Overview
- Before the invention of computers, it was initally a job title.
- The first computer, the Antikythera mechanism were mechanical.
- The first computer was designed by Charles Babbage in 1882.
- It was not built until 1991.
- The Electrinic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was the first general-purpose, digital calculator.
- The Micral N was the first personal computer.
- The Epson HC-20 was the first laptop.
- The first Mac computer was in 1984.
Early Computers
- The early computers were people, not machines
- It was a job title whose sole purpose is to perform mathematical calculations.
- They were either composed of mathematicians and bookkeepers.
- The first, physical computer was the Antikythera mechanism.
- It was developed by Greeks, and it was a hand-powered, mechanical device.
- It was believed to have been used to calculate eclipses and other astronomical events.
The Invention of the Computer
- Charles Babbage was credited for the design of the first computer
- Due to a lack of funding, he never built any of them.
- He designed his Difference Engine in 1822.
- It has the sole purpose of computing polynomial functions.
- He designed a second variant, the Difference Engine No. 2, between 1847 - 1849.
- It was built posthumously by the British Science museum in 1991 from his original design.
- He also designed an another computer called the Analytical Engine.
- It has 675 bytes of memory.
- It uses punch cards as a mode of input
- This was based on Jacquard’s Loom punch card system
The Electromechanical Computers
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An electromechanical computer was a hybrid between analog computers and modern electronical computers.
- They use electric switches to drive mechanical relays.
- These switches can open and close 1000x faster than their mechanical counterparts, making them much more efficient.
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The first electromechanical computer was the Torpedo Data Computer of the United States Navy.
- It was designed to track a target, aim, and fire a torpedo from a submarine
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German inventor Konrad Zuse was credited for the first programmable computer.
- In 1938, he began working on the Z1 computer.
- It worked on a binary system and was fed paper tape as inputs.
- The next year after, the construction for the Z2 began along with electrical engineer Helmut Freier.
- It was quickly followed by the Z3, which was the first electromechanical, programmable, and fully automatic computer.
- It has a 21-inch flatscreen monitor and a keyboard.
- Users can write and feed programs using a strip of film.
- It was used by the German Aircraft Institute to compute wing flutter.
- In 1938, he began working on the Z1 computer.
Digital Computers
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The first digital computer was the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) in 1942.
- While, it lacked some functionalities of modern computers, it ws designed for a specialist task.
- It was also widely not considered a computer as it was not Turing complete.
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In England, Alan Turing developed the Colossus computer in 1943.
- It is a fully programmable, digital computer.
- It is programmed with switches and plugs.
- It was deeloped to aid British codebreakers to decrypt German radiotelegraphic traffic
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The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or the ENIAC was the first electronic, general-purpose, fully programmable, digital computer.
- It was developed in 1945.
- It was programmed with external switches and dials.
- It was first used to study the feasibility of the hydrogren bomb.
Stored-Program Computers
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The Manchester Baby in 1948 was the first computer to store its program digitally.
- This means that it does not need wires and switches to store its program.
- It was also the first computer to use random-access memory.
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The Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer or EDVAC was built in 1949.
- It was built for the U.S. Army’s Ballistics Research Laboratory.
- It’s design was based on the ENIAC, and it also uses a stored program.
Transistorized Computers
- The first transistor computer, unironically, was the Transistor Computer by Manchester University in 1953.
- However, it was not ran exclusively on transistors and had several tubes as well.
- The Harwell CADET in March 1955 was the first fully transistorized computer in Europe (and possibly the world).
- The IBM 608 in April 1955 was also the first fully transistorized computer to be available for commercial installation.
Other Computers
- Personal Computer
- François Gernelle invented the Micral N in 1973, and it was the first personal computer.
- While it was not a commercial success, the one that does so was the MITS Altair 8800 in 1974.
- It was sold as a kit for $439, and you can pay extra for a pre-assembled model.
- Portable Computer
- The IBM 5100 in 1975 was the first commercially successful, portable computer.
- While it weighed 23kg, it came with a travel case, earning the portable title.
- It also has a 16-bit processor, takes a quarter-inch cartridge magnetic tape drive.
- Laptop
- The Epson HX-20/HC-20 was the first laptop.
- It was launced in Japan in 1981, and internationally the next year after.
- It weighed 1.8kg, and was just a size of an A4 paper.
- It has a built-in claculator-style roll printer.
- It also runs on battery power that lasts 50 hours.
- Flip-form Laptop
- The first flip-form laptop was the Dulmont Magnum in 1981.
- Released internationally in 1984, it costs around $8,150.
- It comes with a word processor, spreadsheet, telecommunications, file manager, appointment manager, and a 8 x 80 character LCD screen
- Touch Screen
- The HP-150 in 1983 was one of the earliest commercialized touchscreen computers.
- It uses a series of vertical and horizontal infrared beams crossed before the screen.
- Touching the screen would break the infrared and place the cursor at the desired location
- Macintosh
- Steve Jobs unveiled the first Macintosh in 1984.
- It also came with a keyboard and a mouse.
- It also had a handle, so it was also a portable computer.
- It did not come with a cooling fan so this caused this computer to overheat, resulting in many component failures.