History Of Computers Essay Research Paper Computers

History Of Computers Essay, Research Paper

Computers play a very important role in the everyday life of the world. Just about every nation has computers running the vital parts of their military and government. I will explain the history, types, different uses, and growth of computers.

The history of computing began with an analog machine. In 1623 German scientist Wilhelm Schikard invented a machine that used 11 complete and 6 incomplete sprocket wheels that could add and, with the aid of logarithm tables, multiply and divide. A French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist Blaise Pascal invented a machine in 1642 that added and subtracted, automatically carrying and borrowing digits from column to column. In the early 19th century French inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard devised a specialized type of computer called loom. Jacquard s loom used punched cards to program patterns that were output as woven fabrics by the loom. Another early mechanical computer was the Difference Engine, designed in the early 1820s by British mathematician and scientist Charles Babbage. Although never completed by Babbage, the Difference Engine was intended to be a machine with a 20-decimal capacity that could solve mathematical problems. Babbage also made plans for another machine, the Analytical Engine, considered to be the mechanical precursor of the modern computer. The Analytical Engine was designed to perform all arithmetic operations efficiently; however, Babbage s lack of political skills kept him from obtaining the approval and funds to build it. Augusta Ada Byron was a personal friend and student of Babbage. She was the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and one of only a few woman mathematicians of her time. She prepared extensive notes concerning Babbage s ideas and the Analytical Engine. Ada s conceptual programs for the Engine led to the naming of a programming language in her honor. Although the Analytical Engine was never built, its key concepts, such as the capacity to store instructions, the use of punched cards as a primitive memory, and the ability to print, can be found in many modern computers.

Herman Hollerith, an American inventor, used an idea similar to Jacquard s loom when he combined the use of punched cards with devices that created and electronically read the cards. Hollerith s tabulator was used for the 1890 U.S. census, and it made the computational time three to four times shorter than the time previously needed for hand counts. Hollerith s Tabulating Machine Company eventually merged with other companies in 1924 to become IBM. In 1936 British mathematician Alan Turing proposed the idea of a machine that could process equations without human direction. The Turing machine resembled an automatic typewriter that used symbols for math and logic instead of letters. Turing intended the device to be used as a universal machine that could be programmed to duplicate the function of any other existing machine. Turing s machine was the theoretical precursor to the modern digital computer.

In the 1930s American mathematician Howard Aiken developed the Mark I calculating machine, which was built by IBM. This electronic calculating machine used relays and electromagnetic components to replace mechanical components. In later machines, Aiken used vacuum tubes and solid-state transistors to manipulate the binary numbers. Aiken also introduced computers to universities by establishing the first computer science program at Harvard University. Aiken never trusted the concept of storing a program within the computer. Instead his computer had to read instructions from punched cards. At the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Hungarian-American mathematician John von Neumann developed one of the first computers used to solve problems in mathematics, meteorology, economics, and hydrodynamics. Von Neumann s 1945 Electronic Discrete Variable Computer was the first electronic computer to use a program stored entirely within its memory. John Mauchly, an American physicist, proposed an electronic digital computer, called the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, which was built at the Moore School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia by Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, an American engineer. ENIAC was completed in 1945 and is regarded as the first successful, general digital computer. It weighed more than 27,000 kg and contained more than 18,000 vacuum tubes. Roughly 2000 of the computer s vacuum tubes were replaced each month by a team of six technicians. Many of ENIAC s first tasks were for military purposes, such as calculating ballistic firing tables and designing atomic weapons. Since ENIAC was initially not a stored program machine, it had to be reprogrammed for each task. Eckert and Mauchly eventually formed their own company, which was then bought by the Rand Corporation. They produced the Universal Automatic Computer, which was used for a broader variety of commercial applications. By 1957, 46 UNIVACs were in use. In 1948, at Bell Telephone Laboratories, American physicists Walter Houser Brattain, John Bardeen, and William Bradford Shockley developed the transistor, a device that can act as an electric switch. The transistor had a tremendous impact on computer design, replacing costly, energy-inefficient, and unreliable vacuum tubes. In the late 1960s integrated circuits, tiny transistors and other electrical components