 Konrad Zuse's 

electromechanical "Z machines". The Z3 (1941) was the first working

machine that used binary arithmetic. Binary arithmetic means using "Yes" and "No." to add
numbers together. You could also program it. In 1998 the Z3 was proved to be Turing complete.
Turing complete means that it is possible to tell this particular computer anything that it is
mathematically possible to tell a computer. It is the world's first modern computer.
 The non-programmable Atanasoff–Berry Computer (1941) which used vacuum tubes to store
"yes" and "no" answers, and regenerative capacitor memory.
 The Harvard Mark I (1944), A big computer that you could kind of program.
 The U.S. Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory ENIAC (1946), which could add numbers the
way people do (using the numbers 0 through 9) and is sometimes called the first general
purpose electronic computer (since Konrad Zuse's Z3 of 1941 used electromagnets instead
of electronics). At first, however, the only way to reprogram ENIAC was by rewiring it.
Several developers of ENIAC saw its problems. They invented a way to for a computer to remember
what they had told it, and a way to change what it remembered. This is known as "stored program
architecture" or von Neumann architecture. John von Neumann talked about this design in the
paper First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, distributed in 1945. A number of projects to develop
computers based on the stored-program architecture started around this time. The first of these was
completed in Great Britain. The first to be demonstrated working was the Manchester Small-Scale
Experimental Machine (SSEM or "Baby"), while the EDSAC, completed a year after SSEM, was the
first really useful computer that used the stored program design. Shortly afterwards, the machine
originally described by von Neumann's paper—EDVAC—was completed but was not ready for two
years.
Nearly all modern computers use the stored-program architecture. It has become the
main concept which defines a modern computer. The technologies used to build computers have
changed since the 1940s, but many current computers still use the von-Neumann architecture.

Microprocessors are miniaturized devices that often implement stored program CPUs.

In the 1950s computers were built out of mostly vacuum tubes. Transistors replaced vacuum tubes
in the 1960s because they were smaller and cheaper. They also need less power and do not break
down as much as vacuum tubes. In the 1970s, technologies were based on integrated
circuits. Microprocessors, such as the Intel 4004 made computers smaller, cheaper, faster and more
reliable. By the 1980s, microcontrollers became small and cheap enough to replace mechanical
controls in things like washing machines. The 1980s also saw home computers and personal
computers. With the evolution of the Internet, personal computers are becoming as common as
the television and the telephone in the household.
In 2005 Nokia started to call some of its mobile phones (the N-series) "multimedia computers" and
after the launch of the Apple iPhone in 2007, many are now starting to add the smartphone category
among "real" computers. In 2008, if smartphones are included in the numbers of computers in the
world, the biggest computer maker by units sold, was no longer Hewlett-Packard, but rather Nokia.[9]
Kinds of computers[change | change source]
There are many types of computers. Some include:

1. personal computer
2. workstation
3. mainframe
4. server
5. minicomputer
6. supercomputer
7. embedded system
8. tablet computer
A "desktop computer" is a small machine that has a screen (which is not part of the computer). Most
people keep them on top of a desk, which is why they are called "desktop computers."
"Laptop computers" are computers small enough to fit on your lap. This makes them easy to carry
around. Both laptops and desktops are called personal computers, because one person at a time
uses them for things like playing music, surfing the web, or playing video games.
There are bigger computers that many people at a time can use. These are called "Mainframes,"
and these computers do all the things that make things like the internet work. You can think of a
personal computer like this: the personal computer is like your skin: you can see it, other people can
see it, and through your skin you feel wind, water, air, and the rest of the world. A mainframe is more
like your internal organs: you never see them, and you barely even think about them, but if they
suddenly went missing, you would have some very big problems.
An embedded computer, also called embedded system is a computer that does one thing and one
thing only, and usually does it very well. For example, an alarm clock is an embedded computer: it
tells the time. Unlike your personal computer, you cannot use your clock to play Tetris. Because of
this, we say that embedded computers cannot be programmed, because you cannot install more
programs on your clock. Some mobile phones, automatic teller machines, microwave ovens, CD
players and cars are operated by embedded computers.

All-in-one PC[change | change source]

All-in-one computers are desktop computers that have all of the computer's inner mechanisms in the
same case as the monitor. Apple has made several popular examples of all-in-one computers, such
as the original Macintosh of the mid-1980s and the iMac of the late 1990s and 2000s.