The History of Computers
For an excellent overview of the history of computers, see
"The Machine that Changed the World: Part I Giant Brains."
This video is available at the Johnson Center Library.
Modern computers evolved over a period of many years. Identifying the
"First Computer" is difficult to do. Before there were computers there
were calculators. Before there were calculators there were such devices
as the slide rule (invented by Napier, 1614), the abacus (ca 500 B.C.E.), etc.
Below is a list of some of the precursors to modern computers:
- 1642 Pascaline--a mechanical calculator built by Blaise Pascal in 1642.
- 1804 Jacquard loom--a loom programmed with punched cards invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard
- ca 1850 Difference Engine, Analytical Engine--Charles Babbage and Ada Byron
- WWII
Alan Turing--1912-1954
British Codebreaker. (See also:
Bletchley Park.)
Worked on the Colossus (code breaking
machine, precursor to the computer) and the ACE (Automatic Computing Engine)
Noted for many brilliant ideas, Turing is perhaps best remembered for the concepts
of the Turing Test for Artificial Intelligence and the Turing Machine, an abstract
model for modelling computer operations.
Konrad Zuse--German who built a computer based on relays during WW II
ABC--Atanasoff Berry Computer built at Iowa State
ENIAC--early computer built by Mauchly and Eckert, University of Pennsylvania.
J. von Neumann, authored land mark paper explaining how programs could be
stored as data. (Unlike ENIAC, which had to be re-wired to be re-programmed.)
5 Generations of Modern Computing
1951-1959 First commercially available computers:Univac, IBM 701 vacuum tube technology
1960-1968 transistor based technology
1969-1977 integrated circuits (IC), Intel 4004, Dec pdp 8, CRAY 1
(1976)
1978--1986 large scale integration (LSI), Alto--workstation with mouse,
Apple II, PC market begins to expand
1986--today the age of Networking!
Computer Museums/History Sites
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