COMPUTER HISTORY

A long time ago, when trading started people had to keep track of numbers. So, in the beginning they used fingers, counted stones and tied knots on the ropes. The people found it very difficult, and so, after thinking for a lot of time, the first calculating device ABACUS was built by Egyptians, improved by Chinese and Japanese and developed in China over 200 years ago. It was built in the Dark Ages in 3000 B.C.

    An abacus was a device in which beads were strung on wires. The calculations in this device were very fast as compared to manual calculations at that time.

After abacus, many other developments regarding computers were made by many scientists and Mathematicians.

    Some of the famous inventors and programmers were:

•  John Napier

• William Oughtred

• Francis Bacon

• Blaise Pascal

• Gottfried Von Leibnitz

• Joseph Jacquard

• Charles Babbage

• Lady Ada Lovelace

• Herman Hollerith

• Lee De Forest

• Howard Aiken

• John Van Neumann

• John W. Mauchly

• John Presper Eckert

    Some of them are discussed below:

• CHARLES BABBAGE:

    Charles Babbage, a British inventor, Mathematician and professor at Cambridge University came up with a concept of a true computer. In 1800, Babbage designed his “Difference Engine” which had mechanical memory to store results. He also designed, but never built an Analytical Engine, which was called Babbage’s folly by his colleagues. This is the sample of today’s computers. That is why he is also known as “Father of Computer”.
 

• LADY AUGUSTA ADA:

    Lady Augusta Ada, countess of Lovelace and a Mathematician, was a co-worker and a friend of Babbage. In 1840, she presented a scientific paper in which se corrected some of Babbage’s errors and invented new uses of program design using punched cards. She suggested using binary numbers for storage, rather than decimal numbers. She is also referred to as the first programmer because she gave an idea of looping (automatic repetition of a series of calculation), which is extremely valuable for today’s programmers. Another programming language, Ada is named in her honour.

 

• Professor Howard Aiken:

    In 1937 Professor Howard Aiken of Harvard University developed a digital computer Mark 1, with his graduate students and engineers of IBM. The project took almost seven year. The computer used paper tape as an input and punched card as an output. Mark 1 was able to perform calculation of 23 digit numbers in just three seconds.

 

• John W. Mauchly & John Presper Eckert:

    In 1942, Mauchly and his colleague John Presper Eckert invented ENIAC for the US army that would compute artillery firing tables. It was used till 1955.
 They also built EDVAC which was one of the two stored program computers. It was completed in 1949.

 

COMPUTER GENERATIONS

    Time by time, computers changed themselves. They improved in speed power and efficiency. These changes are recognized as a progression of generations, each characterized by specific development:

• FIRST GENERATION (1951 – 1957)
  THE VACUUM TUBE AGE:

    The computers in this generation were built up of vacuum tubes, which were made up of glass and were about the size of light bulbs. These have now been almost entirely replaced by transistors, which are cheaper and reliable.
Data was entered through punched cars and output was produced on punched cards. Worst of all, human operators had to physically reset transmit switches and wiring before program could run.
    The major machines developed in this generation were:

• UNIVAC-1

• UNIVAC-2

• IBM-650

• IBM-702

• IBM-705

• IBM-709

    The main features of this generation were:

• Electronic digital computers based on vacuum tubes.

• Fastest available devices performing calculations in milliseconds.

    However, there were some problems with the machines in this generation as well:

• Machines were not reliable, hardware failures were common, and constant maintenance was required.

• They were very large and bulky, and so were non-portable.

• Air conditioning was essential because of excess heat generation.

• Limited fields of application.

• SECOND GENERATION (1958 – 1963)
  THE TRANSISTOR AGE:

    The main characteristics of this age were the transistors, which were made up of semi conductor material, used to control the flow of electricity through the circuits.
The transistors were developed in 1948 and were used in computers in 1958. They quickly replaced vacuum tubes (in electronic devices ranging from radios to military targeting devices).

    The major machines developed in this generation were:

• IBM-1401

• IBM-1400 Series

• IBM-1600 Series

• NCR-300

• UNIVAC-300 etc.

    In the second generation, the first business application programming COBOL, and the first Computer industry standard character set, ASCII (in 1963) were also introduced.

    The main features of this generation were:

Were smaller in size, and made portable.

Were reliable and generated less heat, but still air conditioning was required.

Were used in more fields, performed calculations in microseconds.

•  THIRD GENERATION (1964 – 1969)
  THE AGE OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITS:

In 1964 transistors were replaced by Integrated circuits. It is sometimes known as chip or microchip, on which millions of tiny resistors, capacitors and transistors are fabricated.  It can also function as an amplifier, oscillator, timer, counter, computer memory or microprocessor. ICs were manufactured by machinery, and so resulted with lower cost and increased power.

    During this generation, monitors and keyboards were introduced for input and output operations instead of punched cards.

    A new program called Operating System was introduced to control the computer and its resources effectively. This program reduced the human intervention, and speed was increased.

Concept of families of computers was adapted. These computers were also for airline reservation, billing, etc.
    The major machines developed in this generation were:

• IBM/360

• IBM/370

• UNIVAC 1108

• UNIVAC 9000 Series

    The main features of this generation were:

• More reliable, less hardware failure, low maintenance cost, smaller in size.

• Heat generation was less but air conditioning was required.

• Less power consumption and performed calculations in nanoseconds.

• More areas of application.

• FOURTH GENERATION (1970 – 1990)
  THE MICROPROCESSOR AGE:

    The most significant advancement in this generation was the use of microprocessor. The fourth generation started with the techniques of implementation of integrated circuits by using LSI and VLSI of chips with several thousand transistors.
    In 1971, powerful microprocessor Intel 8008 was introduced and used in first personal computer.
    PCs made computer systems affordable to small business and homes.
    New technologies introduced to fabricate ICs, such as X-rays and Laser-rays.
   Handy input and output devise were introduced, including optical readers, graphic display terminals, etc.
    Pentiums and Laptops were also introduced in this generation.
    The computers in this generation were used for communication, mathematical modelling, etc.

 

    The main features in this generation were:

• Most reliable, least hardware failure, least maintenance cost, smallest in size.

• Least heat generate, no air conditioning required in many cases.

• Fastest machines, inexpensive, and having application in almost every field.

• FIFTH GENERATION (1991-2002)
  THE AGE OF CONNECTIVITY:

    It began with the development of World Wide Web (WWW), Internet, Intranet, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. Building of Space Stations also took place in this generation. As it has started with Artificial Intelligence, it is known this generation is also known as Artificial Intelligence (AI).

COMPUTERS TODAY

    Nowadays Computers are used almost in every part of life. It is in fact our necessity. Nowadays we are using computers in Palm tops, Mobile Phones, Weapons, Wireless Internet, Surgeries and Operations, toys etc.

 

 

 

 

FUTURE IS COMPUTER

    In future, the technologies we are viewing today would be improved and become common. For example, Robots, Computer in cars helping for navigation, space traveling would be easier and education would be easier with more audio visual aids which nowadays is very rare.

 

 

 

 

 

• ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:

    The term Artificial Intelligence was coined by John McCarthy at MIT in 1956. It is the science and technology based on disciplines such as computer science, biology, psychology, engineering, etc. Goal of AI is to develop computers that can think as well as see, hear, walk talk and feel. The most common example of AI is the chess program.

    There are four major areas of AI. One of them is discussed below:

 

 

• ROBOTICS

    The basic disciplines involved in robotics are AI, physiology and engineering. This technology produce robots with computer controlled human like capabilities. This area thus includes applications to give robots the five senses which we have, locomotion and navigation.

    There are numerous examples of Robotics; for example, Jason Jr., a 7 foot long robot was built for photographing the remains of Titanic;

 

• SPACE STATION

The International Space Station (ISS) is a joint project of 6 space agencies: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Russian Federal Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA/ASC), Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) and the European Space Agency (ESA, with members United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, Austria and Finland choosing not to participate; Greece and Luxembourg joined ESA later.
The space station is located in orbit around the Earth at an altitude of approximately 360 km (220).

 

 

Thus, we conclude that computers have now become a part of our lives.