Storage for numbers waiting to be processed
A processor or number calculator
A unit to control the task and the sequence of its calculations
An output device
Augusta Ada Byron (later Countess of Lovelace) was an associate of Babbage who has become known as the first computer programmer.
An American, Herman Hollerith, developed (around 1890) the first electrically driven device. It utilised punched cards and metal rods which passed through the holes to close an electrical circuit and thus cause a counter to advance. This machine was able to complete the calculation of the 1890 U.S. census in 6 weeks compared with 7 1/2 years for the 1880 census which was manually counted.
In 1936 Howard Aiken of Harvard University convinced Thomas Watson of IBM to invest $1 million in the development of an electromechanical version of Babbage's analytical engine. The Harvard Mark 1 was completed in 1944 and was 8 feet high and 55 feet long.
At about the same time (the late 1930's) John Atanasoff of Iowa State University and his assistant Clifford Berry built the first digital computer that worked electronically, the ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer). This machine was basically a small calculator.
In 1943, as part of the British war effort, a series of vacuum tube based computers (named Colossus) were developed to crack German secret codes. The Colossus Mark 2 series (pictured) consisted of 2400 vacuum tubes.
Hi Mate,
thethe computer as we know it today held its beginning with the 19th century English mathematics professor name Charles Babbage. he designed the analytical engine and it was this design that the basic framework of the computers of today are based on.
generally speaking, computers can be classified into three generations. regeneration lasted for certain period of time, and each give us either a new and improve computer or an improvement to the existing computer.
first generation of computer is from 1937 to 1946. In 1927 the first electronic digital computer was built by Dr.John v Atanasoff and Clifford Berry Computer. in 1943 and electronic computer name the colleges was built for the military. other development continued until in 1946 the first general purpose digital computer and the electronic numerical integrator and computer (ENIAC) was built. It is said that this computer within 30 tons, and had 18,000 vacuum tubes which was used for processing. when when this computer was turn on for the first time lights of Philadelphia. computers of this generation could only perform single task, and they had no operating system.
Second generation: 1947 – 1962 - This generation of computers used transistors instead of vacuum tubes which were more reliable. In 1951 the first computer for commercial use was introduced to the public; the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC 1). In 1953 the International Business Machine (IBM) 650 and 700 series computers made their mark in the computer world. During this generation of computers over 100 computer programming languages were developed, computers had memory and operating systems. Storage media such as tape and disk were in use also were printers for output.
Third generation: 1963 - present - The invention of integrated circuit brought us the third generation of computers. With this invention computers became smaller, more powerful more reliable and they are able to run many different programs at the same time. In1980 Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-Dos) was born and in 1981 IBM introduced the personal computer (PC) for home and office use. Three years later Apple gave us the Macintosh computer with its icon driven interface and the 90s gave us Windows operating system.
As a result of the various improvements to the development of the computer we have seen the computer being used in all areas of life. It is a very useful tool that will continue to experience new development as time passes.
Hope This Helps You......