The history of computer

STEPS TOWARD MODERN COMPUTING

Today’s electronic computers are recent inventions, stemming from work that

began during World War II. Yet the most basic idea of computing—the notion

of representing data in a physical object of some kind, and getting a result by

manipulating the object in some way—is very old. In fact, it may be as old as

humanity itself. Throughout the ancient world, people used devices such as

notched bones, knotted twine, and the abacus to represent data and perform

various sorts of calculations

First Steps: Calculators

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, European mathematicians

Developed a series of calculators that used clockwork mechanisms and

cranks  As the ancestors of today’s electromechanical

adding machines, these devices weren’t computers in the modern sense. A

calculator is a machine that can perform arithmetic functions with numbers,

including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

The Technological Edge: Electronics

Today’s computers are automatic, in that they can perform most tasks without

the need for human intervention. They require a type of technology that

was unimaginable in the nineteenth century.

Steps Toward Modern Computing: A

abacus (4000 years ago to 1975)

Used by merchants throughout the ancient world. Beads represent figures

(data); by moving the beadsaccording to rules, the user can add,subtract, multiply, or divide. The abacusre  mained in use until a worldwide deluge of cheap pocket calculators put the abacus out of work, after being used for thousands of years.

The generation of computer development
Generation	Year	Circuitry
1st	1950	Vacuum tubes
2nd	Early 1960	Transistor
3rd	Mid 1960 to 1970	Integrated circuit
4th	Mid 1970 to 1980	VLSI and microprocessor