History of Comptuer

Comupter Hardware History | Computer History | History of Computers.


The history of the computer and the calculator goes back to a very long way. For many centruies, people used their own brain-power to perform calculations. The first computers were people! That is, electroinc computers (and the earlier mechanical computers) were given this name because they performed the work that had previously been assigned to people. The brief history of the computer is given below:

1. Abacus
The Abacus is the earliest and the simplest calculating device. The Abacus is also know as "Soroban". It was developed and used in China about 600 B.C.
The Abacus was a very simple computing device used for simple addition and subtraction. It consists of a rectangular wooden frame having parallel wires. Each wire supports a number of beads.
The beads across the wires are free to move along the length of the wires. Each bead down represents a digit. The position of wires and their values are:

• The beads in the first wire on right represent unit digit.
• The beads in the second wire on right represent the tens digit.
• The beads in the third wire on right represent the hundreds digit and so on.

2. Calculating Device of John Napier (1550 - 1617)

In the early 17th century, the famous logarithms idea was developed by John Napier, a Scottish mathematician. He created logarithm tables for arithmetic calculations. He also developed a new manual calculating device using rods, also known as Napier's Bone to perform arithmetic calculations. The Napier's Bone was also referred to as Cardboard Multiplication Calculator. The Napier's calculating device remained in use till 1890.
The commonly used calculating device known as "Slid Rule" was also developed using the concept of Napier's idea of logarithms. Slid Rule was first built in England in 1632. With the modem Slide Rule, you can perform simple arithmetic calculations as well as calculate square roots, logs, sine, cosine and tangent etc. The Slid Rule was used till the middle 1970s.
3. Calculating Device of Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

In 1642, a scientist of France, Blaise Pascal developed the first mechanical calculator or calculating machine. This mechanical calculator was named as Pascaline. It consisted a series of wheels or gears each numbered from 0 to 9. This calculating machine performed arithmetic operations and displayed the numbers by rotation of different wheels or gears. Each wheel rotated in steps and a wheel completed one rotation in 10 steps.
The Pascal's calculating machine could perform the addition & subtraction operations directly but the multiplication & division operations were performed by repeated additions and subtractions.
4. Calculating Device of Gottfried Von Leibniz (1646 - 1716)
In 1671, a German mathematician Gottfried Von Leibniz developed first calculator for multiplication as well as for other simple arithmetic calculations. This calculating machine was similar to Pascal's calculating machine but it was more reliable and accurate. Actually the Leibniz calculating machine was the modified form of the Pascal's calculating machine.
5. Punched Board System of Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752 - 1834)

In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard, a France engineer (inventor of Power Loom) developed a punched board system for Power Looms. It was used to design specific weaving patterns on cloths automatically. Later, the idea of punched boards was used in calculating devices.
6. Calculating Device of Charles Xavier (1785 - 1870)
In 1820, a scientist of France, Charles Xavier invented a calculating machine that could perform simple arithmetic calcuations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This calculating machine was named as Arithmometer.
7. Calculating Machines of Charles Babbage (1791 - 1871)
In 1822, Professor Charles Babbage at Cambridge University of UK, developed a special type of calculator. It was called "Different Engine", which was powered by steam mathematical calculations. In 1842, he also designed a new machine called the "Analytical Engine". It was the first automatic programmable computer. Its average speed to perform arithmetic calculations was 60 additions per minute.
The Analytical Engine included several features that are also present in the modern electronic computer. It is because Charles Babbage is considered as father of modern digital computer.
8. Lady Augusta Ada (1816 - 1852)

A lady student named Augusta Ada also worked with Charles Babbage in designing the Analytical Engine. She, first of all, developed and ran the computer program on that computer. It is because; lady Augusta Ada is known as the first computer programmer in the world.
9. Punched Cards by Herman Hollerith (1860 - 1929)
In 1890, an American scientist Herman Hollerith used the idea of punched board system and introduced the punched cards as input media in computer. He developed the first electro-mechanical punched card tabulator. This machine could read information that had been punched into cards. These cards were maintained in stack form. Solutions to different problems could be stored on different stacks of cards and accessed when needed.
Invention of punched cards opened a gate to modern data processing. IBM and other computer manufacturers came in this field and started production of computers that could use punched cards as input media. These computers could perform arithmetic calculations and sort numbers. Data were fed through punched cards.
As compared to today's computers, these computers were slow in data processing. Usually, these computers could process 50 - 220 cards per minute and each card holding about 80 decimal numbers (or characters). The punched cards provided a means of input/output (I/O), and memory storage.
10. Atanasoff-Berry Computer

In 1939, Dr. John Atanasoff, a professor of Jowa State University and his assistant, Clifford Berry designed an electronic machine to solve mathematical problems. It was called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, or ABC (Atanasoff and Berry Computer). The Boolean algebra was applied for designing the circuits of this computer. The working model of ABC was completed in 1942. In this computer, 45 vacuum tubes were used for performing internal logic operations and capacitors were used for internal data storage.
11. Boolean Algebra

Boolean algebra is the algebra of logic, it was introduced by English mathematician George Boole in 1847 for designing logic circuits inside the computer.

The Boolean algebra's rules or principles are used to design the circuits inside the chips. The design of a particular circuit is based on a set of logical statements. These statements return either true (or 1) or false (or 0). Boolean algebra uses two binary numbers 0 and 1.
12. Mark-1 or ASCC

In 1944, an American Dr. Howard Aiken, a professor  of Harvard University, designed first fully automatic calculating machine. It was named as Mark-1. It is also known as ASCC (Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator). This calculating machine operated under the control of given instructions. The instructions were given to this machine with the help of punched paper tape. The Mark-1 remained in operation till 1959.

Although Mark-1 proved to be extrermely reliable, but it was very complex in design and huge in size. It was approximately 50 feet long and 8 feet high. It was basically, an electro-mechanical device in which both electronic and mechanical components were used.
13. ENIAC (1943 - 1946)

ENIAC stands for "Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator". It was the first all electronic computer. It was developed in 1943 by J.P. Eckert and John Mauchly at the Moore School of Engineering, university of Pennsylvania in USA. It contained about 18,000 vacuum tubes and occupied more than 1,500 square feet with weight of 30 tons.

The ENIAC was programmed by physically connecting electrical wires in the proper order. It was very difficult to detect errors and to change the program. Similarly, it could store and manipulate limited amount of data. So, its use was limited.
14. EDVAC (1946 - 1952)

ENIAC was programmed by physically connecting electrical wires in the proper order. The operation of ENIAC was v ery difficult due to its wiring boards. This problem was overcome by a new concept of stored program presented by John Von Neumann.

John Von Neumann gave an idea that a computer should have a very simple, fixed physical stucture, and yet be able to perform any kind of computation without the need for any physical change in the unit. Von Neumann idea usually referred to a the stored-program technique.

According to Von Neumann theory "data and program can be stored in the memory of computer for automatically performing the operations. Thus the machine can itself alter either its program of data".

EDVAC stands for "Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer". It was designed on stored program conecpt by Dr. John Von Neumann. It could store programs and perform arithmetic and logical operations. The programs and data were fed in this computer through punched paper tape.

Von Neumann also introduced the idea of storing both instructions and data in the binary form. The Von Neumann theory was uniersally adopted. So the computing and programming became much faster and efficient. Thie theory also became essential for future generation of high-speed digital computers.
15. EDSAC (1947 - 1949)

EDSAC stands for "Electronic Delayed Storage Automatioc Computer". It was developed in 1949 at Cambridge University by a groups of scientists headed by professor Maurice Wilkes.
16. UNIVAC-1 (1951)

UNIVAC stands for Universal Automatic Computer. It was also developed by J.P. Eckert & John Mauchly (designers of ENIAC) in 1951. It was the first digital computer. The programs and data were fed in this computer through magnetic tape.

In 1952, the International Business-Machines (IBM) Corporation introduced the 701 commercial computers. After this, improved models of the UNIVAC and other 700-series machines were introduced. In 1953, IBM produced the IBM-650 computer and sold over 1000 of these computers.