A brief History of Computers

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EVOLUTION OF COMPUTER
A SHORT HISTORY
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ABACUS

• 1000 BC The first calculating device ABACUS was
  invented in Egypt .
• The abacus is still in use in some countries.

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PASCALINE

• 1642 A Frenchman Blaise Pascal introduced the
  first mechanical calculating device.
• It could do both addition and subtraction.

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• 1833 Charles Babbage professor of mathematics
  at the Cambridge University with the assistance
  of Lady Augusta Ada Lovelace developed a machine
  that could store information, calculate numbers
  and solve algebraic expression.

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• 1887A statistician named Herman Hollerith
  developed a machine called the census machine for
  the census bureau. It was capable of reading
  numbers, characters, and also special symbols.

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• 1930 Howard Aikens and Grace Hooper developed an
  electrically operated machine which could
  calculate , store data, read characters and also
  special symbols. The machine was gigantic in
  size. It was named Harvard Mark 1

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• 1945 First electronic general purpose
  calculator ,ENIAC (Electronic Numerical
  Integrator and Calculator ) built in U.S ,weighs
  33 tons consumes 150 kw and averages 5000
  operations per second

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• 1947 Transistor, essential storage device for
  computers invented by American engineers William
  Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Bartain .

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• 1948 First stored program computer, Manchester
  Mark 1 , built in UK. Using valves , it can
  perform about 500 operations per second and has
  the first RAM . It fills a room the size of a
  small office.

Manchester Mark 1
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• 1951 Early computer game , Nim , played by
  Ferranti Nimrod computer at the Festival of
  Britain.

Ferranti Nimrod Computer
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• 1957FORTRAN ( Formula Translator) Programming
  language invented at IBM.
• 1958Integrated Circuit (microchip) produced by
  American engineer Jack Kilby. His circuit is made
  of a single piece of semiconductor.

Jack Kilby
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• 1964 BASIC (Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic
  Instruction Code) is created by professors at
  Dartmouth College ,US. BASIC later becomes
  popular among personal computers.
• 1965 First commercially successful
  microcomputer, DEC PDP-8 is produced in US. It
  sits on a desktop.

DEC PDP-8
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• 1971 First microprocessor chip , the Intel 4004,
  produced in US. It performs 60000 operations per
  second.
• 1975 Microsoft founded by American businessmen
  Bill Gates and Paul Allen . They developed DOS
  which later becomes the dominant operating system
  for computers.

Bill Gates
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• 1976 CRAY-1 supercomputer built . Word
  processors for personal computers , Electric
  Pencil, developed. Apple computer company
  formed.

Cray-1 Supercomputer
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• 1977 Mass produced personal computer, Commodore
  PET (Personal Electronic Transactor ) appears.

Commodore PET
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• 1979 Application software for personal computers
  , VisiCalc, appears. A spread sheet program, it
  sells 100,000 copies the first year.

VisiCalc
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• 1981 First portable computer, Osborne 1,
  produced. At the size and weight of a sewing
  machine, however, it is much less convenient than
  current portable computers.

Osborne 1
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• 1981 IBM launches IBM PC on the personal
  computer market. IBM makes the first massive
  sales in the personal computer market.

IBM PC
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• 1984 Apple Macintosh computer becomes first
  successful personal computer with a mouse and
  easy to use Graphic User Interface (GUI).

GUI
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• 1985 Microsoft launches Windows for PC . Windows
  is a GUI similar to Macs, making personal
  computer much easier to use.

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• 1990 IBM Pentium PC produced. It holds up to
  4,000 mega bytes of RAM and can perform up to 112
  million instructions per seconds. The
  microprocessor chip at the heart of the computer
  measures 16mm by 17mm and contains 3.1 million
  transistors . It is designed using a system
  called VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration).

VLSI Program
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Generations Of Computers
Generation Dates Characteristic
1st 1944-59 Use Valves (Vacuum tubes)
2nd 1959-64 Use transistors
3rd 1964-75 Large Scale Integrated Circuits
4th 1975- Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits
5th Under development Artificial Intelligence based computers
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Anatomy Of A Computer

• Every computer has four basic parts, or units an
  input unit such as the keyboard, that feeds
  information into the computer a central
  processing unit (CPU) that performs the various
  tasks of the computer an output unit , such as a
  monitor , that displays the results a memory
  unit that stores information and instructions.