History of Computer

(The Earliest Computing Devices)

Abacus
➢Abacus is known to be the first mechanical
calculating device.
➢It was used to be performed addition and
subtraction easily and speedily.
➢ This device was a first develop by the
Egyptians in the 10th centaury B.C, but it
was given it final shape in the 12th centaury
A.D. by the Chinese educationists.
Abacus
➢ Abacus is made up of wooden frame in which rod where
fitted across with rounds beads sliding on the rod. It is divided
into two parts called ‘Heaven’ and ‘Earth’.
➢ Heaven was the upper part and Earth was the lower one.
Thus any nunmber can be represented by placing the beads at
proper place.
➢ There are two reasong for its popularity: The abacus is simple
and it is effective.
Napier’s Bones
➢As the necessity demanded, scientist started
inventing better calculating device. In thus
process John Napier’s of Scotland invented a
calculating device, in the year 1617 called the
Napier Bones. In the device, Napier’s used the
bone rods of the counting purpose where some
no. is printed on these rods. These rods that one
can do addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division easily.
Napier’s Bones
➢John Napier was a Scottish mathematician who became
famous for his invention of logarithms. The use of
“logs” enabled him to reduce any multiplication
problem to a problem of addition.
➢His “bones” are rods with numbers marked on them in
such a way that by simply placing the rods side by side
products and quotients of large numbers can be
obtained.
➢The sticks were called “bones” because they were
made of bone or ivory. Napier’s “bones” represented a
significant contribution to the development of
computing devices.
Napier’s Bones
Oughtred’s Slide Rule
➢ Although the slide rule appeared in various
forms in Europe during the seventeenth
century, its invention is attributed to the English
mathematician William Outhred.
➢ Basically, a slide rule consists of two movable
rulers placed side by side.
➢ Each ruler is marked off in such a way that the
actual distances from the beginning of the ruler
are proportional tot he logartihms of the
numbers printed on the ruler. By sliding the
rulers can quickly multiple and divide.
Oughtred’s Slide Rule
Pascal’s Calculator
➢ In 1645, Blaise Pascal developed a calculating machine that was
capable of adding and subtracting numbers.
➢ The machine was operated by dialing a series of wheels.
➢ Approximately a size of a cigar box, Pascal’s machine could add
and subtract numbers containing up to eight digits.
➢ It had a 10-toothed wheels or dials represented decimal
numbers. The machine performed computations by counting
integers. One of the important features was an automatic carry
that is, when one wheel was turned from 9 to 0, the next wheel
to the left moved on digit.
➢ Addition was performed by “stepping” (hand turning) the
appropriate wheels by the amount to be added. Subtraction
require turning the wheels in reverse.
Pascal’s Calculator
Leibniz’s Calculator
➢ Gottfried Leibniz was a 17th century scientist who
recognized the value of building machines that could
do mathematical calculations and save labor too.
➢ He was one of the greatest scientific geniuses of his
time. At the age of 26 he taught himself
mathematics and then proceeded to invent calculus.
➢ Leibniz completed his calculator in 1964. It utilized
the same techniques for addition and subtraction as
Pascal’s device but could also perform multiplication
and division, as well as extract square roots.
Leibniz’s Calculator
Babbage’s Analytical Engine

➢ Charles Babbage, a 19th century Englishman, is

frerquently consideres the father of modern
computer. Althugh he did not build an
operational computer himself, his ideas
became the basis for modern computational
device.
Babbage’s Analytical Engine
➢ In 1982, Babbage began work on a device called the
Difference Engine, which was designed to automate a
standard procedure for calculating the roots of
polynomials. The machine was based on the principle
that, for certain formulas, the difference between
cenrtain values is constant. This type of procedure
was used frequently for producing astronomical
tables, which were particularly useful for the British
Navy for navigational purposes.
Babbage’s Analytical Engine
➢ Despite his foresight and keen ideas, Babbge lacked
the perserverance to complete the project. Instead,
he abandonedthe Difference Engine to work on a
more powerful device, the Analytical Engine, which
was similar in concept to 20th century digital
computers. The Analytical Engine was designed to use
two types of cards – one, called operation cards, to
indicate the sfecific functions to be performs, and the
other, called variable cards, to specify the actual data.
This idea of entering a program or a set of instruction
, on cards, followed by data cards, is one method used
by moders computers for implementing stored-
program concept.
Babbage’s Analytical Engine
Hollerit’s Punched-card Machine
➢ In the 1980’s, Herman Hollerith, a statistician with the
US Bureau of the Census completed a set of machines
to help process the results of the 1980’s census. Using
3 by 5 inch punched cards to record the data he
constructed an electromagnetic counting machine to
sort the data manually and tabulate the data.
➢ The 1980 census was processed in one-fourth time
needed. Hollerith left the Census Bueeau to build and
sell his own tabulating machine. His company was the
forerunner of IBM Corporation. Also, his machine was
the first commercially suceesful data processing
machine that could sort 300 cards per minute.
Hollerit’s Punched-card Machine