The Evolution of Computers

Computer Evolution and Performance

• ENIAC was the world’s first general-purpose electronic digital computer designed and constructed at the University of Pennsylvania by John Mauchly and John Eckert.
• Army’s Ballistics Research Laboratory (BRL) needed a way to supply trajectory tables for new weapons accurately and within a reasonable time frame.
• The first task of ENIAC was to perform a series of calculations that were used to help determine the feasibility of the hydrogen bomb.
• First-generation computers made use of vacuum tubes and were attributed to ENIAC designers, most notably the mathematician John von Neumann.
• Stored program concept was first published by John von Neumann in 1945, which represented a program in a form suitable for storing in memory alongside the data.
• IAS computer was the prototype of all subsequent general-purpose computers and was completed in 1952 at Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies.
• UNIVAC I was the first successful commercial computer, which was intended for both scientific and commercial applications and commissioned by the US Bureau of Census for 1950 calculations.
• IBM delivered its first electronic stored-program computer (701) in 1953, intended primarily for scientific applications, and introduced the 702 product in 1955, which was suitable for business applications.
• Second-generation computers were introduced with more complex arithmetic and logic units and control units, the use of high-level programming languages, and the provision of system software.
• The Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) introduced PDP-1, which began the mini-computer phenomenon that would become so prominent in the third generation.
• The third-generation computers were characterized by the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958, which led to the construction of gates, memory cells, and interconnections among these elements.
• The IBM System/360 and the DEC PDP-8 were the two most important members of the third generation.