History of Computers

Computer is derived from a Latin word “computare” which means “to calculate” , “to count” , “to
sum up”. So, more precisely the word computer means a “device that performs computation”.
There is a long development history of computers and computing devices. Generally, the history
of computer development can be categorized into the following three different eras.

● Mechanical Calculating Era

● Electromechanical Era
● Electronic Computer Era

Mechanical Calculating Era

ABACUS
ABACUS was the first mechanical calculating device for counting of large numbers invented by
Chinese people around 3000 BC. The word ABACUS means calculating board. It consists of
bars in horizontal positions on which sets of beads are inserted. The horizontal bars have 10
beads each, representing units, tens, hundreds, etc.

Napier’s Bone
Napier’s Bones was a mechanical device built for the purpose of multiplication in 1617 ad. by an
English mathematician John Napier by the help of his invention of principle of logarithm in the
year 1614 Ad.

Slide Rule
Slide Rule was developed by an English mathematician Edmund Gunter in the 16th century.
Using the slide rule, one could perform operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division. It was used extensively till late 1970s. It was the first analog computing device.

Pascaline
Pascaline was invented by a French mathematicianBlaise Pascal in 1642AD. He invented this
machine to help his father’s profession, It could do addition and subtraction. It was the first
functional automatic calculator which can do addition and subtraction directly and multiplication
division could be done by repeated addition and subtraction.

Leibniz Machine
The Leibniz Machine was invented by a German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz.
It was a digital mechanical calculator in 1673 AD which was a modified version of Pascaline
called Stepped Reckoner. It could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Difference and Analytical Engine

An English professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, Charles Babbage built a
mechanical machine to do complex mathematical calculations, in the year 1823. The machine
was called as difference engine. Later, Charles Babbage and Lady Ada Lovelace developed a
general-purpose calculating machine, the analytical engine. Analytical engine used to work on
IPO (Input Process and Output). So, Charles Babbage is also called the father of computers.

Tabulating Machine
Tabulating machine was invented by Herman Hollerith. The machine could read the information
from a punched card and process it electronically. The developments discussed above and
several others not discussed here, resulted in the development of the first computer in the
1940s. Herman Hollerith established the Tabulating Machine Company and later it was merged
with other companies and formed International Business Company (IBM).

Electromechanical Era
In the electromechanical era the computational devices were composed with the mechanical
and electrical parts and used electricity for the operation. They were partially programmable.
The most common computers of this era are as follows:

Mark - I
In 1937, Howard Aiken, a professor of Harvard University developed an Electro-Mechanical
Computer called Mark-I. This computer was originally called ASCC(Automatic Sequence
Controlled Calculator), later it was named Mark-I. It consisted of 18000 vacuum tubes. It was 51
feet tall, 8 feet high and 2 feet wide with 500 miles of wire , 32 tons of weight. It consumed a lot
of heat and electricity.

Mark - II
The Harvard Mark II, also known as Aiken Relay Calculator, was an electromechanical
computer built under the direction of Howard Aiken and was finished in 1947. It was financed by
the United States Navy. Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper worked together to program and build
the Mark II.

Atanasoff Berry Computer

ABC was the first electronic digital computer. This computer was designed by Dr. John Vincent
Atanasoff and Clifford Berry in 1942 AD. It used 18000 valves as main memory.

Electronics Computers Era

Electronic era begins with the invention of the first real computers as a result of convergence of
technology, people and motivation. This era is fully driven by electronic devices as components
of computers. Some of the machines developed during this era are as follows:

Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator

ENIAC was the first general purpose electronic computer developed by John William Mauchly
and John Presper Eckert in 1946 AD. It was 10 feet high and occupied about 1000 sq feet,
weight to 30 tons, it used 18000 vacuum tubes. It consumed a lot of heat and electricity.
Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer
EDSAC was developed by Maurice Wilkes and his team. It used 3000 vacuum tubes. Input was
given by paper tapes and output by the teleprinter.

Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer

EDVAC was the first stored program computer designed by John William Mauchly and John
Presper Eckert in the year 1952 AD. It was a binary serial computer with automatic addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division. Magnetic tapes were used to store data and instruction.

Universal Automatic Computer

Also known as UNIVAC - 1, it was the first general purpose electronic digital computer made for
commercial use developed by J.W. Mauchly and J.P. Eckert, which was 8 feet high, 15 feet long
and its weight was about 15 ton.