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Evolution Of Computers

You use the computer so many times, don't you? But what do you know about its history? Do you know how computers evolved from being small calculators to becoming the intelligent machines that they are? Read on for information on the evolution of computers.

The term Computer, originally meant a person capable of performing numerical calculations with the help of amechanical computing device. The evolution of computers started way back in the era before Christ. Binary arithmetic is at the core of computer systems. History of computers dates back to the invention of a mechanical adding machine in 1642. ABACUS, an early computing tool, the invention of logarithm by John Napier and the invention of slide rules by William Oughtred were significant events in theevolution of computers from these early computing devices. Here's introducing you to the ancestors of modern computers.
* Abacus was invented in 2400 BC.
* Pingala introduced the binary number system, which would later form the core of computing systems.
* Later in 60 AD, Heron of Alexandria invented machines that could follow instructions. Who knew back then that this idea would evolveinto intelligent machines!
* The 1600s witnessed the invention of slide rules, the system of movable rods based on logarithms used to perform basic mathematical calculations, and a mechanical adding machine, which in some way, laid the foundation of modern-day calculating machines or computers.
1800s saw some remarkable feats in the history of computers. They included:
* A punchingcard system was devised by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801.
* Charles Babbage designed the first mechanical computer in 1822 and the Analytical Engine in 1834.
* Morse code was invented in 1835 by Samuel Morse.
* George Boole invented the Boolean algebra in 1848, which would later be at the heart of programming.
If you look at the timeline of the evolution of computers, you willnotice that first generation computers made use of vacuum tubes. These computers were expensive and bulky. They used machine language for computing and could solve just one problem at a time. They did not support multitasking.
* IBM, today a big name in the list of computer technology industries, was founded in 1911.
* It was in 1937 that Alan Turing came up with the concept of a theoreticalTuring machine. In the same year, John V. Atanasoff devised the first digital electronic computer. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry came up with the ABC prototype in the November of 1939. Its computations were based on a vacuum tube and it used regenerative capacitor memory.
* Konrad Zuse's electromechanical 'Z Machines', especially the Z3 of 1941 was a notable achievement in the evolution ofcomputers. It was the first machine to include binary and floating-point arithmetic and a considerable amount of programmability. Since it was proved to be Turing complete in 1998, it is regarded as world's first operational computer.
* In 1943, the Colossus was secretly designed at Bletchley Park, Britain to decode German messages. The Harvard Mark I of 1944 was a large-scale electromechanicalcomputer with less programmability. It was another step forward in the evolution of computers.
* The U.S. Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory came up with the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC) in 1946. It came to be known as the first general purpose electronic computer. However, it was required to be rewired to change its programming thus making its architecture inflexible.Developers of ENIAC realized the flaws in the architecture and developed a better one. It was known as the stored program architecture or von Neumann Architecture. It got this name after John von Neumann, who for the first time described the architecture in 1945. All the projects of developing computers taken up thereafter have been using the von Neumann Architecture. All the computers use a...