Early Computing Devices PT.pdf

Early Computing Devices People used sticks, stones, and bones as counting tools before computers were invented. More computing devices were produced as technology advanced and the human intellect improved over time. Let us look at a few of the early-age computing devices used by mankind. 1. Abacus...

Early Computing Devices People used sticks, stones, and bones as counting tools before computers were invented. More computing devices were produced as technology advanced and the human intellect improved over time. Let us look at a few of the early-age computing devices used by mankind. 1. Abacus Abacus was invented by the Chinese around 4000 years ago. It’s a wooden rack with metal rods with beads attached to them. The abacus operator moves the beads according to certain guidelines to complete arithmetic computations. 2. Napier’s Bone John Napier devised Napier’s Bones, a manually operated calculating apparatus. For calculating, this instrument used 9 separate ivory strips (bones) marked with numerals to multiply and divide. It was also the first machine to calculate using the decimal point system. 3. Pascaline Pascaline was invented in 1642 by Biaise Pascal, a French mathematician and philosopher. It is thought to be the first mechanical and automated calculator. It was a wooden box with gears and wheels inside. 4. Stepped Reckoner or Leibniz wheel In 1673, a German mathematician-philosopher named Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz improved on Pascal’s invention to create this apparatus. It was a digital mechanical calculator known as the stepped reckoner because it used fluted drums instead of gears. 5. Difference Engine In the early 1820s, Charles Babbage created the Difference Engine. It was a mechanical computer that could do basic computations. It was a steam- powered calculating machine used to solve numerical tables such as logarithmic tables. 6. Analytical Engine Charles Babbage created another calculating machine, the Analytical Engine, in 1830. It was a mechanical computer that took input from punch cards. It was capable of solving any mathematical problem and storing data in an indefinite memory. 7. Tabulating machine An American Statistician – Herman Hollerith invented this machine in the year 1890. Tabulating Machine was a punch card-based mechanical tabulator. It could compute statistics and record or sort data or information. Hollerith began manufacturing these machines in his company, which ultimately became International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924. 8. Differential Analyzer Vannevar Bush introduced the first electrical computer, the Differential Analyzer, in 1930. This machine is made up of vacuum tubes that switch electrical impulses in order to do calculations. It was capable of performing 25 calculations in a matter of minutes. 9. Mark I Howard Aiken planned to build a machine in 1937 that could conduct massive calculations or calculations using enormous numbers. The Mark I computer was constructed in 1944 as a collaboration between IBM and Harvard. History of Computers Generation The word ‘computer’ has a very interesting origin. It was first used in the 16th century for a person who used to compute, i.e. do calculations. The word was used in the same sense as a noun until the 20th century. Women were hired as human computers to carry out all forms of calculations and computations. By the last part of the 19th century, the word was also used to describe machines that did calculations. The modern-day use of the word is generally to describe programmable digital devices that run on electricity. Early History of Computer Since the evolution of humans, devices have been used for calculations for thousands of years. One of the earliest and most well-known devices was an abacus. Then in 1822, the father of computers, Charles Babbage began developing what would be the first mechanical computer. And then in 1833 he actually designed an Analytical Engine which was a general-purpose computer. It contained an ALU, some basic flow chart principles and the concept of integrated memory. Then more than a century later in the history of computers, we got our first electronic computer for general purpose. It was the ENIAC, which stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. The inventors of this computer were John W. Mauchly and J.Presper Eckert. And with times the technology developed and the computers got smaller and the processing got faster. We got our first laptop in 1981 and it was introduced by Adam Osborne and EPSON. Brief History of Computers The naive understanding of computation had to be overcome before the true power of computing could be realized. The inventors who worked tirelessly to bring the computer into the world had to realize that what they were creating was more than just a number cruncher or a calculator. They had to address all of the difficulties associated with inventing such a machine, implementing the design, and actually building the thing. The history of the computer is the history of these difficulties being solved. 19th Century 1801 – Joseph Marie Jacquard, a weaver and businessman from France, devised a loom that employed punched wooden cards to automatically weave cloth designs. 1822 – Charles Babbage, a mathematician, invented the steam-powered calculating machine capable of calculating number tables. The “Difference Engine” idea failed owing to a lack of technology at the time. 1848 – The world’s first computer program was written by Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician. Lovelace also includes a step-by- step tutorial on how to compute Bernoulli numbers using Babbage’s machine. 1890 – Herman Hollerith, an inventor, creates the punch card technique used to calculate the 1880 U.S. census. He would go on to start the corporation that would become IBM. Early 20th Century 1930 – Differential Analyzer was the first large-scale automatic general- purpose mechanical analogue computer invented and built by Vannevar Bush. 1936 – Alan Turing had an idea for a universal machine, which he called the Turing machine, that could compute anything that could be computed. 1939 – Hewlett-Packard was discovered in a garage in Palo Alto, California by Bill Hewlett and David Packard. 1941 – Konrad Zuse, a German inventor and engineer, completed his Z3 machine, the world’s first digital computer. However, the machine was destroyed during a World War II bombing strike on Berlin. 1941 – J.V. Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry devise a computer capable of solving 29 equations at the same time. The first time a computer can store data in its primary memory. 1945 – University of Pennsylvania academics John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert create an Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC). It was Turing-complete and capable of solving “a vast class of numerical problems” by reprogramming, earning it the title of “Grandfather of computers.” 1946 – The UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer) was the first general-purpose electronic digital computer designed in the United States for corporate applications. 1949 – The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), developed by a team at the University of Cambridge, is the “first practical stored-program computer.” 1950 – The Standards Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC) was built in Washington, DC, and it was the first stored-program computer completed in the United States. Late 20th Century 1953 – Grace Hopper, a computer scientist, creates the first computer language, which becomes known as COBOL, which stands for COmmon, Business-Oriented Language. It allowed a computer user to offer the computer instructions in English-like words rather than numbers. 1954 – John Backus and a team of IBM programmers created the FORTRAN programming language, an acronym for FORmula TRANslation. In addition, IBM developed the 650. 1958 – The integrated circuit, sometimes known as the computer chip, was created by Jack Kirby and Robert Noyce. 1962 – Atlas, the computer, makes its appearance. It was the fastest computer in the world at the time, and it pioneered the concept of “virtual memory.” 1964 – Douglas Engelbart proposes a modern computer prototype that combines a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI). 1969 – Bell Labs developers, led by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, revealed UNIX, an operating system developed in the C programming language that addressed program compatibility difficulties. 1970 – The Intel 1103, the first Dynamic Access Memory (DRAM) chip, is unveiled by Intel. 1971 – The floppy disc was invented by Alan Shugart and a team of IBM engineers. In the same year, Xerox developed the first laser printer, which not only produced billions of dollars but also heralded the beginning of a new age in computer printing. 1973 – Robert Metcalfe, a member of Xerox’s research department, created Ethernet, which is used to connect many computers and other gear. 1974 – Personal computers were introduced into the market. The first were the Altair Scelbi & Mark-8, IBM 5100, and Radio Shack’s TRS-80. 1975 – Popular Electronics magazine touted the Altair 8800 as the world’s first minicomputer kit in January. Paul Allen and Bill Gates offer to build software in the BASIC language for the Altair. 1976 – Apple Computers is founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who expose the world to the Apple I, the first computer with a single- circuit board. 1977 – At the first West Coast Computer Faire, Jobs and Wozniak announce the Apple II. It has colour graphics and a cassette drive for storing music. 1978 – The first computerized spreadsheet program, VisiCalc, is introduced. 1979 – WordStar, a word processing tool from MicroPro International, is released. 1981 – IBM unveils the Acorn, their first personal computer, which has an Intel CPU, two floppy drives, and a colour display. The MS-DOS operating system from Microsoft is used by Acorn. 1983 – The CD-ROM, which could carry 550 megabytes of pre-recorded data, hit the market. This year also saw the release of the Gavilan SC, the first portable computer with a flip-form design and the first to be offered as a “laptop.” 1984 – Apple launched Macintosh during the Superbowl XVIII commercial. It was priced at $2,500 1985 – Microsoft introduces Windows, which enables multitasking via a graphical user interface. In addition, the programming language C++ has been released. 1990 – Tim Berners-Lee, an English programmer and scientist, creates HyperText Markup Language, widely known as HTML. He also coined the term “WorldWideWeb.” It includes the first browser, a server, HTML, and URLs. 1993 – The Pentium CPU improves the usage of graphics and music on personal computers. 1995 – Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system was released. A $300 million promotional campaign was launched to get the news out. Sun Microsystems introduces Java 1.0, followed by Netscape Communications’ JavaScript. 1996 – At Stanford University, Sergey Brin and Larry Page created the Google search engine. 1998 – Apple introduces the iMac, an all-in-one Macintosh desktop computer. These PCs cost $1,300 and came with a 4GB hard drive, 32MB RAM, a CD-ROM, and a 15-inch monitor. 1999 – Wi-Fi, an abbreviation for “wireless fidelity,” is created, originally covering a range of up to 300 feet. 21st Century 2000 – The USB flash drive is first introduced in 2000. They were speedier and had more storage space than other storage media options when used for data storage. 2001 – Apple releases Mac OS X, later renamed OS X and eventually simply macOS, as the successor to its conventional Mac Operating System. 2003 – Customers could purchase AMD’s Athlon 64, the first 64-bit CPU for consumer computers. 2004 – Facebook began as a social networking website. 2005 – Google acquires Android, a mobile phone OS based on Linux. 2006 – Apple’s MacBook Pro was available. The Pro was the company’s first dual-core, Intel-based mobile computer. Amazon Web Services, including Amazon Elastic Cloud 2 (EC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service, were also launched (S3) 2007 – The first iPhone was produced by Apple, bringing many computer operations into the palm of our hands. Amazon also released the Kindle, one of the first electronic reading systems, in 2007. 2009 – Microsoft released Windows 7. 2011 – Google introduces the Chromebook, which runs Google Chrome OS. 2014 – The University of Michigan Micro Mote (M3), the world’s smallest computer, was constructed. 2015 – Apple introduces the Apple Watch. Windows 10 was also released by Microsoft. 2016 – The world’s first reprogrammable quantum computer is built.