| Computers, it seems as if they have been around | | | | computer used 18,000 vacuum tubes and could |
| forever. Yet it wasn't until the 1981 that the first | | | | perform calculations at the rate of 5,000 additions per |
| personal computer was introduced by IBM - only | | | | second. Operators used plug boards and wires to |
| twenty six years ago. | | | | program the desired operations. The computer used |
| So who invented the first computer and how did it | | | | magnetic tape to store input and output rather than |
| evolve to what it is today? | | | | punch tape, another invention by Eckert and Mauchley. |
| The definition of a computer is any programmable | | | | Such computers were to later be called 'First |
| electronic device that can store, retrieve, and process | | | | Generation' computers. |
| data. But the idea of 'computing' dates all the way | | | | It was in 1947 when Bell Laboratories invented the |
| back to the 1200s when a Moslem cleric proposed a | | | | transistor that a wave of 'Second Generation' |
| way to solve problems with a series of written | | | | computers were born. Texas Instruments improved |
| procedures. In 1801 Joseph-Marie Jacquard built a loom | | | | the transistor in 1954 and the vacuum tubes were |
| that weaves by reading punched holes stored on small | | | | replaced. With the transistors, computers became less |
| sheets of hardwood; the plates read or retrieved the | | | | expensive and smaller in size. |
| pattern and creates or processed the weave. | | | | It wasn't until the development of programming |
| But it wasn't until prior to World War II when John V. | | | | language came along that the 'Third Generation' |
| Atansoff and Clifford John Berry started building the | | | | computer was born. Originally, programmers |
| 'electronic' computer. Because of the war, the two | | | | communicated with computers through plug boards |
| were unable to complete their project. But in 1939, | | | | and wires. In 1956, FORTRAN, the first programming |
| Astansoff finished a small prototype computer to test | | | | language was developed. Then, in 1959 came COBOL. |
| his ideas. The computer was called the ABC, standing | | | | These programming languages enabled programmers |
| for Atansoff-Berry Computer. | | | | to write code and translate it into machine language. |
| The machine used 300 vacuum tubes to perform | | | | The operating system was created to provide a |
| calculations, capacitors to store binary data and punch | | | | buffer between the user and the machine and to |
| cards to communicate input/output. Unlike old | | | | enable the user to ask the computer to perform a high |
| mechanical machines, which used direct counting, the | | | | level task. |
| ABC used logical operations to perform addition and | | | | After this came the necessity for storage. In 1970, IBM |
| subtraction. | | | | put a floppy disk drive into their 3740 system. The |
| During World War II, the military wanted the computer | | | | floppy disk provided three times more storage space |
| for more advanced uses. They were seeking an | | | | and thus the 'Fourth Generation' computers were born. |
| easier way to compute firing and ballistic tables. This is | | | | Personal computers have changed tremendously since |
| when J. Presper Eckert and William Mauchley | | | | this time with everything from hardware to storage to |
| developed the ENIAC or Electronic Numerical | | | | great varieties of software. With technology multiplying |
| Integrator and Calculator. This computer filled a thirty | | | | itself with each decade, who knows what the future |
| by fifty foot room and weighted thirty tons. The | | | | generation computers could look like. |