Chapter 2: Birth of Modern Computing

The birth of modern computing, spanning the 1940s to the

1960s, marked a transformative era in human history. This
period saw the transition from mechanical and
electromechanical calculating devices to electronic,
programmable computers that could store and execute
instructions, fundamentally reshaping science, industry, and
society. Driven by wartime needs, theoretical breakthroughs,
and engineering innovations, the development of stored-program
computers, integrated circuits, and early software established the
architecture and principles that define contemporary computing.
This essay explores the key milestones, figures, and
technologies that ushered in the modern computing age.
The 1940s were a crucible for computing, with World War II
catalyzing rapid advancements. Early computers, like the
Harvard Mark I (1944), were electromechanical and relied on
relays, but they were slow and lacked flexibility. The
breakthrough came with the Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Computer (ENIAC), completed in 1945 at the University of
Pennsylvania by John Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.
ENIAC was the first general-purpose electronic computer, using
vacuum tubes to perform up to 5,000 additions per second—a
thousand times faster than its predecessors. Designed for
military applications like artillery trajectory calculations,
ENIAC was programmed via plugboards and switches, a
cumbersome process that highlighted the need for more flexible
systems. Despite its size (occupying 1,800 square feet) and
power demands, ENIAC demonstrated the potential of electronic
computing, paving the way for more advanced designs.
The defining innovation of modern computing was the stored-
program concept, which emerged in the mid-1940s. Unlike
ENIAC, which required physical rewiring for new tasks, stored-
program computers stored instructions in memory, allowing
rapid reprogramming. This idea was formalized by John von
Neumann in his 1945 report, “First Draft of a Report on the
EDVAC,” which described an architecture with a central
processing unit, memory for data and instructions, and
input/output systems. This “von Neumann architecture” became
the blueprint for most computers. The first operational stored-
program computer was the Manchester Small-Scale
Experimental Machine, or “Baby,” built in 1948 at the
University of Manchester by Frederic Williams and Tom
Kilburn. The Baby executed its first program on June 21, 1948,
proving the viability of stored programs. In 1949, the Cambridge
EDSAC, led by Maurice Wilkes, became the first practical
stored-program computer, running programs from paper tape
and supporting scientific research. These machines were slow
and limited by today’s standards, but they established the
paradigm of software-driven computing.
The 1950s saw computers transition from experimental to
commercial systems, driven by improvements in hardware and
software. Vacuum tubes, while fast, were unreliable and power-
hungry, prompting the adoption of magnetic-core memory and
early transistors. The UNIVAC I (1951), developed by Eckert
and Mauchly’s company, was the first commercially available
computer in the United States. Used for business applications
like census tabulation and election forecasting, UNIVAC
introduced computing to the corporate world. IBM, initially a
typewriter and tabulating machine company, emerged as a
leader with models like the IBM 701 (1952) for scientific
computing and the IBM 650 (1954), a more affordable machine
popular with universities and businesses. These computers relied
on punched cards and magnetic tape for input/output, and their
high cost restricted use to governments, corporations, and
research institutions. However, they demonstrated computing’s
potential for data processing and automation.
Software development was equally critical to modern
computing’s birth. Early computers were programmed in
machine language—binary instructions tailored to specific
hardware. This was tedious and error-prone, leading to the
creation of assembly languages and high-level programming
languages. In 1954, John Backus at IBM began developing
FORTRAN (Formula Translation), released in 1957, which
allowed scientists and engineers to write programs using
mathematical notation. FORTRAN’s success spurred other
languages, like COBOL (1959), designed by Grace Hopper and
others for business applications. Operating systems also
emerged to manage hardware resources and simplify user
interaction. By the late 1950s, batch-processing systems allowed
multiple programs to run sequentially, improving efficiency.
These software advances made computers more accessible and
versatile, laying the groundwork for modern programming.
The 1960s marked a leap forward with the invention of the
integrated circuit (IC), which miniaturized electronic
components. In 1958, Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and
Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor independently
developed ICs, combining transistors, resistors, and capacitors
on a single silicon chip. This innovation reduced computer size,
cost, and power consumption while increasing reliability. The
IBM System/360 (1964), a family of compatible mainframes,
capitalized on ICs and standardized computing across industries.
The System/360’s modular design allowed customers to upgrade
without rewriting software, a revolutionary concept. Meanwhile,
minicomputers like the DEC PDP-8 (1965) brought computing
to smaller organizations, costing as little as $18,000 compared to
millions for mainframes. These hardware advancements,
coupled with time-sharing systems that allowed multiple users to
access a computer simultaneously, democratized computing.
The birth of modern computing was a collaborative triumph of
theory, engineering, and vision. Alan Turing’s theoretical work
in the 1930s provided the intellectual foundation, while von
Neumann’s architecture shaped practical designs. Engineers like
Eckert, Mauchly, and Kilby pushed hardware boundaries, and
programmers like Hopper and Backus made computers usable.
By the 1960s, computers had evolved from room-sized
behemoths to tools for science, business, and government,
setting the stage for personal computing and the internet. This
era’s innovations—stored programs, high-level languages,
integrated circuits, and scalable architectures—remain the
bedrock of today’s digital world, illustrating how a few decades
of intense creativity transformed human capability.