ORIGIN OF

COMPUTER
Ma. Fe Lucas
BSED III - A
 ABACUS
• Earliest recognized device
for computing

• Invented in Mesopotamia
around 2500 BCE

• Helps and add subtract

many numbers
 NAPIER BONES

• Invented by John Napier

• Consisted of eleven bones

or rods with numbers
 ASTROLABE
• Enabled ships to
calculate their
latitude at sea
 SLIDE RULE

For assisting with multiplication and division

PASCALINE OR PASCAL’S CALCULATOR

■ Invented by Blaise Pascal

■ Consisted of box, used eight

movable dials to add
numbers up to eight figures
long.
Question:
■Were the devices shown earlier called
computers?
 Richard Braithwait

■ The earliest documented use of

the word “computer” is from 1613
book by Richard Braithwait.

■ It wasn’t a machine.. It was a job

title.
In those days, computer was a person
who did calculations, sometimes with
the help of a machine but often not.

This job title persisted until the late

1800s when the meaning of
computer started shifting to refer to
devices
COMPUTER DEVICES
 STEP
RECKONER
■ Buit by Gottfried Leibniz
in 1694

“It is beneath the dignity of excellent

men to waste their time in calculation
when any peasant could do the work just
as accurately with the aid of a machine”
■ With some clever mechanical
tricks, the Step Reckoner was also
able to multiply and divide
■ Was the first machine that could
do all 4 operations
■ The design was so successful it
was used for the next 3 centuries
of calculator design
 PRE-
COMPUTED
TABLES

Assembled by
the amazing
‘human
computers”
RANGED TABLES
■ Allowed gunners to look up environmental
conditions and the distance they want to fire.
■ The table would tell them the angle to set the
canon
 ■ Much more complex
machine that could
Charles Babbage’s
approximate
Difference Engine polynomials
■ Started construction in
1823
■ Over 2 decade tried to
assemble over 25,000
components,
collectively weighing
15 tons
Ada Lovelace ■ Wrote hypothetical
programs for the
Analytical Engine
■ “A new, a vast, and a
powerful language is
developed for the
future use of analysis”
■ Considered the world’s
first programmer
 ■ A general purpose
computer
Charles Babbage’s
Analytical Engine ■ Could be used for more
than 1 particular
computation
■ Could be given data
and run operations in
sequence
■ Had memory and
primitive printer
 Answer me!
■ What was the term “computer” referred to in the
17th century?

■ Name the some of the computing devices people

used before computers.

■ What did Gottfried Leibniz build in 1694?

■ In your own interpretation, how did computers

originate?
Thank you!!! 