IT Resources: The History of the Computer

IT Resources: The History of the Computer

Before the invention and evolution of computers, humans carried out all businesses and calculations manually. This was usually time consuming, prone to errors and required a large number of staff. Gradually, by 300 BC the early Babylonians introduced a counting machine called the ABACUS, although it was very slow in performing this function.

John Napier in 1617 invented the LOGARITHMS and subsequently the SLIDE RULE which some astronauts use till this day. In 1642, Blaise Pascal made a calculator called the Pascaline, which could only perform additions. Unfortunately, this did not last long, owing to the fact that it was both inaccurate and expensive. Pascal also invented the probability theory, hydraulic press and the syringe. Also, the mechanism of the gear driven calculator continued to be used in the odometer of a car speedometer until very recently when it went digital. Notable also is Joseph Marie Jacquard, who in 1801 created the power loom that worked by the use of wooden punched cards.

Charles Babbage, an English Mathematician, worked on inventing the DIFFERENCE ENGINE in 1822, but unfortunately, the plans were not realized. Thereafter he forwarded his ANALYTICAL ENGINE, which was very large and could perform many functions using the punch cards. The steam driven analytical engine could perform computation, store information as well as carry out the conditional IF statement. This widened the machine’s application and usage in the postal system, trains and ophthalmoscope. By working with Babbage, Ada Lovelace wrote a number of instructions for the engine and earned for herself the first computer programmer. Computer science was conceived around 1854 when George Boole wrote An Investigation of the Laws of Thought and was called the father of computer science.

In America, lack of automation was creating a heavy burden on the government, especially in the census conducted every 10 years. For instance, the census conducted in 1880 was completed in seven and a half years, so in 1890 (during the next census), Herman Hollerith invented the Hollerith desk that made use of punch cards and dial indicators to count. The Hollerith desk helped to reduce the duration of completion of the census to just three years, and this helped the US government save up to 5 millions dollars. Shortly after this, the International Business Machines (IBM) was born, among other machine producing companies, and they sold various mechanical devices that saved time in helping to compute mathematical problems. However, they were still limited in their capabilities to solve some equations. In addition, the punch card technology was more widely employed.

 To meet with the challenges of the World War II, the US military needed a dramatic shift from the use of those mechanical devices to something more automated. This quest made them invest massively in any valuable brainstorm. Konrad Zuse, a German in 1941 invented the Z3 that could design airplanes and missiles, and in 1943, the British from the Allied forces developed the Colossus to be called German messages. In 1944, IBM partnered with Howard Aiken from Harvard to come up with electro-mechanical Harvard Mark I, which still used the punch cards. On September 9, 1945, Grace Hopper, one of the primary programmers for Mark I, detected a dead moth stuck between the relays of the computer. This was described as the first computer “bug” and the word continued to represent all computer defects from then. Hopper also created the first high level language that later became COBOL and as such, she invented the first compiler that could translate the high level language to the binary. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) also brought in for the sake of the war by the University of Pennsylvania was more of general purpose and faster than Mark I. It aided in calculations for designing the hydrogen bomb.

The technology of computers with Stored Programs began with Maurice Wilkes of Moore School Pennsylvania who invented the EDSAC. This was followed on a large scale by UNIVAC (Universal automatic computer) in March 31 1951, which could perform multiple operations unlike previous computers. The UNIVAC was used by the US Census bureau. The first hard disk came up in 1957. This allowed storing about 5 million bytes of data on either sides of 50 two-foot diameter disk and accessing the data randomly. It was widely adopted in the technological world and aided scoring the California winter Olympic and tallying votes at some US elections.

Transistors were introduced in 1948 to replace vacuum tubes, which were large and inconvenient to use. When transistors began to work in computers around 1956, they produced faster and smaller computers that used energy more efficently and could manage very large amounts of data. However, they were also very expensive, and only a few atomic energy laboratories could use them. To take care of the space and heat generated by the transistor, Kilby designed the Integrated Circuit IC, which began as a combination of 3 components on a small silicon disk.

The assembly language was also introduced to replace the machine language as short form programming code took over from those numerous binary codes. This success made it possible to use the computers on a commercial scale since the high level languages made it less tedious to program a computer and the possibility of storing programs in the computer made it possible to solve several problems by varying instructions. This development led into specializations in computer science so that careers such as computer system experts and analysts were created. Also, the Operating System was developed by which several programs could run at the same time with a program overseeing all others. The UNIX operating system was developed by Thompson and Ritchie in 1969 and constituted the first operating system to provide a good interface between soft ware and hard ware.

The next advancement was to progressively reduce the size and consequently the cost and efficiency of the ICs and computers on the whole. In 1971 the Intel 4004 chip was developed so that all the components of a computer could be accommodated on a tiny chip. This Microelectronic revolution brought computers even to domestic and common office usage in items such as automobiles and television sets. IBM brought in its personal computers in 1981, and the demand for them has continued to increase over the years. Their sizes have also reduced further to laptops and palmtops. The user friendly Apple’s Macintosh line was also introduced in 1984. Today, computers have become more capable as they can be connected to each other to share information and software among themselves. Unlike the mainframe computers which gave off information to several terminals from one point, network computers all formed individual gateways. This was achieved using Local Area Network (L.A.N.) or Wide Area Network (WAN). The internet, a circuit of computers of the global web, is the largest WAN by which computers world-wide are connected in only one network of information. This is applied in everyday e-commerce, e-mail, web browsing and the Satellite.

More information on the history of computer can be gotten from the following links:

• The early history of computers: The site discusses the early history of the computer. There is a link at the bottom of the page that will direct the reader to more informative pages.
• Illustrated history of the computer: Early forms of the computer were logarithms, abacus and Napier bones
• History of computing hardware: The history of the computer hardware can be divided into the first, second, third and fourth generations. There are also prospects that the next generation of computer hardware will be biological.
• The Abacus: The Abacus is an early counting device. It is one of the earliest developments in computer hardware.
• The early electronic computers: The early electronic computers were in vogue between 1946 and 1951. Some of them were Colossus and ENIAC.
• Early computers: The earliest computers can be said to have began operations around 500 BC. Babbage’s Analytical Engine belongs to the first generation computers.
•  ENIAC: an early computer tool: ENIAC is acronym for Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator. It was the first electronic programmable computer.
• What ENIAC was made of: ENIAC was basically made of more than 15,000 tubes, which were used as swishes in electric circuits.
• Computer generations: The computer generations can be divided into first, second and third generation.
• Napier's bones: The “Napier bones” was an invention by John Napier in 1617. It was basically used to perform multiplication, division and the extraction of square roots.
• Early computing and calculating machines: The early machines were created by important personalities such as Charles Babbage, Charles Stanhope and G.W Leibniz
• Hollerith's tabulating machine: Site contains description and picture of the machine.
• The Jacquard loom: This was invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard. It used punched cards.
•  History of computers: What is seen as digital computers today went through rigorous processes. Today, one can celebrate the presence of microprocessors, transistors and integrated circuits.
• The history of the internet: Efforts to introduce the internet started in 1962. It took several conferences and experiments for its actualization.
• Types of computers: The types include: minicomputers, workstations, and super computers.