The Computer And Its History Essay Research

The Computer And Its History Essay, Research Paper The Computer and Its History I CONTENTS I.Introduction ??..????????????????????????.4 II.Early Tools and Their Intentors??????????????????..4 III.Electro-Mechanical and Electrical Calculating Machines???????…6 IV.Random Access Memory (RAM) Computers Come into the Lime-Light?..8 V.Change was Good????????????????????????9 VI.The Computer Gets Cheap, Even the Average “Joe” Can Buy One ?… 10 VII. Conclusion??????????????????????????…11 SOURCES?????????????????????….14 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Abacus Illustration 16 2.Slide Ruler Illustration 17 3.Early Calculator Illustration 18 4.Punch Card Illustration 19 5.ENIAC Illustration 20 6. ENIAC Illustration???????????????????21 7. ENIAC Illustration???????????????????22 8.

Vacuum Tubes Illustration???????????????.23 9. Neumann Machine Illustration?????????????..24 10. UNIVAC Illustration?????????????????…25 11. First IBM Computer Illustration?????????????26 12. Integrated Chip Illustration?????????.?????..27 13. Altair Illustration???????????????????..28 14. Apple 1 lllustratuin??????????????????..29 15. Apple 2 IIIustration??????????????????.30 16. IBM 60 IIIustration??????????????????..31 The Computer and Its History Introduction Only once in a lifetime will an invention come about to touch every aspect of our lives. Such a device that changes the way we work, live, and play is a very special one, indeed. “A machine that has done all this and more now exists in nearly every business in America and one out of every two households.” (Hall,

156) The computer is this machine. The electronic computer has been around for several decades; however; its ancestors have been working for over 4,000 years. Early Tools and Their Inventors The abacus, was the first known ancestor of the computer. (Soma, 32) It was very simple in design, but helped early people with arithmetic operations. The abacus is simply a wooden rack holding parallel wires on which beads are strung. When these beads are moved along the wire according to programming rules that the user must memorize, all ordinary math, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The following step in computer technology came with John Napier’s Bones. This was similar to a slide ruler. Napier’s invention allowed not only four-function math, but also

logarithms and the decimal point. This in-turn laid the foundation for the fraction system. Further more, personal computers of today and high-end computers all base their microprocessing on complex logarithms. In 1694, a great step was made by Blaise Pascal the father of computers invented the calculator. It could only add numbers and they had to be entered by turning dials. It was designed to help Pascal’s farther who was a tax collector. (Soma, 32) In the mid 1700s Jacquard, a Frenchman who wanted to improve his weaving looms so that they would work longer with out need of changing needle position by hand. Therefore, he made a loom that followed a program that was found punch cards. This looms followed the holes in the card each would move the needle right or left to its

need. However, the programmed looms were dropped because too much time was needed to make punch cards for the machine. (Gulliver, 101) In the early 1800s, Charles Babbage improved on Jachquards invention. Baggage knew there was a great need for a better way of processing math problems. Between 1750 and 1850 many advances were made in Mathematics and Physics. Many of new advances involved complex calculations and formulas that were very time consuming for human minds. Babbage made a punch hole card driven calculator. It four-function math and could use the decimal point. Different operations used different cards. The maker of these cards was Lady August Lovelace, who was the first programmer and was a woman. She wrote all the instustions for Babbage machine. These advantages were