History and Evolution of Computer Industry

 

1000 BC -

Chinese used the Abacus(Counting Device)

  1. Pascal -

Invented a mechanical adding machine to add long columns of figures. The machine only performed addition

1694 Liebnitz -

Invented a mechanical calculating machine. It would perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and calculate square roots.

1801 Jacquard -

Invented a punched card machine used to operate weaving looms

1822 Charles Babbage -

Built the "Difference Engine". This machine could compute mathematical tables. The government gave his a grant to continue work on it, but he lost interest in it when he was unable to find parts for it and abandoned his research.

1833 Babbage -

Designed the "Analytical Engine" that would be capable of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. This machine would have a memory unit, an arithmetic unit, a punched card unit and external storage devices. This machine was also ahead of its time and parts couldn't be found for it either. Because of this machine, Babbage is known as the "Father of the Computer".

1834 Lady Lovelace -

Babbage's business partner and is said to have been the "First Programmer" because she wrote mathematics problems for Babbages machines.

1880 Herman Hollerith -

Developed a device to code data and sort cards for the 1890 census.

1896 Tabulating Machine Company -

Organized by Hollerith

1914 Hollerith retired -

Thomas Watson became President of the Tabulating Machine Company

1924 -

Name of Tabulating Machine Company is changed to International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)

1937-38 Dr. John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry -

Built the Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC) This was the first electronic digital computer.

There are two different kinds of computers: digital and analog. A digital computer works with digital data, letters, numbers, and special characters. Anything you or I could input into a computer is digital data. An analog computer works with continuously variable data, heat, cold, and pressure readings.

1940 Aiken -

Developed the Mark I - Considered the first automatic calculator

Mid 40's Mauchly and Eckert -

Invented the ENIAC (Electronic and Numerical Integrator and Calculator). This was the first large-scale electronic digital computer.

1945 Dr. Jon VonNeumann

Fathered the idea of the "stored program". This was that the program directing the actions of the computer should be within the computer itself and not wired into the side of the computer.

1949 Wilkes -

Invented the EDSAC(Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer) This was the first stored program computer.

1951 EDVAC -

(Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) This machine also incorporated VonNeumann's concept. This is the first non-scientific computer.

1951 Mauchly & Eckert -

Built the UNIVAC I(Universal Automatic Computer). This was the first commercially available computer.

1954 TRADIC -

First transistorized computer

1965 -

Mini-computers were introduced

1969 Dr. Ted Hoff -

Developed the microprocessor

1976 Apple 1 computer -

Apple 1 computer developed & Apple Computer, Inc. organized

1981 -

IBM PC introduced

1983 -

Lotus 123 introduced

1987 -

80386 chip developed

1989 -

80486 chip developed

1993 -

Pentium chip developed

1997 -

Pentium II chip developed

1999 -

Pentium III chip developed

 

When we speak of the evolution of computers, we speak in terms of generations. Each generation has different characteristics and these are listed below:

 

First Generation 1951 - 1958
  1. Used vacuum tubes
  2. Large in size
  3. Required much air conditioning
  4. Relatively slow
  5. Used magnetic drum as storage media
  6. Used machine language (the only language the computer understands)
  7. Speeds in thousands of a second
  8. Average storage capacity - 4000 bytes or 4K (K stands for thousands)

 

Second Generation 1958 - 1964

  1. Used transistors
  2. Smaller
  3. Less expensive
  4. Generated less heat
  5. Magnetic core replaced magnetic drum
  6. Supported auxiliary storage devices
  7. Used high level languages
  8. Speeds in millions of a second
  9. Average storage capacity 32000 or 32K

 

Third Generation 1964 - 1970

  1. Used integrated circuits
  2. Integration of hardware and software(more devices and programs)
  3. Handled more than one operation at a time
  4. Speeds in billions and trillions of a second
  5. Average storage capacity 128000 or 128K

 

Fourth Generation 1970 -1974

  1. Used large scale integrated circuits(LSI) which packed many circuits onto one chip
  2. Communication linkage capabilities (terminals, phones)
  3. Used TV like display screen for console (CRT, VDT)
  4. Average storage capacity 100 million or 100 Mgb

 

At this point in time, changes in the computer industry were coming so quickly that the separation of generations was abandoned.

Each of the speeds listed above have a given name, these are:

Millisecond - one/one thousandth of a second

Microsecond - one/one millionth of a second

Nanosecond - one/one billionth of a second

Picosecond - one/one trillionth of a second

If you are like me, trying to visualize any of the above amounts of time is hard. I found something in a book that helped bring how fast each of the times is into perspective. I would like to share it with you.

 

If each person were equivalent to a Nanosecond, then it would take the combined population of the following countries to make up one second.

  1. USA
  2. USSR
  3. Japan
  4. Brazil
  5. Nigeria
  6. West Germany
  7. Italy
  8. United Kingdom
  9. Philippines
  10. France
  11. Spain
  12. Iran
  13. Canada
  14. Yugoslavia

 

Just like there is an evolution of hardware, there is also an evolution of software.

 

  1. Machine language - only language computer understands
  2. Symbolic language - first attempt to get away from machine language and make programming a little easier on the user
  3. High-level languages - Languages we use today to communicate with the computer. These are much easier to understand and learn than the machine or symbolic languages.
  4. Micro-computer software - games, work processors, spreadsheets, databases,…