The History and Evolution Of Computers
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A Brief History and Evolution of Computers
Necessity is the mother of invention. The saying holds true also, because computers were invented because of man’s search fast and accurate calculating devices.
Mechanical calculator
from 1914
The first mechanical adding machine was invented by Blaise Pascal in 1642. Later in the 1671, Baron Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz of Germany invented the first calculator for multiplication. Keyboard Machines originated in the United States around 1880 and are extensively even today. Around this period only, Herman Hollerith came up with the concepts of Punched Cards, which was extensively used input medium in computers even in late 1970s. Business Machines and Calculators made their appearance in Europe and America towards the end of 19th century.
Charles Babbage,
a nineteenth century Professor of Cambridge University, is considered of father of modern digital computers. During his periods, mathematical and statistical tables were prepared by a group of clerks. Even the utmost care and precautions could not eliminate human errors. Babbage had to spend several hours checking these tables. Soon he became dissatisfied and exasperated with this type of monotonous job. The result was that he started thinking to build
1.
The Mechanical Era:
The history of computer begins with the birth of
abacus which is believed to be the first computer. It is said that Chinese
invented Abacus around 4,000 years ago.
It was a wooden rack which has metal rods with beads
mounted on them. The beads were moved by the abacus operator according to some
rules to perform arithmetic calculations. Numbers are represented using the
position of the beads on the rack. Abacus is still used in some countries like
China, Russia and Japan. Fast and simple calculations be carried out by an
appropriately placing the beads. Image
of this tool is shown below:-
In 1620, an English
Mathematicians by the name William Oughtred
invented the slide rule- a calculating device based on the principle of
logarithms. It consisted of two graduated scale devised in such a manner that
suitable alignment of one scale against the other, made it possible to perform
additions, compute products etc. Just by Inspection.
Napier's
Bones
It was a manually-operated calculating device which was invented by John Napier (1550-1617) of Merchiston. In this calculating tool, he used 9 different ivory strips or bones marked with numbers to multiply and divide. So, the tool became known as "Napier's Bones. It was also the first machine to use
Pascaline
Pascaline is also known as Arithmetic Machine or
Adding Machine. It was invented between 1642 and 1644 by a French
mathematician-philosopher Biaise Pascal. It is believed that it was the first
mechanical and automatic calculator.
Pascal invented this machine to help his father, a tax
accountant. It could only perform addition and subtraction. It was a wooden box
with a series of gears and wheels. When a wheel is rotated one revolution, it
rotates the neighboring wheel. A series of windows is given on the top of the
wheels to read the totals. An image of this tool is shown below:
read the totals. An image of this tool is shown below:
Stepped
Reckoner or Leibnitz wheel
Difference
Engine
In the early 1820s, it was designed by Charles Babbage
who is known as "Father of Modern Computer". It was a mechanical
computer which could perform simple calculations. It was a steam driven
calculating machine designed to solve tables of numbers like logarithm tables.
Analytical
Engine
This calculating machine was also developed by Charles Babbage in 1830. It was a mechanical computer that used punch-cards as input. It was capable of solving any mathematical problem and storing information as a permanent memory.
Tabulating
Machine
It was invented in 1890, by Herman Hollerith, an
American statistician. It was a mechanical tabulator based on punch cards. It
could tabulate statistics and record or sort data or information. This machine
was used in the 1890 U.S. Census. Hollerith also started the Hollerith?s
Tabulating Machine Company which later became International Business Machine
(IBM) in 1924.
Differential
Analyzer
It was the first electronic computer introduced in the
United States in 1930. It was an analog device invented by Vannevar Bush. This
machine has vacuum tubes to switch electrical signals to perform calculations.
It could do 25 calculations in few minutes.
.1. The Mark 1 Computer (1937-44):-
Also Known as automatic sequence controlled calculator, this was the first fully automatic calculating machine designed by Howard A. Aiken of Harvard University, in collaboration with IBM (International Business Machines) corporation. Its designed was based on the techniques already developed for punched card machinery. It was as electromechanical device, since both mechanical and electro components were used in this design. It is a First Programmable digital computer. After world war 11 there was a need for advanced calculations. Although this machine proved to be extremely reliable, it was very complex in design and huge in size. It used over 3000 electrically actuated switches to control its operations and was approximately 50 feet long and 8 feet high. It was capable of performing five basic arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and table reference. A number as big as 23 decimal digits could be used in this machine. IT took approximately 0.3 second to add two numbers and 4.5 seconds for multiplication of two numbers. Hence, the machine was very slow as compares to today’s computers.
2.The Atanasoff-Berry
Computer (1939-42):
This electronic machine was developed by Dr. John Atanasoff
to solve certain mathematical equations. It was called the Atanasoff-Berry
Computer, or ABC, after its inventor’s name and his assistant, Clifford Berry.
IT Used 45 vacuum tubes for internal logic and capacitors for storage.
3. The ENIAC (1943-46):-
The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) was the first all electronic computer. It was constructed at the Moore School of Engineering of the University Of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. by a design team led by Professors J. Presper Eckert and John Msuchly.
ENIAC was developed because of military need, and was used for many years to solve ballistic problems. It took up the wall space in a 20*40 square feet room and used 18000 vacuum tubes problems. The addition of two numbers was achieved in 200 microseconds, and multiplication in 2000 microseconds. The world ware 11 also produced a large need for Computer Capacity especially for the military. New weapons were made for which calculating tables and other essentials data when needed.
4. The EDVAC(1946-52):
A major drawback of ENIAC was that its program were wired on boards, which made it difficult to change the programs. THIS problems was latter overcome by the “Stored Program” concept introduced by Dr. John Von Neumann. The Basic idea behind this concept is that a sequence of instructions, as well as data, can be stored in the memory of the computer, for automatically directing the flow of operations. This feature considerably influenced the development of modern digital computers because of the ease with which different programs can be loaded and executed on the same computer. Due to this feature, we often refer to modern digital computers as stored program computers. The Electronic Discrete Variable Automation Computer (EDVAC)was designed on stored program concept. Von Neumann also has a share of the credit for introducing the idea of storing both instructions and data in the binary form (a system that uses only two digits-0 & 1 to represent all characters), instead of the decimal numbers or human readable works.
5. The EDSAC (1947-49):
Almost simultaneously with EDVAC of U.S.A., the Britishers Developed the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC).The machine executed its first program in May 1949. In this machine, addition operation was accomplished in 1500 microseconds, and multiplication operation in 4000 microseconds. The machine was developed by a group of scientist, headed by Professor Maurice wilkes, at the Cambridge University Mathematical Laboratory.
6. The Univac I(1951):-
The Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) was the first digital computer, which was not “one of a kind ”. Many UNIVAC machines were produces, the first of which was installed in the Census Bureau in 1951 and was used continuously for 10 years. The first business use of a computer, a UNIVAC 1, was by General Electric Corporation in 1954.
In 1952, The international Business Machines (IBM) Corporation introduced the 701 commercial computers. In rapid succession, improved models of the UNIVAC 1 and the other 700 series machine were introduced. In 1953, IBM produced the IBM-650, and sold over 1000 of these computers.
The commercially available digital computers which could be used for business and scientific applications had arrived.
Summary:
1. Brief explanation of history of computers.
2. Analog computers.
3. Digital Computers.
4. Evolutions of computers.
Charles Babbage invented this evolution of computers.
1.The
Mark 1 Computer (1937-44)
2.The Atanasoff-Berry
Computer (1939-42)
3.
The ENIAC (1943-46)
4. The EDVAC(1946-52)
5.The EDSAC (1947-49)
6.The Univac I(1951).