Development History
The Abacus
The abacus is a calculator. Its first recorded use was in 500 B.C. The Chinese used it to add, subtract, multiply, and divide.
The abacus is a calculator. Its first recorded use was in 500 B.C. The Chinese used it to add, subtract, multiply, and divide.
Analytical Engine (A Pre-Electronic Computer)
The first mechanical computer was the analytical engine, conceived and partially constructed by Charles Babbage in London, England, between 1822 and 1871. It was designed to receive instructions from punched cards, make calculations with the aid of a memory bank, and print out solutions to math problems. Although Babbage lavished the equivalent of $6,000 of his own money—and $17,000 of the British government's money—on this extraordinarily advanced machine, the precise work needed to engineer its thousands of moving parts was beyond the ability of the technology of the day to produce in large volume. It is doubtful whether Babbage's brilliant concept could have been realized using the available resources of his own century. If it had been, however, it seems likely that the analytical engine could have performed the same functions as many early electronic computers.
The First Electrically Driven Computer
The first computer designed expressly for data processing was patented on January 8, 1889, by Dr. Herman Hollerith of New York. The prototype model of this electrically operated tabulator was built for the U.S. Census Bureau to compute results of the 1890 census.
Using punched cards containing information submitted by respondents to the census questionnaire, the Hollerith machine made instant tabulations from electrical impulses actuated by each hole. It then printed out the processed data on tape. Dr. Hollerith left the Census Bureau in 1896 to establish the Tabulating Machine Company to manufacture and sell his equipment. The company eventually became IBM, and the 80-column punched card used by the company, shown in Figure 1.2, is still known as the Hollerith card.
The Digital Electronic Computer
The first modern digital computer, the ABC (Atanasoff–Berry Computer), was built in a basement on the Iowa State University campus in Ames, Iowa, between 1939 and 1942. The development team was led by John Atanasoff, a professor of physics and mathematics, and Clifford Berry, a graduate student. This machine utilized concepts still in use today: binary arithmetic, parallel processing, regenerative memory, separate memory, and computer functions. When completed, it weighed 750 pounds and could store 3000 bits (.4 KB) of data.
The technology developed for the ABC machine was passed from Atanasoff to John W. Mauchly, who, together with engineer John Presper Eckert, developed the first large-scale digital computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). It was built at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering. Begun as a classified military project, ENIAC was designed to prepare firing and bombing tables for the U.S. Army and Navy. When finally assembled in 1945, ENIAC consisted of 30 separate units, plus a power supply and forced-air cooling. It weighed 30 tons, and used 19,000 vacuum tubes, 1500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors, and inductors. It required 200 kilowatts of electrical power to operate.
Another computer history milestone is the Colossus I, an early digital computer built at a secret British government research establishment at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, England, under the direction of Professor Max Newman. Colossus I was designed for a single purpose: cryptanalysis, or code breaking. Using punched paper tape input, it scanned and analyzed 5000 characters per second. Colossus became operational in December 1943 and proved to be an important technological aid to the Allied victory in World War II. It enabled the British to break the otherwise impenetrable German "Enigma" codes.
The 1960s and 1970s marked the golden era of the mainframe computer. Using the technology pioneered with ABC, ENIAC, and Colossus, large computers that served many users (with accompanying large-scale support) came to dominate the industry.
As these highlights show, the concept of the computer has indeed been with us for quite a while. The following table provides an overview of the evolution of modern computers—it is a timeline of important events.
The first computer designed expressly for data processing was patented on January 8, 1889, by Dr. Herman Hollerith of New York. The prototype model of this electrically operated tabulator was built for the U.S. Census Bureau to compute results of the 1890 census.
Using punched cards containing information submitted by respondents to the census questionnaire, the Hollerith machine made instant tabulations from electrical impulses actuated by each hole. It then printed out the processed data on tape. Dr. Hollerith left the Census Bureau in 1896 to establish the Tabulating Machine Company to manufacture and sell his equipment. The company eventually became IBM, and the 80-column punched card used by the company, shown in Figure 1.2, is still known as the Hollerith card.
The Digital Electronic Computer
The first modern digital computer, the ABC (Atanasoff–Berry Computer), was built in a basement on the Iowa State University campus in Ames, Iowa, between 1939 and 1942. The development team was led by John Atanasoff, a professor of physics and mathematics, and Clifford Berry, a graduate student. This machine utilized concepts still in use today: binary arithmetic, parallel processing, regenerative memory, separate memory, and computer functions. When completed, it weighed 750 pounds and could store 3000 bits (.4 KB) of data.
The technology developed for the ABC machine was passed from Atanasoff to John W. Mauchly, who, together with engineer John Presper Eckert, developed the first large-scale digital computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). It was built at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering. Begun as a classified military project, ENIAC was designed to prepare firing and bombing tables for the U.S. Army and Navy. When finally assembled in 1945, ENIAC consisted of 30 separate units, plus a power supply and forced-air cooling. It weighed 30 tons, and used 19,000 vacuum tubes, 1500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors, and inductors. It required 200 kilowatts of electrical power to operate.
Another computer history milestone is the Colossus I, an early digital computer built at a secret British government research establishment at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, England, under the direction of Professor Max Newman. Colossus I was designed for a single purpose: cryptanalysis, or code breaking. Using punched paper tape input, it scanned and analyzed 5000 characters per second. Colossus became operational in December 1943 and proved to be an important technological aid to the Allied victory in World War II. It enabled the British to break the otherwise impenetrable German "Enigma" codes.
The 1960s and 1970s marked the golden era of the mainframe computer. Using the technology pioneered with ABC, ENIAC, and Colossus, large computers that served many users (with accompanying large-scale support) came to dominate the industry.
As these highlights show, the concept of the computer has indeed been with us for quite a while. The following table provides an overview of the evolution of modern computers—it is a timeline of important events.
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