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Evolution of Computers: Computer - A Miracle

The document traces the evolution of computers from early counting devices like the abacus to modern digital computers. It discusses the abacus, Napier's bones, Blaise Pascal's mechanical calculator called the Pascaline in the 1600s, analog computers in the 19th century that used mechanical and analog methods to perform calculations, and the use of punched cards in looms in 1805 which later influenced the development of digital data storage. The modern computer is able to process and retrieve data at extremely high speeds, acting as an invaluable tool that helps humans in many complex tasks.

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Baljeet Singh
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55 views8 pages

Evolution of Computers: Computer - A Miracle

The document traces the evolution of computers from early counting devices like the abacus to modern digital computers. It discusses the abacus, Napier's bones, Blaise Pascal's mechanical calculator called the Pascaline in the 1600s, analog computers in the 19th century that used mechanical and analog methods to perform calculations, and the use of punched cards in looms in 1805 which later influenced the development of digital data storage. The modern computer is able to process and retrieve data at extremely high speeds, acting as an invaluable tool that helps humans in many complex tasks.

Uploaded by

Baljeet Singh
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Evolution of Computers

Computer - A Miracle When men started to count the numbers, they thought of devices that can track of the numbers. The Abacus may be the first such device and it took hundreds of years to develop the Abacus to modern digital computer. The first computer originated as an ordinary calculator in 19th century. The calculators had only limited applications, performing mathematical calculations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Storage of data were not possible in these devices. Now the modern computers help men in almost all complicated areas like flight control of aeroplanes and even in space shuttles. The computers do not compete with men, but actually help him by increasing the pace of his complicated lifestyle. It receives data, processes data and retrieves data in a lightning speed comparing with human brain. Thus it becomes a miracle-helper for all human beings. Let us have a birds eye-view of the evolution of computer.

The Abacus
The abacus was the earliest calculating machine probably originated in China about 3,000 years ago. It is still widely used in Asia for primary education. The name abacus is derived from abax; Greek word for slab. It may be because the counting was once done with pebbles placed in a hollow in a slab. In China it is also known as Swan Pan. Abacus consist of a rectangular wooden frame with horizontal rods. Beads made of stones, pearls wood or ivory ( having holes in it to pass through the rods). are placed in these rods. Counting is done by shifting the beads from one place to another. Ir is a hand-used device for addition and substraction. The abacus consist of several columns, farthest to the right represents 'ones', the next one 'tens then the hundreds and so on.

Napier's Bones
John Napier, a Scottish mathematician, developed a device having a set of rods made of bones.(so the device is called napiers bone) for calculations involving multiplication. In 1614 John Napier introduced Logarithms. The tables used in the logarithm represent the analogue computing technique. In logarithm, multiplication and division can be done by adding and subtracting not the numbers themselves but with help of related numbers. Making the use of logarithms, William Oughtred, the English mathematician developed a device called The Slide Rule in the 1920's.

Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician born on 19th June 1623 at Clermont-Ferrand. Auvergue. In 1642 , when he was only 19 years old, he invented a calculating machine called Pascaline. It was the first mechanical digital calculator that can perform addition and subtraction on whole numbers. It had a system of interlocking rotating cog wheels. Each wheel had ten segments like in a mileometer. When one wheel completes a rotation, the next wheel moves by one segment. Numbers 0 to 9 are there on the circumference of the wheel. Pascal patented this machine in 1647, and produced it on a mass scale.

Analog Computer
Analog computers are fundamentally different in principle from the modern digital computers. In analog devices, different quantities are represented in various physical ways such as by position of a rotating wheel, the distances between points in a surface or by different voltages. In 19th century , the early days of computing, almost all computers used analog devices. Analog computers use simple devices, even they are mechanically complicated. It worked on a decimal decade system using rows of 10 position wheels. Each wheel rotated one position for each complete revelation (expouser) to the right like ibn a mileometer. Wheels reverse for subtraction and the mechanical linkages allowed multiplucation and division.

Punched Cards
French inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard (17521834) introduced a new weaving loom in 1805. This loom used series of cards with holes punched in different positions to produce different desired patterns in weaving. This loom was widely used in the whole world.

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