Evolution of Computers

 Blaise Pascal invented the first mechanical adding machine in

1642
 Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz invented the first calculator
for multiplication in 1671
 Keyboard machines originated in the United States around 1880
 Around 1880, Herman Hollerith came up with the concept of
punched cards that were extensively used as input media until
late 1970s
 Charles Babbage is considered to be the father of modern digital
computers
 He designed “Difference Engine” in 1822
 He designed a fully automatic analytical engine in 1842 for
performing basic arithmetic functions
 His efforts established a number of principles that are
fundamental to the design of any digital computer

Computer Generations
 Generation” in computer talk is a step in technology. It
provides a framework for the growth of computer
industry
 Originally it was used to distinguish between various
hardware technologies, but now it has been extended to
include both hardware and software
 Till today, there are five computer generations
Difference Engine
Portion of Charles Babbage's calculating machine (Difference Engine
No.1), built by Joseph Clement, London, 1832.

Charles Babbage's calculating engines are among the most

celebrated icons in the prehistory of computing. His Difference
Engine No. 1 was the first successful automatic calculator and
remains one of the finest examples of precision engineering of the
time.
Unlike contemporary calculators the difference engine was not
designed to perform ordinary day-to-day arithmetic but to calculate a
series of numerical values and automatically print the results.
Difference engines are so called because of the principle upon which
they are based – the method of finite differences. This principle was
well-known at the time and was used by human computers in the
preparation of tables.

The portion shown was assembled in 1832 by Babbage's engineer,

Joseph Clement. It consists of about 2,000 parts and represents one-
seventh of the complete engine. This 'finished portion of the
unfinished engine' was demonstrated by Babbage to some acclaim.
The engine was never completed and most of the 12,000 parts
manufactured were later melted for scrap.

Some Well Known Early Computers

The Mark I Computer (1937-44)
This was the first digital computer and was designed and constructed in the
United States by the IBM Corporation between 1937 and 1944. It was based
on a proposal by H. H. Aiken of Harvard University, Massachusetts. Counters
were used to store decimal numbers and relays for control and switching. The
computer was composed of a series of calculators which each worked on
different parts of a problem, supervised by a central control unit. The machine
was made up of over 750,000 components and weighed 5 tons. It was mainly
used for making scientific calculations in the fields of ballistics and ship
design.

The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (1939-42)

Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), an early digital computer. It

was generally believed that the first electronic digital computers were
the Colossus, built in England in 1943, and the ENIAC, built in the
United States in 1945. However, the first special-purpose electronic
computer may actually have been invented by John Vincent Atanasoff,
a physicist and mathematician at Iowa State College (now Iowa State
University),

during 1937–42. (Atanasoff also claimed to have invented the

term analog computer to describe machines such as Vannevar
Bush’s Differential Analyzer.) Together with his graduate
assistant Clifford E. Berry, Atanasoff built a successful
small prototype in 1939 for the purpose of testing two ideas central to
his design: capacitors to store data in binary form and
electronic logic circuits to perform addition and subtraction. They
then began the design and construction of a larger, more general-
purpose computer, known as the Atanasoff-Berry Computer or the
ABC.