Fundamentals of Computers

 History of Computers

 

What is Computer?

A computer is an electronic device that store, retrieves, and process the data.

                              "Computer", as a word can be considered to have originated a few decades back, but the original references to its work or generations can be dated back to the history. There have been several machines in the past that are considered to have evolved into the modern day computers. Let us study about various great inventions that lead to the evolution of computers.

Abacus:

            The history of computer begins that the birth of abacus which is believed to be the first computer, it is said that Chinese invented Abacus around 4,000 years ago.

            It was a wooden rack which has metal rods with beads mounted on them. The beads were moved by the abacus operator according to some rules to perform arithmetic calculations. 

Napier's Bones:

Napier's Bones is a manually-operated calculating device.

Invented by John Napier (1550-1617) of Murchison

There are ten bones corresponding to the digit 0-9, and a special eleventh bone that is used the represent the multiplier. 

The tool became known as "Napier Bones.

It was the first machine to use the decimal point.

Pascaline:

Pascaline is also known as Arithmetic Machine or adding Machine.

It was invented between 1642 and 1644.

Pascal was a child prodigy. at the age of 12.

pascal invented this machine to help his father, a tax accountant, it could only perform addition and subtraction.

It was a wooden box with a series of gears and wheels.

Punched Cards:

In the year 1801 a Frenchman Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a power loom that could base its weave upon a pattern automatically read from punched wooden cards, held together in a long row by rope.

Analytical Engine:

The analytical engine, the first fully-automatic calculating machine, was constructed by Charles Babbage(1791-1871).

It was a mechanical computer that used punch-cards as input. 

It was capable of solving any mathematical problem and staring information as a permanent memory.

Difference Engine:

In the early 1820, It was designed by Charles Babbage who is known as  'Father of Computer'.

It was a mechanical computer which could perform simple calculations.

The machine designed to solve tables of numbers like logarithm tables.