Sep 26, 2016
Unless you're a total Geek (n. one who can engage in or discuss computer-related tasks obsessively or with great attention to technical detail) you have often wondered about the history of computers - where computers came from and what some of those odd terms mean.
Computers, one of the most brilliant human inventions has a vibrant and remarkable history. This website (historyofcomputers.info) aims at looking into historical aspects of computer related to its discovery and evolution that eventually leads to present-day advanced computers capable of processing complicated information and with high computing capabilities. Earliest reference of a computing device occurs in 1801. Joseph Marie Jacquard, a French scientist invented a loom that wove punched holes that were stored on tiny hardwood sheets. The plates were inserted into the loom, which read a pattern and processed it in form of a weave.
Konrad Zuse from Germany is credited with the invention of first freely programmable mechanical computer Z1. The binary machine led to revolutionary developments in calculator like a high aptitude memory, floating point arithmetic and modules or relay operating based upon ‘Yes/No’ operation. His ideas were implemented more rigorously with every Z prototype. In 1939, Zuse, popularly known as the ‘inventor of modern computer’ developed the first fully functional electro-mechanical computer.
A significant development happened in 1942 in the Iowa State University. Professor John Atanasoff and a graduate student Clifford Berry invented world’s first electronic-digital computer. It resulted in many advanced developments like a binary system of arithmetic, restorable memory; parallel processing, and a severance of memory and other computing functions.
In 1944, a team of scientists Grace Hopper and Howard Aiken from Harvard University were the first to invent MARK series of computers. The computing device was a 55 feet long, 8-feet high machine and weighed 5 ton! It was assembled using almost 760,000 individual units. The computing device was largely used by US Navy and was operational till 1959.
The invention of Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator (EINAC) in 1946 by John Mauchly & J Eckert led to many developments. It was devised for the US military who needed a calculating device for writing artillery firing tables, designing hydrogen bomb, weather predictions, cosmic-ray studies, thermal ignition and wind-tunnel design. The bulky device weighed a sheer 30-ton and contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, 6,000 manual switches and 5 million soldered joints. It covered 1800 square feet (167 square meters) of floor space and used 160 kilowatts of electrical power. In 1948, Dr. John Von Neumann made many modifications to the ENIAC.
Sir Frederick Williams and Tom Kilburn co-invented the Williams-Kilburn Tube, a form of altered cathode-ray tube. The Williams Tube was the first random access memory (RAM) capable of storing large amount of data and it was a more fitting method of data-storage.
Dr. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly later invented the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) that led to development of systematic computer. The UNIVAC had add-on time of 120 microseconds; multiply time of 1,800 microseconds and a divide time of 3,600 microseconds. The original UNIVAC is still on display in the Smithsonian Institution.
IBM, International Business Machines, the popular computer company built a series of calculators (the 600s) in 1930s based on their card processing equipment. In 1944, IBM co-sponsored the MARK 1 computer along with Harvard University, the first machine to compute long calculations automatically. The year 1953 saw the development of IBM's 701 EDPM. IBM claims that it was the first commercially successful general-utility computer.
Starting 1955 onwards, the history of computers grew more and more advanced with contributions from Stanford Research Institute, MIT, Intel, Apple and Microsoft and many other individual contributions from the scientific world.
How computers work
After a brief look at computer and its history, we now move on to computer functioning. This chapter aims to educate you on basic computer parts and its operations. You must have wondered at some point as to how computer works. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to identify the basic parts and functions of computer and how it processes information. Following are the main parts of computers.
Memory
Computer memory is the most essential part of operations. It allows information to be stored and can be divided into long-term and short-term memory that is measured in bits and bytes, represented by ‘0 and 1’. With every keystroke and character, the computer uses one byte of memory.
8 bits: 1 byte
1000 bytes = 1 kilobyte
1000 kilobytes = 1 megabyte
1000 megabytes = 1 gigabyte
1000 gigabytes = 1 terabyte
As mentioned above, the short term memory of the computer is known as RAM (Random Access Memory) and the long-term memory is called ROM (Read-only memory).
RAM
When you switch on the computer, you make use of the Random Access memory. It controls the instant memory operations vital for immediate processing. As you start your computer, it first loads an operating system. In short, RAM is erasable memory of the computer that is very essential for it’s functioning.
ROM
Read Only memory is the permanent non-volatile memory of the computer, also known as computer’s long-term memory. It cannot be erased or changed and it used to store basic input/output system that controls system start and boot-up process. ROM can be further divided in PROM, which means programmable read only memory, which can be reprogrammed.
Central Processing Unit: Brain of the computer
The brain of a computer, the CPU plays the most vital function in working of a computer. CPU is generally a microprocessor that is a tiny chip that controls how data is sorted, deciding how to direct the flow of data, an important processing function. Early Intel chip came in models called 286, 386, and 486. The series of Pentiums were given the following names: Pentium Pro, Pentium with MMX, and Pentium II. The newer processors are capable of more transistors and hence, more computing power on a single chip.
Input
How do you enter information in a computer? Through a mouse, keyboard, joystick, scanner or perhaps a touch pad? All computer operations become functional owing to these input devices that feed the computer with vital information for processing. Very important to computer functioning, input devices trigger the information to be processed. More uncommon input devices include trackballs, touch screens, pens, bar code readers and microphones. Keyboard and mouse is the most common input device used widely.
Output
Once you feed the computer with information using an input device like mouse and keyboard, it gets processed and requires an output device to display the result. The most common output device is a monitor screen, or a printer. As important the function of input device, so is the output device allowing you to see the processed information. Other output devices include disk drives and diskettes.
Each of the above parts together work to make a basic computer work. The memory stores temporary and permanent data, CPU processes information, input devices feed information and the output devices display the result.
Image: Early computers - clipartpanda.com
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