A brief history of the computer   

A computer is an electronic machine that has the capability to accept input, store, recalls and process information to give an output in readable format. But in earlier times, a computer meant a person carrying out mechanical computations under the supervision of a mathematician.

In order to appreciate the future, we need to examine the past. The history of computers can be traced back in Babylonia where the abacus was born about 200 centuries ago. The abacus is a wooden frame holding two parallel rods wherein the beads are strung. It was used as a calculating tool by ancient society. In the year 1642, Blaise Pascal built the first digital computer. He created his calculator to help his father who was a tax collector at the time. Numbers were entered using dials and it was able to produce an answer equal as when calculated by using mathematics. Today, the fundamental theory of Pascal’s computer is still being used in various applications such as odometers and water gauges.

In 1822, an English mathematician by the name of Charles Babbage was able to design the first programmable computer. He had a theory that arithmetic tables could be computed and programmed mechanically. He built a computing machine and called it the difference engine. Babbage’s difference engines were among the first in its category of mechanical computers. Although his machine was unwieldy, its construction was analogous to a modern computer. It can follow instructions; there was a separate data and program storage, and it has a detached input and output units. However, Babbage’s machine was not really finished because of financial problems and some other issues. You can find a recently constructed version of the differnec engine at the Science Museum in London.

The evolution of punched cards provided a great leap towards computing automation. In 1890, Herman Hollerith and James Powers used these cards with computers. They had made improvements on devices that could interpret the data contained in the cards with little intervention from humans. As a result, work efficiency increased and reading mistakes were greatly reduced. Additionally, these punched cards can be utilized as a storage memory of nearly infinite range.

World War II created a requirement for greater computer power which was to be used in military applications. John Eckert and his colleagues in Pennsylvania built a high capacity electronic computer to serve this purpose. This computer was called the Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator or ENIAC. It was an all-purpose computer but of nonflexible construction.

Of course, Alan Turing, Gordon Welchman, Max Newman and Tommy Flowers were key individuals in the development computer at Bletchley Park. Colossus was designed for code breaking but greatly progressed the advancement of the modern computer.

Computer designs of the 50’s were mostly valve-driven (vacuum tube). They were far better in performance than their earlier predecessors but they are bulky and costly to produce. Transistor-driven computers were developed in the 60’s which effectively replaced the valve-driven computers. These transistorized computers were faster, smaller in size and more importantly, less expensive.

In the 1970’s, the integrated circuit became popular and was widely used as the primary electronic component for computers. It paved the way for mass production of computers thus making them affordable not only for business but for private individuals as well. This led to the birth of personal computers. Since then computer technology has developed exponentially to the point wher we have powerful computers in the palm of our hands. The smart phone, of course! But they still break down and when that happens call a professional IT support service. We might not be able to fix Colossus, though....

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