| The early computers | | | | problem and they developed "stored program |
| | | | architecture".John von Neumann, (a consultant to |
| The history of computer dates back a lot longer | | | | the ENIAC), Mauchly and his team developed |
| than the 1900s, in fact computers have been | | | | EDVAC, this new project used stored |
| around for over 5000 years.In ancient time a | | | | program.Eckert and Mauchly later developed what |
| "computer", (or "computor") was a person who | | | | was arguably the first commercially successful |
| performed numerical calculations under the | | | | computer, the UNIVAC.Software technology |
| direction of a mathematician.Some of the better | | | | during this period was very primitive. The first |
| known devices used are the Abacus or the | | | | programs were written out in machine code. By |
| Antikythera mechanism.Around 1725 Basile | | | | the 1950s programmers were using a symbolic |
| Bouchon used perforated paper in a loom to | | | | notation, known as assembly language, then |
| establish the pattern to be reproduced on cloth. | | | | hand-translating the symbolic notation into machine |
| This ensured that the pattern was always the | | | | code. Later programs known as assemblers |
| same and hardly had any human errors.Later, in | | | | performed the translation task.The Transistor era, |
| 1801, Joseph Jacquard (1752 - 1834), used the | | | | the end of the inventor. |
| punch card idea to automate more devices with | | | | |
| great success.The First computers? | | | | Late 1950 saw the end of valve driven |
| | | | computers. Transistor based computers were |
| Charles Babbage's. (1792-1871), was ahead of his | | | | used because they were smaller, cheaper, faster |
| time, and using the punch card idea he developed | | | | and a lot more reliable.Corporations, rather than |
| the first computing devices that would be used | | | | inventors, were now producing the new |
| for scientific purposes. He invented the Charles | | | | computers.Some of the better known ones are: |
| Babbage's Difference Engine, which he begun in | | | | TRADIC at Bell Laboratories in 1954, |
| 1823 but never completed. Later he started work | | | | TX-0 at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory |
| on the Analytical Engine, it was designed in | | | | IBM 704 and its successors, the 709 and 7094. |
| 1842.Babbage was also credited with inventing | | | | The latter introduced I/O processors for better |
| computing concepts such as conditional branches, | | | | throughput between I/O devices and main |
| iterative loops and index variables.Ada Lovelace | | | | memory |
| (1815-1852), was a colleague of Babbage and | | | | First supper computers, The Livermore Atomic |
| founder of scientific computing.Many people | | | | Research Computer (LARC) and the IBM 7030 |
| improved on the Babbage inventions, George | | | | (aka Stretch) |
| Scheutz along with his son, Edvard Scheutz, began | | | | The Texas Instrument Advanced Scientific |
| work on a smaller version and by 1853 they had | | | | Computer (TI-ASC) |
| constructed a machine that could process 15-digit | | | | Now the basis of computers was in place, with |
| numbers and calculate fourth-order differences.On | | | | transistors the computers were faster and with |
| of the first notable commercial use, (and | | | | Stored program architecture you could use the |
| success), of computers was the US Census | | | | computer for almost anything.New high level |
| Bureau, which used punch-card equipment | | | | programs soon arrived, FORTRAN (1956), ALGOL |
| designed by Herman Hollerith to tabulate data for | | | | (1958), and COBOL (1959), Cambridge and the |
| the 1890 census.To compensate for the cyclical | | | | University of London cooperated in the |
| nature of the Census Bureau's demand for his | | | | development of CPL (Combined Programming |
| machines, Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine | | | | Language, 1963). Martin Richards of Cambridge |
| Company (1896), which was one of three | | | | developed a subset of CPL called BCPL (Basic |
| companies that merged to form IBM in 1911.Later, | | | | Computer Programming Language, 1967).In 1969, |
| Claude Shannon (1916- 2001) first suggested the | | | | the CDC 7600 was released, it could perform 10 |
| use of digital electronics in computers and in 1937 | | | | million floating point operations per second (10 |
| and J.V.Atanasoff built the first electronic | | | | Mflops).The network years. |
| computer that could solve 29 simultaneous | | | | |
| equations with 29 unknowns. But this device was | | | | From 1985 onward the race was on to put as |
| not programmableDuring those trouble times, | | | | many transistors as possible on one computer. |
| computers evolved at a rapid rate. But because | | | | Each one of them could do a simple operation. But |
| of restrictions many projects remained secret | | | | apart from been faster and been able to perform |
| until much later and notable example is the British | | | | more operations the computer has not evolved |
| military "Colossus" developed in 1943 by Alan | | | | much.The concept of parallel processing is more |
| Turing and his team.In the late 1940 the US army | | | | widely used from the 1990s.In the area of |
| commissioned John V. Mauchly to develop a | | | | computer networking, both wide area network |
| device to compute ballistics during World War II. | | | | (WAN) and local area network (LAN) technology |
| As it turned out the machine was only ready in | | | | developed at a rapid pace |
| 1945, but the Electronic Numerical Integrator and | | | | Get a more detailed history of computer.Ever |
| Computer, or ENIAC, proved to be a turning point | | | | wanted to learn more about your computer? |
| in computer history.ENIAC proved to be a very | | | | gives you information from the history of |
| efficient machine but not a very easy one to | | | | computer to what computer memory to get. |
| operate. Any changes would sometime require | | | | Computer software as well as everything you |
| the device itself to be re-programmed. The | | | | need to know about computer hardware. All in |
| engineers were all too aware of this obvious | | | | simple terms for the non-technical amongst us. |