History of Computer

Like others, computer has its own history in its amplitude. The history of computer starts from 4000 years ago. Before 1600 century Chinese people developed a kind of machine can ABACUS, which was made of rectangular wooden frame. It had horizontal rods with beads strung; Addition and subtractions were done by changing the position of the beads. Hindu Brahmin developed the natural number 0 to 9.

 

Abacus: It is the first country and calculating device that was developed by the Chinese people the Abacus was first used for computations in 3000 B.C. It was made of a wooden frame on which there were strings. The frame was divided into two parts heaven and earth by a mid bar.

Napier's Bone: John Napier Scottish Mathematician invented this device in 1614 AD. This Device was used for multiplication and division. It consists of nine pieces of square cards; each divided vertically into nine squares. Each square again is divided diagonally from the right hand corner to the bottom left hand corner and in each card multiplication tables from 1 to 9 written. He placed ten above the diagonal of the square and unit below.

The slide Rule: William Ought Red invented the Slide Rule in 1620. This device was based on the principle of Logarithms, which was developed by John Napier in 1614.There are three main parts of slider rule.1. Body, 2. The slide with scales make on it, 3. Their transparent cursor marked with sharp lines as indicator.

Pascaline: French mathematician, Blaise Pascal developed Pascaline in 1642. Pascal's calculator was limited to performing only addition and subtraction operation. This machine was very simple, about the size of a shoebox. It consisted of a train of number wheels. It position could be observed through the window in the covered of the box that enclosed the mechanism. Multiplication could be performed by repeated addition and division by repeated subtraction.

Difference Engine and Analytical Engine: Charles Babbage in 1822 AD invented a machine called Difference Engine with mechanical memory to store results. It was based on the difference tables of squares of the numbers. After Analytical Engine was also developed by Charles Babbage in 1830s.It consisted of the input unit from taking data and instructions mill for performing calculation, memory with a suitable output device that was used in giving the final result.

Lady Augusta Ada Lovelace: One of the great supporters of Charles Babbage was Lady Augusta Ada (the daughter of famous poet, Lord Byron).She convinced Babbage to used binary concept in his Analytical Engine. She wrote different types of programs that ware used in the Babbage machines. So she is remembered as the "First Programmer" in the history of computer science and has to her credit a computer language called ADA name after her.

Dr.Herman Hollerith: He was the first person to used punched card practically on his Census Tabulation Machine in 1880s.The information is stored as holes in cards,which are interpreted by machines with electrical sensors.The cards ware punched by a machine called Punched Card Machines or Hollerith's Tabulation Machine. New companies were established under the name International Business Machine Company and he became the founder of IBM.

Mark-1 (Howard Aiken): In the late 1930s, next important event was added in the history of computer.The electromechanical computer was born with the development of MARK-1 in 1944 by Howard Aiken with the help of IBM. It also used the punched cards designed for Difference Engine.It was 51 ft. long,8 ft. high and 13 ft. wide. It was used to produce ballistics tables in 2nd world war.

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC): It is the electronic computer that was developed by John Mouchlay and J.Priosper Eckert in 1947.It was based on the decimal number system.18, 000 vacuum tubes were use in ENIAC.

 Electronic Discrete variable Atomic Computer(EDVAC):In 1949,the first electronic computer was developed by John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert with the help of A. Burks,Goldstine and Neumann.This machines was used to store the data and information as well as the instructions.This computer operated electronically.

UNIVAC-I (Universal Accounting Computer): John Mauchly and Eckert Founded their own company in 1946 and began to work on the universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC):general-purpose commercial computer in 1951.cit was the first commercially used electronic computer in the world.