The word "computer" has become very familiar word to us by our generation.we
can identify a computer very easily. However, it took a long time to develop computers which
we are using today. Moreover, many people have given their time to produce this.
The abacus is simple tool which man use to do is calculations easily. Many people
believe that abacus is the foundation of the computers we use today.
The abacus, which is supposed to be the first machine that people used for mathematical calculations. Abacus has been used over thousand of years by various countries in the world to
easy process their mathematical calculations. Even today, the abacus is used for calculations in countries such as Srilanka,India,China,Japan etc.
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| Abacus |
abacus is to their work to the time and do it efficiently and accurately.
The first abacus was found in china. Colette is the founder and CEO of Abacus Data . He obtained Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Carleton University.
John Napier, a Scotland national revealed the theory of logarithms to the world in 1617. The process of multiplication of number can be converted into an easy process of addition by the use of logarithms. logarithmic tables should be used to solve problems using logarithms. John Napier used a brilliant alternative system for this by writing the required figures in ivory stripes. Such ivory stripes marked with logarithmic values are called Napier's Bones.
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| Napier's Bones |
Using John Napier's logarithmic concepts the slide ruler was designed in England in about 1632.
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| Slider Ruler |
this machine. This machine is also called the 'PASCALINE'.
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| Pascal's Adding Machine |
A German mathematician called Gottfried Wilhelm improves pascal's machine further in around 1974. Consequent to this improvement, all the operations: addition, subtraction, and equally division
and multiplication could be done.
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| Punch Card |
With the industrialization many types of machine were introduced
and a French man called Joseph
Jacquard introduced a machine called 'Mechanical Loom' to easy
weaving cloth in 1801. Joseph Jacquard was able to make many patterns on cloths by using the cards with punch holes.
An Englishmen called Charles Babbage
designed the first model requried for a
mechanical computer in 1822, It was
called the 'Difference Engine'.
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| Analytical Machine |
The basic foundation for the creation of the
'Analytical Engine' by Charles Babbage
was the punch card concept in 1833. However,
he was unable to produce the analytical engine
as he wished with the technology available at that time.
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| Charles Babbage |
When looking at the functionality of this analytical machine,
we can see that the necessary components required for data input' storage' processing and output had been in-built. Computers designed later were greatly influenced by those concepts of Babbage and that is why Babbage is called the 'FATHER OF COMPUTER'.
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| Ada Augusta Lovelace |
A friend of Babbage called Ada Augusta Lovelace was keen on preparing programs required for his engine. Such programs are considered to be the
first attempt of computer programming. Hence, Ada Augusta Lovelace is considered to be the first computer programmer in the world.
The computer language which was used later for
military ppurpose was named Ada as a mark of respect
for her.
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| Herman Hollerith |
Herman Hollerith was able to carry out a very successful population census in America in 1890 using Joseph Jacquard's concept of punch cards. Herman was able to produce results of this census within a short period since he was keen on using the punch card technology correctly.
The computer manufacturing organization IBM (international business machines) which is very popular today was established under Hollerith's initiatives.
Howard Aiken of the Harvard University made every effort to develop Charles Babbage's concepts in 1937. As a result, around 1944, Howard Aiken and his friends in IBM corporation in Harvard were able to design a machine called 'Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator'. However, this Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator was later maned as 'mark I'.
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| Howard Aiken |
Mark I machine had the capability to preform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division very easily. A type writer was connected to input data while punch card were used for data output. There were more than 3,000 electromechanical relays in mark I and it was about 5 tonnes in weight. Further, it should be mentioned that Mark I was used for mare than 15 years.
Between 1937 and 1942, Bulgarian Professor John Vincent Atanasoff was able to complete a computer partly with the assistance of Cliff Berry. Later this computer was named 'Atanasoff Berry Computer.'
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| Atanasoff-Berry Computer |
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| John Vincent Atanasoff |
However, there is much controversy about the first electronic digital computer. Some say that Prof. John Vincent's ABC computer was completed partly, they were not able to obtain the patent license for this machine.
On account of this, ENIAC computer (Electronic Numeric Integrator And Computer) which was produced later is considered to be the world's first electronic digital computer.
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| John Von Neumann |
Around 1945 a mathematician called John Von Neumann designed a new concept that can be used in computers. The basic idea of this is to make the computer capable to get different tasks performed by using it's stored programs without affecting any physical changes to the computer machine. What is being used in modern computer is the concept of John Von Neumann.
Moor school of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania produced the world's first electronic digital computer around in 1946. This was called ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) and about 18,000 vacuum tubes were used to develop this machine.
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| Vacuum Tube |
Although ENIAC computer was able to carry
out about 5,000 calculations within a second,
there were several drawbacks of it such as the
size of the machine, the frequent changes of
burned vacuum tubes due to excessive heat
and also high electrical use.
Computers which are designed
by the Vacuum Tube were called 'First
generation computers'.
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| ENIAC COMPUTER |
A few years later in 1950, Remington Rand institution manufactured UNIVAC-I
(Universal Automatic Calculator-I) computer which have capacity to carry about 10,000 in a second.
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| UNIVAC-I COMPUTER |
Meanwhile in 1957, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) designed its 'IBM 704' computer which can do about 100,000 calculations per second.
The second generation of computes starts with the invention of the transistor. The honor of
inventing the transistor goes to William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of the Bell Laboratory and for this they were awarded the Nobel prize for the physics in 1956.
Computers in the second generation were designed with smaller transistors and these computers could preform 200,000-250,000 mathematical calculations per second.
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| Transistor |
Low electrical use use and small size were the key characteristics of this second generation computers.
Third generation computers were designed with Integrated Circuits (CUs)
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| Integrated Circuit |
With the use of integrated circuits, the size of the computers were reduces further
while achieving higher efficiency. Integrated circuits used in the earlier stages consisted of a few transistors and the technology was called SSI (Small Scale Integration). The next generation of integrated circuits were produced by developing these circuits further with more transistors. Those are called MSI (Medium Scale Integration).
Micro-chips which were designed with the development of the technology represent the fourth generation of the computer.
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| Microprocessors |
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