Computer History

Brief Computer History

In 1640, Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, constructed the first mechanical machine that performs basic functions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The programming language Pascal was named after him. In 1804 an automated punched card was introduced by Charles Babbage, it has a mechanical memory to store the results of calculations. It as later improved by Augusta Ada using a binary system which refined the designs of automatic repetition of series of calculations-the loop. In 1850 George Boyle developed binary numbering system and Boolean Logic became fundamental to the design of computer circuitry.

In 19th century, the world’s first general-purpose electronic digital computer known as ABC was built by John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry. Mainframe computers were introduced and series of IBM System/360 family. Improvements continued from vacuum-tube technology to resistors, capacitors and transistors to integrated circuits then to microprocessor which can store gigabytes of memory and managed to integrate most complex arithmetic and logic functions. Computers continuously decreased in size and increased in power and performance.

Computer Generations
First Generation: 1951 to 1959
First generation computers were powered by vacuum tubes, they were extremely large machines, occupying huge rooms and consuming vast amounts of energy.

Second Generation: 1959 to 1965
Second generation computer took advantage of semiconductor technology which meant that transistors replaced the vacuum tubes. This resulted in reduced physical size, faster computing and greater power. The transistor was initially developed by US corporation, Bell Laboratories.

Third Generation: 1965 to 1971
Third generation computers were made from integrated circuits, again reducing size, faster computing and much greater power. Integrated circuits consisted of a piece of silicon about 10mm square on which up to thousands of transistors could be placed. Magnetic discs were improved, greatly increasing storage capacity. .Monitors and keyboards were introduced and operating system was first adopted. Families of computers which allowed upgrading and expansion was also developed.

Forth Generation: 1971 to present
From integrated circuits to large scale to very large scale integration; this was the start of the microprocessor age which continued to improve from 8086, 80286 to 80486, then to Pentium 1 to Pentium3.