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History of Computers

Hiatory of the computers in english

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56 views4 pages

History of Computers

Hiatory of the computers in english

Uploaded by

isabellabermudezjaramillo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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History of computers

History of Computers
Last Updated : 30 Aug, 2022



Before computers were developed people used sticks, stones, and
bones as counting tools. As technology advanced and the human
mind improved with time more computing devices were developed
like Abacus, Napier’s Bones, etc. These devices were used as
computers for performing mathematical computations but not very
complex ones.
Some of the popular computing devices are described below,
starting from the oldest to the latest or most advanced technology
developed:
Abacus
Around 4000 years ago, the Chinese invented the Abacus, and it is
believed to be the first computer. The history of computers begins
with the birth of the abacus.
Structure: Abacus is basically a wooden rack that has metal rods
with beads mounted on them.
Working of abacus: In the abacus, the beads were moved by the
abacus operator according to some rules to perform arithmetic
calculations. In some countries like China, Russia, and Japan, the
abacus is still used by their people.
Napier’s Bones
Napier’s Bones was a manually operated calculating device and as
the name indicates, it was invented by John Napier. In this device,
he used 9 different ivory strips (bones) marked with numbers to
multiply and divide for calculation. It was also the first machine to
use the decimal point system for calculation.
Pascaline
It is also called an Arithmetic Machine or Adding Machine. A French
mathematician-philosopher Blaise Pascal invented this between
1642 and 1644. It was the first mechanical and automatic calculator.
It is invented by Pascal to help his father, a tax accountant in his
work or calculation. It could perform addition and subtraction in
quick time. It was basically a wooden box with a series of gears and
wheels. It is worked by rotating wheel like when a wheel is rotated
one revolution, it rotates the neighbouring wheel and a series of
windows is given on the top of the wheels to read the totals.
Stepped Reckoner or Leibniz wheel
A German mathematician-philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in
1673 developed this device by improving Pascal’s invention to
develop this machine. It was basically a digital mechanical
calculator, and it was called the stepped reckoner as it was made of
fluted drums instead of gears (used in the previous model of
Pascaline).
Difference Engine
Charles Babbage who is also known as the “Father of Modern
Computer” designed the Difference Engine in the early 1820s.
Difference Engine was a mechanical computer which is capable of
performing simple calculations. It works with help of steam as it was
a steam-driven calculating machine, and it was designed to solve
tables of numbers like logarithm tables.
Analytical Engine
Again in 1830 Charles Babbage developed another calculating
machine which was Analytical Engine. Analytical Engine was a
mechanical computer that used punch cards as input. It was capable
of performing or solving any mathematical problem and storing
information as a permanent memory (storage).
Tabulating Machine
Herman Hollerith, an American statistician invented this machine in
the year 1890. Tabulating Machine was a mechanical tabulator that
was based on punch cards. It was capable of tabulating statistics
and record or sort data or information. This machine was used by
U.S. Census in the year 1890. Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine
Company was started by Hollerith and this company later became
International Business Machine (IBM) in the year 1924.
Differential Analyzer
Differential Analyzer was the first electronic computer introduced in
the year 1930 in the United States. It was basically an analog device
that was invented by Vannevar Bush. This machine consists of
vacuum tubes to switch electrical signals to perform calculations. It
was capable of doing 25 calculations in a few
Generations of Computers

First Generation Computers


In the period of the year 1940-1956, it was referred to as the period
of the first generation of computers. These machines are slow, huge,
and expensive. In this generation of computers, vacuum tubes were
used as the basic components of CPU and memory. Also, they were
mainly dependent on the batch operating systems and punch cards.
Magnetic tape and paper tape were used as output and input
devices. For example ENIAC, UNIVAC-1, EDVAC, etc.
Second Generation Computers
In the period of the year, 1957-1963 was referred to as the period of
the second generation of computers. It was the time of the
transistor computers. In the second generation of computers,
transistors (which were cheap in cost) are used. Transistors are also
compact and consume less power. Transistor
computers are faster than first-generation computers. For primary
memory, magnetic cores were used, and for secondary memory
magnetic disc and tapes for storage purposes. In second-generation
computers, COBOL and FORTRAN are used as Assembly language
and programming languages, and Batch processing and
multiprogramming operating systems were used in these
computers.
For example IBM 1620, IBM 7094, CDC 1604, CDC 3600, etc.
Third Generation Computers
In the third generation of computers, integrated circuits (ICs) were
used instead of transistors(in the second generation). A single IC
consists of many transistors which increased the power of a
computer and also reduced the cost. The third generation
computers are more reliable, efficient, and smaller in size. It used
remote processing, time-sharing, and multiprogramming as
operating systems. FORTRON-II TO IV, COBOL, and PASCAL PL/1
were used which are high-level programming languages.
For example IBM-360 series, Honeywe minutes.

ll-6000 series, IBM-370/168, etc.


Fourth Generation Computers
The period of 1971-1980 was mainly the time of fourth generation
computers. It used VLSI(Very Large Scale Integrated) circuits. VLSI is
a chip containing millions of transistors and other circuit elements
and because of these chips, the computers of this generation are
more compact, powerful, fast, and affordable(low in cost). Real-time,
time-sharing and distributed operating system are used by these
computers. C and C++ are used as the programming languages in
this generation of computers.
For example STAR 1000, PDP 11, CRAY-1, CRAY-X-MP, etc.
Fifth Generation Computers
From 1980 – to till date these computers are used. The ULSI (Ultra
Large Scale Integration) technology is used in fifth-generation
computers instead of the VLSI technology of fourth-generation
computers. Microprocessor chips with ten million electronic
components are used in these computers. Parallel processing
hardware and AI (Artificial Intelligence) software are also used in
fifth-generation computers. The programming languages like C, C+
+, Java, .Net, etc. are used.
For example Desktop, Laptop, NoteBook, UltraBook, etc.

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