Historical background of computers, Basic Computer Science

Assignment Help:

Historical Background

The brief history of the growth of computers is given below:

  1. Abacus:  It was the first mechanical device developed approximately 3,000 years ago, it consists of beads that can slide on wires. Wires represent columns. Right most column is for units, the next is for tens and so on. Various numbers can be represented by pushing appropriate beads. This device could perform simple additions and subtractions.
  2. Pascal Calculating Machine:  In 1642, Pascal devised a calculating machine for calculations. This consisted of a series of wheels having digits of zero to nine around the circumference.
  3. Jacquard Card: This utilized the concept of cards with punched holes. This was used for weaving patterns into fabric using cards with punched holes to guide the warp threads on a loom. This was invented in 1801 by Joseph Marie Jacquard.
  4. Analytical Engine:  In 1833, Charles Babbage developed the concepts for an analytical engine which could perform arithmetic functions on data, reading in from punched cards.
  5. Punched Card: In 1890, Herman Hollerith successfully devised electrical tabulating equipment. A coding scheme which would be punched into cards to represent data was devised by him. Hollerith coding system is used widely even today in the punched card equipment.
  6. Mark-1: Mark-1 was the first general purpose computer developed by Prof. Howard Aiken. It consisted of telephone relays and rotating mechanical wheels. Sequence of instructions were given using a paper tape.
  7. ENIAC: In 1946, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator) was developed. It was a large machine containing 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighed 30 tons, occupied 1,500 sq. ft. space and a small memory of 20 accumulators each capable of storing 10 digits. It did in 1 day what once took 300 days to perform.
  8. UNIVAC: The World’s first commercial data processing machine UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) of 1951, made by Remington Rand Corporation was installed for and used by the US Bureau of Census. It was used 24 hours a day for 12 years, and also is well known for having predicted the victory of President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1952 elections of the US, thus exposing to the general public the uses and capabilities of electronic computer.

 

Over the last years, the computer technology has been significantly developing. There has been tremendous reduction in size while storage capacity, speed and reliability have been increasing. 


Related Discussions:- Historical background of computers

Basic concepts of Assembler language , Information Units In order for the P...

Information Units In order for the PC to process information, it is essential that this information be in unique cells called registers. The registers are sets of 8 or 16 flip-flop

Discuss on segmentation, Question 1 What is an operating system? Explain i...

Question 1 What is an operating system? Explain its functions Question 2 Discuss round-robin scheduling Question 3 Discuss on segmentation Question 4 What are the s

What is vpn? list the different types of vpn, Question 1 What is routing? ...

Question 1 What is routing? Explain the principles of routing Question 2 Explain different types of server operations in Enterprise Networking Question 3 Briefly d

Rental model, Rental model: This has come into picture as Software as...

Rental model: This has come into picture as Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) models have evolved over a period of time. Here, the buyer need not

Application-specific multiprocessors, Application-Specific Multiprocessors ...

Application-Specific Multiprocessors Although this book details a variety of similar architectures, it specializes in the design of such architectures in the perspective of par

C LANGUAGE, WHAT DO MEAN BY ALGORITHM,HOW CAN ALGORITHM HELP TO WRITE BETTE...

WHAT DO MEAN BY ALGORITHM,HOW CAN ALGORITHM HELP TO WRITE BETTER COMPUTER PROGRAM ,WRITE AN ALGORITHM IN COMPUTER INTEREST

Definition of User-Level Thread?, User-level threads apply in user-level li...

User-level threads apply in user-level libraries, before via systems calls, so thread switching does not require to call operating system and to cause interrupt to the kernel. Actu

Finite Automata, (S**)*=S*** is this set bigger than S*??

(S**)*=S*** is this set bigger than S*??

Data autonomous transmission, DATA AUTONOMOUS TRANSMISSION: This could ...

DATA AUTONOMOUS TRANSMISSION: This could be the possible replacement for the ARINC 429 standard and will be annotated the standard - ARINC 629. In the DATAC system, the contro

Three specific sections of the microprocessor, • CPU Structure This section...

• CPU Structure This section, with a simplified model of a central processing unit as an instance, takes you through the role of each of the major basic parts of the CPU. It also l

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd