<---History of Computers-
INTRODUCTION
Imagine you had a job where hour after hour, day after
day you would to do nothing but compute multiplications.
Boredoms would quickly set in, leading to carelessness,
leading to mistakes.
• Let us here look on all the calculating and computing devices. As the
name suggests computer is a device made for computation includes
arithmetical calculations as well as the logical operation, therefore for
hundreds of years inventors have been searching for ways to make a
nice manual task. Let us see the major milestones in the evolution of
today's computer. Early computing machine Abacus: The Abacus,
which emerged about 5,000 years ago in Asia, can be considered as
the first computer. It was an early aid for mathematical computations.
It is made up of wooden frame with several rows having beads. The
frame was divided into two parts called Earth and heaven. Each rod in
heaven had two beads and Earth had five beads. This device allows
users to make computations using a system of sliding beads arranged
on a Rack and aids the memory of the person performing the
calculation
• Early Merchant used the Abacus to keep trading transactions but as the use of
paper and pencil spread particularly in Europe The Abacus is still in use today
operator can work on addition and sub equipped with the hand calculator
slower. Napier's bones: In 1617 an logarithms technology that allows mult The
magic ingredient is the logarithm of each operand obtained from a printed table
but Napier also invented and alternative to tables where the logarithm values
were carved on Ivory Napier’s bones. Pascaline: Pascal’s adding machine in
1642 a French tax collector invented a numerical w with his duties. This brass
rec dials to add up to 8 digits. Pascal’s the Abacus to keep trading transactions
but as the use of paper and pencil spread particularly in Europe, the Abacus lost
its importance he Abacus is still in use today, principally in the Far East. A
skilled Abacus operator can work on addition and subtraction problems at the
speed of a person equipped with the hand calculator. However multiplication
and division was slower
1) Napier’s Bones
• In 1617 an logarithms technology that allows mult The
magic ingredient is the logarithm of each operand
obtained from a printed table but Napier also invented
and alternative to tables where the logarithm values
were carved on Ivory Napier’s bones.
2) Pascaline
• Pascal’s adding machine in 1642 a French tax collector invented a numerical
with his duties. This brass rec dials to add up to 8 digits. Pascal’s the Abacus to
keep trading transactions but as the use of paper and pencil spread
particularly in Europe, the Abacus lost its importance he Abacus is still in use
today, principally in the Far East. A skilled Abacus operator can work on
addition and subtraction problems at the speed of a person equipped with the
hand calculator. However multiplication and division was 17 an eccentric
Scotsman named John Napier invented technology that allows multiplication to
be performed via . Blaise Pascal the 18 years old son of a French tax collector
invented a numerical wheel calculator to help his father brass rectangular box
also called a Pascaline used Pascal’s device used a base of 10. the Abacus to
keep trading transactions but as the use of he Abacus lost its importance.
skilled Abacus traction problems at the speed of a person however
multiplication and division was named John Napier invented performed via
addition. which was originally obtained from a printed table but Napier also
invented and alternative to tables, a stick, which was named Blaise Pascal the
18 years old son of l calculator to help his father line used 8 movable
• For example: As one dial moved ten notches or one
complete round, It moved the next dial which
represented the tens column one place, when the tens
dial moved one round and the dial representing the
hundreds place move to one notch and so on. It’s
drawback was, it’s limitation to addition and subtraction
only.
3) Leibniz Calculator
• In 1694 a German Mathematician and Philosopher
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz improved the Pascaline
by creating a machine that could also multiply like its
predecessor, Leibniz’s mechanical multiplier works by a
system of gears and dials.
4) Jacquard Loom
• In 1801 the Frenchman Joseph Marie Jacquard invented
a power loom that could base it’s weave upon a pattern
automatically, read from punched wooden cards held
together in a long row by rope. In the Jacquard Loom,
the presence or absence of each hole in the card
physically allows a coloured thread to pass a stop that
thread.
Difference Engine
• Difference Engine by Charles Babbage the real
beginnings of computers, as we know them today. An
English Mathematics professor Charles Babbage is
known as the father of the computer. Babbage noticed a
natural harmony between machines and mathematics,
machines with best performing task repeatedly without
mistake while mathematics particularly the production
of mathematics tables often required the simple
repetition of steps.
• In 1822 Babbage proposed a stream driven calculating
machine, the size of a room to perform differential
equation called a ‘Difference Engine’. This machine
would be able to compute tables of numbers such as
logarithm table and would have a stored program and
could perform calculations and print the results are
automatically
5) Analytical Engine
• After working on the Difference Engine for 10 years Babbage
was suddenly inspired to begin work on the first general
purpose computer, which he called the ‘Analytical Engine’.
This device was as large as a house and powered by 6 stream
engines would be more general purpose in nature because it
would be Programmable. Thanks to the ‘Punch card’
technology of Jacquard. But it was Babbage who made an
important intellectual leaf regarding the punch card. Babbage
saw the pattern of holes could be used to represent an
abstract Idea such as a problem statement or the raw data
required, for that problem solution for the more, Babbage
realized that punched paper could be employed as a storage
mechanism holding computed numbers for future reference
because of the connection to the
• Jacquard Loom. Babbage called the two main parts of
Analytical Engine, the Store and the Mill as both terms are
used in the weaving industry. The Store was where
numbers were held and the Mill was where they were
woven into new results. In a modern computer the same
parts are called the Memory Unit and the Central
Processing Unit. Lady Augusta Ada, the first programmer,
Babbage befriended Augusta Ada Byron, the daughter of
the famous poet Lord Byron, who was fascinated by
Babbage’s ideas. She learnt enough about the design of
the Analytical Engine to begin fashioning programs for the
still un-built machine while Babbage refused to published
his knowledge for another 30 years and Ada wrote a
series of notes where ensued details sequences of
instructions. She had prepared for the Analytical Engine.
• The Analytical Engine remained un-build, because the
British Government refused to get involved with this.
But Ada earned spot in History as the first Computer
Programmer. Ada invented the subroutine and was the
first to recognize the importance of looping. In the 1980,
is the US defense department named a programming
language ADA, in her honour
6) Tabulating Machine
• Herman Hollerith in 1889 an American inventor Herman
Hollerith also applied the Jacquard Loom concept to
computing. His first task was to find a faster way to
compute the US census. Hollerith used cards to store
data, and information, which he is fed into a machine
that compiles the results mechanically. Each punched
on a card represented one number and the combination
of two punches presented one letter, as many as 80
variables could be stored on a single card. Census
takers compiled their results in just six weeks with
Hollerith machine instead of 10 years. In addition to
their speed the punch card served as a storage method
for data and they helped reduce the computational
• Hollerith brought his punched card reader into the
business world founding tabulating machine company in
1896, later to become International Business Machines
(IBM) in 1924. After a series of mergers in the ensuing
years several engineers made other significant
advances
7) EDVAC
• John Von Neumann. In the mid 1948 John Von Neumann
joined the University of Pennsylvania team initiating
concepts in computer Design that remained Central to
computer engineering for the next 40 years. Von
Neumann designed the Electronic Discrete Variable
Automatic Computer or EDVAC in 1945 with the memory
to hold both a stored program as well as data
8) Mark 1
• Howard H Aiken, a Harvard engineer working with IBM
succeeded in producing and all electronic calculator by
1944, it was about half as long as a football field and
contain about 500 miles of wearing. The Harvard IBM
automatic sequence control computer or MARK 1 for
short electronic relay computer the machine was slow
and inflexible. but it could perform basic arithmetic as
well as more complex equation
9) ENIAC
• Another computer development was the Electronic
Numerical Integrator and Computer or ENIAC. This was
the first general purpose electronic digital computer
invented by John Mauchly and J Presper Eckert in 1946.
This is the story of the evolution of computers after
going through a long journey of the evolution process
the first electronic computer was invented the
development journey continues UNIVAC in 1951 J.
Presper Eckert and John Mauchly developed a Universal
Automatic Computer or UNIVAC. It is the first
commercial electronic computer, that could handle text
and numeric data.