HISTORY OF

COMPUTERS

D I C H I I VA D I M
R-1742
WHAT IS A COMPUTER

A computer is an electronic device that manipulates information, or data. It

has the ability to store, retrieve, and process data. You may already know
that you can use a computer to type documents, send email, play games,
and browse the Web. You can also use it to edit or
create spreadsheets, presentations, and even videos.
 THE FIRST COMPUTERS

Devices have been used to aid computation for

thousands of years, mostly using one-to-one
correspondence with fingers. The earliest
counting device was probably a form of tally
stick. Later record keeping aids throughout
the Fertile Crescent included calculi (clay
spheres, cones, etc.) which represented counts
of items, probably livestock or grains, sealed
in hollow unbaked clay containers. The use
of counting rods is one example.
ABACUS
The abacus was initially used for arithmetic
tasks. The Roman abacus was developed from
devices used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BC.
Since then, many other forms of reckoning
boards or tables have been invented. In a
medieval European counting house, a
checkered cloth would be placed on a table,
and markers moved around on it according to
certain rules, as an aid to calculating sums of
money
 SCHICKARD'S CALCULATING CLOCK
Calculating Clock, the earliest known calculator,
built in 1623 by the German astronomer and
mathematician Wilhelm Schickard. He described it
in a letter to his friend the astronomer Johannes
Kepler, and in 1624 he wrote again to explain that
a machine that he had commissioned to be built
for Kepler was, apparently along with
the prototype, destroyed in a fire. He called it a
Calculating Clock, which modern engineers have
been able to reproduce from details in his letters
BABBAGE'S DIFFERENCE ENGINE

A difference engine, first created by Charles Babbage, is an

automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. Its
name is derived from the method of divided differences, a way to interpolate
or tabulate functions by using a small set of polynomial co-efficients.
Most mathematical functions commonly used by engineers, scientists and
navigators, including logarithmic and trigonometric functions, can
be approximated by polynomials, so a difference engine can compute many
useful tables of numbers.
UNIVAC
UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) is a
line of electronic digital stored-
program computers starting with the products of
the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later
the name was applied to a division of
the Remington Rand company and successor
organizations.
The BINAC, built by the Eckert–Mauchly
Computer Corporation, was the first general-
purpose computer for commercial use. The
descendants of the later UNIVAC 1107 continue
today as products of the Unisys company.
 MODERN COMPUTER
1 st Generation - Vacuum tubes
2 nd Generation - Transistors
3 rd Generation - IC(Integrated Circuits)
4 th Generation - Micro Processor
5 th Generation - Artificial intelligence
 FIRST GENERATION (1940-1956)
The period of first generation was 1946-1959. The
computers of first generation used vacuum tubes as the
basic components for memory and circuitry for CPU
(Central Processing Unit). These tubes, like electric bulbs,
produced a lot of heat and were prone to frequent fusing of
the installations, therefore, were very expensive and could
be afforded only by very large organisations. In this
generation mainly batch processing operating system were
used. Punched cards, paper tape, and magnetic tape were
used as input and output devices. The computers in this
generation used machine code as programming language.
SECOND GENERATION (1956-1963)
Second-generation computers moved from
cryptic binary machine language to symbolic,
or assembly, languages, which allowed
programmers to specify instructions in
words. High-level programming languages
were also being developed at this time, such as
early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN.
These were also the first computers that stored
their instructions in their memory, which
moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core
technology.
 THIRD GENERATION (1964-1971)
The impact of advances from Third generation
computers – the integrated circuit and operating
system – allowed the computer to move from
the domain of big business, government
agencies and universities to be more accessible
to smaller scale business operations. And
because of the reductions in physical size and
cost, computers became more wide-spread
which helped launch entire industries like
programming and hardware development.
FOURTH GENERATION (1971-PRESENT)
The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of
computers, as thousands of integrated circuits were built
onto a single silicon chip. What in the first generation filled
an entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand. The
Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, located all the
components of the computer—from the central processing
unit and memory to input/output controls—on a single chip.
In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home
user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh.
Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop
computers and into many areas of life as more and more
everyday products began to use microprocessors.
FIFTH GENERATION (PRESENT AND
BEYOND)
This generation is defined by artificial intelligence
- Artificial intelligence is still in development to this day
- Voice recognition is also being used today
- Parallel processing and superconductors are aiding in making artificial
intelligence a real thing
- Quantum computation, molecular, and nanotechnology will definitely
change the face of computers in years to come
- The goal of the fifth generation is to develop devices that respond to natural
language input
- As well as being capable of learning and self-organization
 CONCLUSION

I hope you have a better understanding of how the computer developed from
giant machinery to something that fits in your hand. It took many people and
over seventy years for the electronic computer to become what you know
today. What once began as a giant calculator can now communicate with
people around the world. Talk to your parents and grandparents about their
first experience with computers.  Many never touched a computer until high
school or even college. Today computer technology is in almost everything.
Could you live without your cell phone, your xBox, your iPad? What would
you be doing now if you did not have a computer?