HISTORY OF COMPUTER

Historically man has been trying to do computations using various aids. The history of
calculation (computing devices) starts with Abacus.

1) Abacus (5000 BC): The historians trace the origin of Abacus to a period as early as
between 5000 to 2000 BC. Abacus was invented in China. It consists of a wooden
frame on which parallel wires are fitted. Beads are strung on these wires. Even today
we can see this device in many primary schools.
In Abacus the storage was limited to a single number. It was the first device to
introduce the concept of storing data.

2) Napier’s Bones - (1617):

John Napier a Scottish mathematician did considerable amount of work on aids for
calculation. The most notable invention was the logarithmic table in 1614.
In 1617, he designed a device called as “Napier’s bones”. It was a set of 11
numbering rods. On each face of these rods various numbers where marked in such a
way that by placing them side by side multiplication, division and square roots were
possible.
These rods were carved from bones of animals & hence the name given was Napier’s
bones.
3) SLIDE RULE (1630):-
William Oughtred was an English mathematician who derived the slide rule from
Napier’s logarithmic tables. It used the principle of multiplying numbers by adding
their logarithm. It was made up of two moving scales, marked with numbers and which
can slide upon one another. The distance between the markings was made proportional
to the logarithm of number. It was possible to perform addition, multiplication etc.
This device was used extensively by engineers & mathematicians, until the modern day
electronic calculator was introduced in the market.
.
Moving scales marked with
Numbers.

4) PASCAL’S CALCULATOR (1642):-

Blaise Pascal a French mathematician invented the first mechanical calculating
machine of the world. In this machine the Numbers were entered by dialing series of
numbered wheels. Each wheel had 10 teeth to correspond with 10 digits of the decimal
number system. Total 8 wheels were used in this machine. This mechanical calculator
was able to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Multiplication
and Division were performed by using series of additions and subtractions respectively.

5) LEIBNITZ’S CALCULATOR (1671):-

Gottfried Leibnitz, a Germen mathematicians invented a calculating machine which was
able to perform multiplication and division. It was based on the principle of Pascal’s
calculator.

6) JACQUARD’S LOOM:-
Joseph Jacquard a French engineer and textile manufacture invented a mechanical
system for use in his textile industry. This machine was used to automatically control
the weaving loom, which used complex pattern for clothes. Punch cards where used to
determine the weaving pattern.

7) Charles Babbage:
Working principle of today’s computer was provided by Charles Babbage an English
mathematician in 19th century. He was a professor of mathematics at Cambridge
University. He devised a machine called as:
1) Difference Engine (1823) :- This machine was designed to calculate and print
mathematical tables like logarithmic tables etc. He used punch card as input
device.
Its failure was due to very big assembly and it’s another drawback was it could
not provide good precision.
 2) Analytical Engine (1833) :- After the difference engine Babbage proposed
another machine called as Analytical engine. It used punch card as input, a
memory unit for storage and an arithmetic unit for calculations. It could also
produce an automatic print out. In short it was a prototype of today’s modern
computer. It was 100 years ahead of its time.
Babbage was not able to build this machine because British government could
not finance his project. After Babbage’s work in computer little progress was
made until 1937.

EARLY COMPUTERS

1) Mark I (1944) :
Howard Aiken a student of Harvard University, while working on his doctorate in
physics designed a machine, which would automatically perform sequence of
arithmetic operations. He completed his project in 1944 and named it as MARK-I. It
was very complex in design and used. It contained 60 set of switches, 72 accumulators,
wires, plugs, buttons, boards etc. The input device was punched paper tape. It was the
first electro-mechanical computer of the world.
The time taken for average addition and multiplication was 4 sec. and 11 sec.
respectively. The result was printed at the rate of 1 result per 5 seconds.

2) ENIAC (1946) :
ELECTRONIC NUMERICAL INTEGRATOR AND CALCULTOR.
It was the first electronic calculator of the world. It was developed by John Mauchly
at Moore School of electronics engineering, at Pennsylvania, USA. It had no moving
parts except input and output. The ENIAC was 30-50 feet long, weighted 30 tons,
contained 18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resisters, 10,000 capacitors and required
150,000 watts of electricity. Today computer is many times as powerful as ENIAC,
still size is very small.

3) EDSAC (1949) :
ELECTRONIC DELAY STORAGE AUTOMATIC COMPUTER.
It was developed by M.V.Wilkes at Cambridge University in 1949. The EDSAC is the
first stored- program computer. The EDSAC is the first stored program computer. The
EDSAC performed computations in the three millisecond range.

4) EDVAC (1950) :
ELECTRONIC DISCRETE VARIABLE AUTOMATIC COMPUTER
It was developed for military application of USA. It was based on the ideas of Dr.
John von Neumann. The concept of storing data and instructions inside the computer
was introduced here. This allowed much faster operation since the computer had rapid
access to both data and instructions. The other advantage of storing instruction was
that computer could do logical decision internally. The EDVAC was a binary serial
computer with automatic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.
5) UNIVAC (1951) : UNIVERSAL AUTOMATIC COMPUTER
It was the first commercially available digital computer of the world. It was build by
Remington Rand in 1951. The machine was 25 feet by 50 feet in length, contained
5600 tubes, 18000 crystal diodes and 300 relays. It could handle alphabetical as well
as numerical data. It used binary number system consisting of only two digits 0 and 1.
Magnetic tape was used for input & output.
Many UNIVAC machines were produced and used for business applications until
1963.

GENERATIONS OF COMPUTER

Generation of computer means step in technology. The term generation is used

to distinguish between various hardware technologies. There are total five generations
of computer but till today the fifth generation computers are not introduced
commercially in the market.
The ‘PC’ (Personal Computer) we are using today is the fourth generation
Computer.

1) FIRST GENERATION COMPUTER (1946-54) :

The computers developed between the period 1946 to 54+ that is ENIAC, EDVAC,
EDSAC, UNIVAC-I are called as first-generation computers.
i)They used vacuum tubes as the main switching device in the circuits.
ii) They were extremely large in size.
iii) They were little reliable because 1000s of vacuum tubes were used in the circuits
hence the rate of failure was very high.
iv) Each vacuum tube consumed lot of power hence considerable amount of heat was
generated.
v) Special air-cooling system was required and this cooling system again required lot
of space.
vi) The speed of the Computer was extremely show compared to the today’s computer.
vii) Punched cards were used as input device. Hollerith’s code was used to punch the
cards.
viii) No operating system, No application software, No high level languages were
available. The only language available was the machine language so a technical
expert person was required to write programs in machine language and to run the
computer.
ix) The commercial use of computer was very limited.

2) SECOND GENERATION COMPUTER (1955- 64) :

A big revolution in electronic took place when transistors were invented by
Bardin William Shockley at bell laboratory USA in 1948. Transistors were made up
from material known as semi conductor, which mainly uses silicon and Germanium.
The computers in which the vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors are called
as second generation computers. Because of the transistor the following features were
introduced in the second generation of computer.
i) Size was considerably reduced than the first generation computer.
ii) Computers became more reliable.
iii) Rate of failure was minimized.
iv) Less heat was generated. Heat generation was reduced because less power was
consumed.
v) The speed of computer increased.
vi) The commercial use of computer also increased.
vii) High level languages like FORTRON (Formula Translator), COBOL (Common
Business Oriented Language) were developed during this generation. Operating
system was also developed during this period. Because of business applications of
computer new professions like Programmer, Data entry operator, System analyst
emerged during this period.
DISADVANTAGES:
i. Air-conditioning was required.
ii. Maintenance was required.
iii. Commercial application was difficult and very costly.
iv. Manual assembly was required.

3) THIRD GENERATION (1964-1977) :

The third generation of computer began in 1965, when IC (integrated circuits)
where used as the main electronic component in the computer. Advancement in
electronics technology made it possible to integrate large no of circuits on to very small
surface (less than 5mm square) of silicon known as “chips”. This new technology was
called as “IC”. MOS(Metal Oxide Semi-conductor) technology was developed during this
period.
Due to IC, following features were introduced in the third generation of Computer.
a. Smaller in size than the first and second generation of computer.
b. More reliable.
c. Less power consumption than previous generations.
d. Heat generation was low.
e. Speed was increased.
f. Maintenance cost was low
g. Hardware failure was very rare.
h. Widely used for commercial applications all over the world.
i. Manual Assembly was not required.
j. Mini computer and Mainframe computers were developed during this generation.
k. High-level languages FORTRON and COBOL were improved.
l. Unix Operating system was used on mainframe and mini computer.
DISADVANTAGES:
1) Air conditioning was required.
2) High sophisticated technology was required for manufacturing of IC, so the cost of
computer was very high.
3) Skilled and technical person is required to act as Super user for Mainframe and Mini
computers
Most of the mainframe computers available in India are third generation computer.
e.g. IBM 370.
4) FOURTH GENERATION (1978 onwards - till today):
At present we are using the fourth generation computers. The fourth generation was
identified by the use of Microprocessor chip. In this generation, electronic components
were further miniaturized due to LSI (Large Scale Integration) and VLSI (Very Large Scale
Integration). More than thousand transistors were put on single silicon chip. The VLSI
technology resulted in the development of Microprocessor. Microcomputers were developed
in this generation, which revolutionized the computer industry. Since microprocessor chip is
used as the main component (processor) in this machine, they are called as Microcomputer.
Features of Microcomputer:
1) The size is extremely reduced. So the computers have become easily portable.
2) They are very reliable.
3) Hardware failure is very rare / negligible.
4) No (or very minimum) maintenance is required.
5) Heat generation is negligible, so air conditioner is not required.
6) The cost of computer is considerably reduced. The computer is now available for few
thousands of rupees. So, a common person can also purchase computer at his home/
office, for personal use etc.
7) Speed, storage capacity of computer is largely increased.
8) Vast software support is available in market to fourth generation computers. Lot of
readymade software is available which are ready to use.
9) Skilled operator or technical expert person is not necessary to use computer. Even small
children can use computers easily.
10) Multimedia applications are possible to run. It is possible to input pictures, photos,
audio, video and other images in the computer.
11) Advanced operating systems providing Graphical User Interface (GUI) are available.
12) Networking of computers is possible, which allows sharing of data and costly computer
resources like printer, scanner etc.
13) High level languages are advanced and provide powerful features to handle complex
task.
14) Computers are used in each and every field of our life. They have become very popular
and there commercial use is widely spread. They are used in all the fields like education,
medicine, engineering, scientific research, space technology, military applications etc.

5) FIFTH GENERATION OF COMPUTER(Present and Beyond):

Fifth generation was expected in 1990. Scientists are working on fifth generation
computers very extensively. Their aim is to bring a machine with genuine IQ. They will have
ability to reason logically with real knowledge of the world. That is they will not do just data
processing like today’s computer but they will perform knowledge processing.
They will behave like an expert, so they will be called as “Expert Systems” instead of
computers. That is they will have KIPS (Knowledge Information Processing System) rather
than the present DIPS/ LIPS (Logic Information Processing System). They will be able to
process non-numerical information such as pictures and graphs.
This machine will incorporate Artificial intelligence (AI), which will not be far
different from the human intelligence. They will have large stored reservoir of knowledge, so
that they will be able to make expert judgment and take decisions.
Even though the computers in last forty years have become very fast, reliable and
inexpensive the basic logical structure proposed by John Von Neumann has not changed.
The Basic block diagram of Input, CPU and output is still valid today. Computers still
process given set of instructions, one by one, in the order given. But in coming generation of
computer the intelligence will be greatly improved.
They will interact with human being in ordinary language, rather than the high level
languages like COBOL, BASIC, C, C++. The computer will talk with human being and hear
their natural language.
Intensive research work is going on in Japan for the development of expert systems.
Japan has chosen the Prolog (Programming in Logic) as the operating system and they have
planned to install voice input and output system.

ELECTRONIC ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES

GENERATION COMPONENT
First Vacuum tube Helped in calculation and 1.Big Size
computational work 2.Very costly
3.Slow speed
4.Low accuracy
5.Low storage
6.High power
requirements
7. High heat generation
8. High failure rate
9. Used machine
language
10. No operating system
Second Transistor 1. 1. Smaller Size 1. 1. Need air conditioning
2. 2. Less cost 2. 2. Constant maintenance
3. 3. Better speed 3. 3. No operating systems
4. 4. Low power
consumption and less
heat generation
5. 5. Better storage capacity
6. 6. Better accuracy and
more reliability
Third Integrated Circuits(IC) 1. Better in all aspects 1. 1. Initial problem with
compared to I and II manufacturers
2. Used operating 2. 2. No insight obtained
systems and high level into internal working
language
Fourth VLSI (Very Large 1. Low Cost Less powerful than main
Scale Integration) or 2. Excellent speed and frame computers
Microprocessor reliability
3. Computers close to
man
Fifth ULSI (Ultra Large 1. Very cheap New low level language
Scale Integration) or AI 2. Super speed needed
or Bio-chips 3. Very high storage
capacity
4. Highly sophisticated
OS
5. Posses intelligence
and decision making
ability