COMPUTER & ITS HISTORY

The development of computer started with need to count objects and eventually led to super computers
which perfrom billion of calculations in second. But before knowing history of computer. It's essential to
know what is computer?

WHAT IS COMPUTER?
Computer is electronic machine, which can perfrom operations at much higher speed than human being.
There is nothing about computer. It is actually a friendly machine which is totally at your command. Do
you remember the story of Aladdin and Magic lamp? Just like Genie of magic lamp, computer will obey
your commands to computer, it will carry out these commands giving wrong result

HISTORY OF COMPUTERS
1. ABACUS= It was first mechanical device invented in 10th century B.C. to perfrom calculations quickly.
It consisted of woodenn frame rods fitted in it. The beads were slided on these rods to perfrom
calculation
2. NAPIER BONES= In the year 1617, Tohn Napier of Scotland, invented mechanical device which
consisted of sliding rods with the squares of number printed on them. By sliding the rods against each
other results of calculation were produced
3. SLIDE RULE= This led to development of SLIDE RULE by William Oughtered, which was very popular
device for calculation
4. PASCAL ADDING MACHINE= In 1640, Blaise Pascel invented adding machine which could perfrom
subtraction and additions, by using gears which could be positioned in any one of ten positions that
devoted values from 0 to 9
5. THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE ANALYTICAL ENGINE= Charles Babbage in 1823 invented difference engine to
generate logarithmic and astronomical tables upto 6 places. The technique that he used was
computation of successive differences and hence name "Difference Enginee''. While working on
difference engine, babbage envolved idea of Analytical Engine in 1833. Here machine on getting the
entire set of instructions could execute all commands without any human interventation. This was idea
of first computer
6. HOLLERITH CARD READING MACHINE= In 1890, Dr. Herman Hollerith invented mechanical device to
compile statistic for census of USA. He used idea of punched card in his tabulator. Punched cards were
available with 80 rows and 96 columns. Data was punched in cards in punch card machine. When data
entry operator presses key, the correct combination of holes would get punched in card. After punching,
the cards were loaded into machine called VERIFIER and operator could re-enter the data. The verifer
then warned and notified to take corrective action

ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS
It was first large electronic computer. It was developed in US and made up of approximate 17500
vacuum tubes and occupied 188 sq feet area, and weighted 30 tons. It could store only small amount of
information and consumed large amount of power. In 1951, Eckert & Machly developed Universal
Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) which used magnetic tape as input. It predicated results of general
elections of 1952 by analysing the election pattern of last two pesidential elections
GENERATION OF COMPUTER
1. 1ST GENERATION COMPUTER (1940-1956)= In these computers, vacuum tabes were used. These
computers used to occupy lot of space and generated lot of heat due to their oversized vacuum tubes
2. 2ND GENERATION COMPUTER (1956-1963)= Computer transistors were used smaller in size so size of
computer become smaller
3. 3RD GENERATION COMPUTER (1963-1971)= These types of computer used integrated circuits. It made
computer to operate at much faster speed.
4. 4TH GENERATION COMPUTER (1971- Present)= Computer microprocessor chips of size of finger nail
with VLSI technology were used, which made computer smaller and more efficient

CATEGORISATION/CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTER
1. CATEGORIZATION OF COMPUTER
[A]. DIGITAL COMPUTERS= There are most commonly used computer now-a-days. They store data and
instruction in froms of binary digit
[B]. ANALOG COMPUTERS= It means continuous formation. These computers are used to measure values
which are of continuous type are measured as changes take plac gradually
[C]. HYBIRD COMPUTERS= It are combination of analog and digital computers. These computer measure
analog quantities and then convert them into digital signals for purpose of analysis. Hybrid computer can
used to measure patient temperature, heart function and then convert these measurements into digital
form to analysed by digital part too check for abnormalities

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPUTER
1. AUTOMATICS= Asystem said to automatic if it is run itself without human interaction. Computer is
automatic machine because once it is started on job they carry until job is finished
2. SPEED= Computer works at very high speed. it can do billion of cculation in second. A second is very
long time period for Computer. A time taken to perfrom operation by computer is called processing time.
Speed of Computer is measured in Mega hertz
3. ACCURACY= In addition to being fast computer are very accurate. They can do billions of calculation in
second without errors
4. STORAGE= Computer can store data permanently. User can retrieve required data at any time.
Computer can store pictures, graphics, sound
5. DILIGENCE= Unlike human being Computer is free from monotony, tiredness & lack of communcation.
It can continuously work for many hours without any error
6. VERSATILITY= It can do various type of jobs at time without any single error