History of computer

                                  History of computer

The history of computer starts from 4000 years ago. The gradual change in the concept over a long period time is known as history of computer. Around fifth century, Hindu philosopher developed a new method of counting from 0 to 9. Counting the number from 0 to 9 can be performed with the help of fingers. The development of counting started form the development of simple counting called ABACUS.

Abacus 

It is the early counting and calculating device that was developed by Chinese people. It was first used for computation in 3000 B.C. it was used to add, subtract, multiply and divide. It was made up of wooden frame and divided into two parts, heaven and earth by mid bar. Each string in heaven and earth had two beads each having the value of five units and five beads each having the value of one unit respectively. Calculations were carried out by shifting beads to the mid bar.

Napier’s Bones

In 1614 AD, a Scottish mathematician John Napier discovered the concept of logarithms and in 1617 AD, he constructed a set of rods called Napier Bones for doing mathematical calculation easily. It consisted of eleven sets of bone rods on which the numbers were engraved. It was used for multiplication.

Slide Rule

William Oughtred invented the slide rule in 1620 AD. This device consists of two gradated scales, one small and other large one. One of the scales passes over the other. It was used calculation product and quotient. The calculation was done by sliding the smaller scale over the large scale and the result was obtained by the engineers till 1970s. This was replaced by pocket calculator.

Pascal’s Calculating/Adding Machine

In 1642, Blaise Pascal developed it. It was used to add, subtract, multiply and divide. It was mechanical calculator that used toothed wheels and gears. The numbers were written on the wheels and calculation was done by dialing the number. It was also called Pascaline.

Leibniz’s Calculator

It was made by a German philosopher Gottrified Wihem Von Leibniz (G.V. Leibnz) in 1671 AD. It was based on Pascal’s principle. But it used gears, toothed wheels and drums. It was able to add, subtract and even find square roots. It worked on the principle that multiplication and division can be done by repetitive addition and subtraction of numbers. It was also called as Stepped Reckonor.

Difference Engine

In 1822 AD, an English mathematician (professor of mathematics at Cambridge university) invented a machine called Difference Engine with mechanical memory to store result. It was based on the difference tables of squares of the number. Due to which it got its name as Difference Engine.

Analytical Engine

It was developed by Charles Babbage in 1830s. it consisted of the input unit for taking data and instruction, mill for performing calculation, memory (punched card) with a suitable output device that was used in giving the final result. The same principle of Analytical Engine is used in the modern computer. So he is called as the “Father of Modern Computer”. The Analytical Engine was never completed due to the lack of techniques and technology because of which he was unable to get all the parts that he wanted in his machine.

Lady Augusta Ada Lovelance

Lady Augusta Ada (the daughter of famous poet, Lord Byron), was one of the great supporters of Charles Babbage convinced Babbage to use binary concept in his Analytical Engine. She wrote different types of programs that were used in Babbage machines. So she is remembered as the “First Programmer” in the history of computer science and has to her credit a computer language called ADA named after her.

Dr. Herman Hollerith

He was the first person to use punched card practically on his Census Tabulating Machine in 1880s. the information is stored as holes in cards, which are interpreted by machines with electrical sensors. The card were punched by a machine called Punched Card Machine or Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine. Then he established TMC (Tabulating Machine Company) to sell his products. Later, when other companies merged with TMC, new company were established under the name IBM ( International Business Machine) company and he became the founder of IBM. It is the worlds leading computer manufacturer.

Mark-I (Howard Aiken)

In the late 1930s, next important event was added in the history of computer; the electromechanical computer was born with the development of mark-I in 1944 by Howard Aiken with the help of IBM. It also used the punched card designed for Difference Engine. It was 51ft long, 8ft high and 13ft wide. It used large numbers of valves, switches and resistors. It was used to produce ballistics table in 2nd world war.

ENIVAC (Electronic Integrator and Calculator)

It was the first electronic computer that was developed by John Mouchlay and John Prisper Eckert in 1946. It was based on the decimal number system. 18,000 vacuum tubes were used in ENIVAC. There were 70,000 resistros, 10,000 condenser and 6,000 switches. It weighed 30 tones and occupied a space 3,000 cubic feet. It could calculate 300 times faster than any calculating device at the time and it was based on decimal number.

EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer)

In 1949, the first electronic computer was developed by John Mauchly and John Prisper Eckert with the help of A. Burks, Goldstine and Neumann. This machine was used to store the dat and information as well as the instructions. This computer operated electronically.

UNIVAC-I (Universal Accounting Computer)

John Mouchly and Eckert founded their own company in 1946 and began to work on the Universal Automatic Computer; general purpose commercial computer in 1951. It was the first commercially used electronic computer in the world.