Page Title
HISTORY OF COMPUTERS
Computers can be classified into three (3) generations. Each generation lasted for a certain period of time,and each showed a new and improved computer or an improvement to the existing computer.:
First Generation (1934 – 1946): the first electronic digital computer was built by Dr. John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry in 1937 and was called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). Other developments continued until in 1946 the first general– purpose digital computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was built. It is said that this computer weighed 30 tons, and had 18,000 vacuum tubes which was used for processing.
Second Generation (1947 – 1962): this generation of computers used transistors instead of vacuum tubes. In 1951 the first computer for commercial use was introduced to the public; the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC 1). In 1953 the International Business Machine (IBM) 650 and 700 series computers made their mark in the computer world. During this generation of computers over 100 computer programming languages were developed, computers had memory and operating systems. Storage media such as tape and disk were in use also were printers for output.
Third Generation (1963 – present): this generation of computers was brought about by the invention of integrated circuit. With this invention computers became smaller, more powerful more reliable and they are able to run many different programs at the same time. In1980 Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-Dos) was born and in 1981 IBM introduced the personal computer (PC) for home and office use. Three years later Apple gave us the Macintosh computer with its icon driven interface and the 90s gave us Windows operating system.
COMPONENTS OF A COMPUTER
A computer system consists of both hardwear and information stored on heardwear. Information stored on computer hardware is often called software.
The hardware components of a computer system are the electronic and mechanical parts and the software components of a computer system are the data and the computer programs.
The major hardware components of a computer system are:
- Processor: The central processing unit (CPU) is the hardware within a computer that executes a program.
- Memory : the primary or main memory stores all data to be processed and the instructions required for processing (from the input devices), intermediate results for processing and final results of processing.
- Input Devices: allows the user to enter information into the computer system which is converted into electrical signals and transmitted to the processor. For example keyboard, mouse etc.
- Output Devices: those parts that allow your computer to communicate with you; these devices take data from the computer system and convert it into a form that can be interpreted by humans. Eg printer, monitor,speaker.
Page Title
INFORMATION PROCESSING CYCLE
The information processing cycle is series of events in processing information which includes:
