THE HISTORY OF COMPUTERS
During prehistoric times man’s activity was very much limited to simply surviving. At that
times man learned to add or subtract with his fingers and toes. Later on man began to be
more creative by using symbols to represent concrete objects. These objects were the
sticks, ropes, shells, chicken bones, scratches on rocks stones, marks on pottery or any
number of objects could have been used. But the fact that the word “calculate” is derived
from “calculus” the latin word for “small stones” suggests that pebbles or beads were
among the early forms of representing numbers.
Man soon learned how to cultivate the soil and began planting crops; they learned to fish
and to domesticate animals; they invented the wheel and made traveling faster and more
convenient. This brought them to different places which led to the development of the barter
system, the exchange of goods with other goods.
As the trade began to be more complicated, man devised the numeral system. The
earliest records of a numeral system were those found in Mesopotamia as early as 3000
B.C. The earliest numerals were composed mainly of simple straight lines for the small
numbers and special form for the number 10. The vertical marks like I, II, III and the likes
maybe the representations of the fingers held when used in counting. The horizontal lines
may have representations of sticks as they lay on the ground.
In the early societies, people recognized the need to calculate and to keep track of
information. They soon devised simple computing devices to compute and record simple
transactions. Thus mathematics was born.
The Earliest Computing Devices
Abacus - It is the first real manual calculating device and it is believed to be the
origin of the present day computer. The abacus is a wooden frame with
beads strung on a number of strings. By moving the beads, one can do
arithmetic calculations of addition and subtraction.
Napier’s logs and bones (1550-1617) - This computing device was constructed
from a set of sticks with number printed on them. The sticks were made of bone
or ivory. It could perform both multiplication and division with his bones.
It was invented by John Napier who was a Scottish Mathematician who became
famous for his invention of logarithms which was first published in 1614.
William Oughtred’s Slide Rule (1630) – In 1630, a man named William Oughtred
invented the slide rule. It was operated by sliding one ruler over the other.
Multiplication could be done faster with the used of the slide rule.
After these three inventions early mechanical calculating devices exist, like
calculators
Charles Babbage (1823) – An English mathematician who lived in the nineteenth
century or 180 years, he was dubbed the “father of the modern computer”.
Two (2) inventions of Charles Babbage
• Difference engine – This device based on the rotating wheel principle
was operated by means of a single crank
• Analytical engine – A machine that could perform all mathematical
calculations, store values in its memory and perform logical
comparisons among values.
COMPUTER – is an electronic machine that is capable of accepting data
and manipulating or processing this data into meaningful results of
information.
- is an electronic device that can accept data, process these
data according to a stored set of instructions and produce a meaningful
information.
THE COMPUTER GENERATIONS
• Zeroeth Generation - This was the period when man used only his fingers
and toes, beads, bones, pebbles and other object s they could avail for
counting. It later led to the invention of the first calculating device which
was the abacus.
• First generation, VACUUM TUBE (1951-1958) – It is an electronic tube
about the size of light bulbs were used as the internal component. However,
because thousands of such tubes were required to operate all at the same
time, they generated so much heat, causing many problems in temperature
regulation and climate control.
• Second generation, TRANSISTOR ( 1959 – 1964) – This was a three
legged component which shrunk the size of the first generation computers.
It occupied only 1/100th of the space occupied by a vacuum tube and yet
was far more reliable, had greater computational speed, required no warm-
up time and consumed far less electricity.
• Third generation, INTEGRATED CIRCUIT (1970) – A square silicon chips
containing circuitry that can perform the functions of hundreds of transistors,
silicon can be found in the earth’s crust. It is a non metallic substance which
you can find in beach, sand, rocks and clay.
• Fourth generation, MICROPROCESSOR (1971-1977) – The trend of
putting more circuits on a silicon chip gave rise to a large-scale
integration (LSI) of the fourth generation computers. Through the
1970’s, computers gained tremendous speed, reliability, and storage
capacity, but entry into the fourth generation was evolutionary rather
than revolutionary. Computers are becoming smaller but yet much
more powerful than their gigantic predecessors.
• Fifth generation, VERY LARGE SCALE INTEGRATION (1978 –
Present) – The fifth generation computers utilize Very Large Scale
Integration (VLSI). Competition among computers has become stiff.
New brands and models would come out in the market almost every
month.
