HISTORY OF

COMPUTERS
 COMPUTER (INTRODUCTION)

A computer is a machine or device

that performs processes, calculations
and operations based on instructions
provided by a software or hardware
program. It has the ability to accept
data (input), process it, and then
outputs that can carry out sequences
of
arithmetic or logical operations
(computation) automatically.
Modern digital electronic computers
can perform generic sets of
operations known as programs.
These programs enable computers to
perform a wide range of tasks. Early
computers were meant to be used
calculations since ancient times.
Early in the Industrial Revolution,
some mechanical devices were built
to automate long,
tedious tasks, such as guiding
patterns for looms. More
sophisticated electrical machines
did specialized analog calculations
in the early 20th century. The first
digital electronic calculating
World War 2 .The
first Semiconductor transistors in
the late 1940s were followed by
the silicon-based MOSFET (MOS
transistor) and monolithic
translated circuit chip technologies
in the late 1950s, leading to
the microprocessor and
the microcomputer revolution in the
1970s. The speed ,power and
dramatically ever since
then ,with transistor
counts increasing at a rapid pace (as
predicted by Moore's law), leading to
the Digital Revolution during the late
20th to early 21st
centuries .Conventionally , a modern
computer consists of at least
one processing elements typically
a central processing unit (CPU) in
the form of a microprocessor ,along
memory chips. The processing
element carries
out arithmetic and logical operations
,and a sequencing and control unit
can change the order of operations in
response to stored information .
Peripheral devices include input
devices(mouse ,
keyboards ,joystick ,etc.),output
devices (monitor
touchscreen. Peripheral devices
allow information to be retrieved
from an external source and they
enable the result of operations to
be saved and retrieved.
 Etymology
According to the Oxford English
Dictionary , the first known use
of computer was in a 1613 book
called The Yong Mans Gleanings by
the English writer Richard
Brathwait :“ I haue [sic] read the
truest computer of Times ,and the
best Arithmetician that euer [sic]
breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes
This usage of the term referred to
a human computer ,a person who
carried out calculations or
computations. The word continued
with the same meaning until the
middle of the 20th century. During
the latter part of this period women
were often hired as computers
because they could be paid less than
their male counterparts . By 1943,
The Online Etymology Dictionary
gives the first attested use
of computer in the 1640s, meaning
'one who calculates'; this is an
"agent noun from compute (v.)".
The Online Etymology
Dictionary states that the use of the
term to mean "'calculating
machine' (of any type) is from
1897." The Online Etymology
"modern use" of the term , to
mean ‘programmable digital
electronic computer' dates from
"1945 under this name; [in a]
theoretical [sense] from 1937,
as Turing machine ".
 History
Pre-20th century
Devices have been used to aid
computation for thousands of years,
mostly using one-to-one
correspondence with fingers .The
earliest counting device was most
likely a form of tally stick . Later
record keeping aids throughout
 Crescent included calculi (clay
spheres, cones, etc.) which
represented counts of items, likely
livestock or grains, sealed in hollow
unbaked clay containers . The use
of counting rods is one example.
The abacus was initially used for
arithmetic tasks. The Roman
abacus was developed from devices
used in Babylonia as early as 2400
forms of reckoning boards or tables
have been invented. In a medieval
European counting house ,a
checkered cloth would be placed on
a table, and markers moved around
on it according to certain rules, as
an aid to calculating sums of money
. The Antikythera mechanism is
believed to be the earliest known
mechanical analog
Derek J.de Solla Price. It was
designed to calculate astronomical
positions. It was discovered in 1901
in the Antikythera wreck off the
Greek island of Antikythera ,
between
Kythera and Crete ,and has been
dated to approximately c. 100 BCE.
Devices of comparable complexity
to the Antikythera mechanism
fourteenth century.Many
mechanical aids to calculation and
measurement were constructed for
astronomical and navigation use.
The planisphere was a star
chart invented by Abū Rayhān al-
Bīrūnī in the early 11th
century.The astrolabe was invented
in the
Hellenistic world in either the 1st
A combination of the planisphere
and dioptra, the astrolabe was
effectively an analog computer
capable of working out several
different kinds of problems
in spherical astronomy . An
astrolabe incorporating a
mechanical calendar computer
and gear-wheels was invented by
Abi Bakr of Isfahan Persia in 1235.
 lunisolar calendar astrolabe ,an early
fixed- wired knowledge
processing machine with a gear train
and gear-wheels ,c .1000 AD.
The sector ,
a calculating instrument used for
solving problems
in proportion ,trigonometry,
multiplication and division, and for
various functions, such as squares
The planimeter was a manual
instrument to calculate the area
of a closed figure by tracing over
it with a mechanical linkage.
The slide rule was invented
around 1620 –1630 by the English
clergyman William
Oughtred ,shortly after the
publication of the concept of
the logarithm .It is a hand-
multiplication and division. As slide
rule development progressed, added
scales provided reciprocals ,squares
and square roots ,cubes and cube
roots ,as well as transcendental
functions such as logarithms and
exponentials, circular
and hyperbolic trigonometry and
other functions .Slide rules with
special scales are still used for quick
calculations, such as
the E6B circular slide rule used for
time and distance calculations on
light aircraft. In the 1770s, Pierre
Jaquet –Droz ,a
Swiss watchmaker ,built a
mechanical doll (automaton) that
could write holding a quill pen. By
switching the number and order of
its internal wheels different letters,
In effect, it could be mechanically
"programmed" to read
instructions. Along with two other
complex machines, the doll is at the
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire of
Neuchâtel ,
Switzerland ,and still operates.