HISTORY Of COMPUTERS

Human beings have felt the need for calculations

for a long time. However, early calculating devices
were a quite different from the modern ones.
Here is abrief history of these devices.
1)ABACUS
The abacus is believed to be the first calculating
device. The earliest reference to abacus dates
back to 2700-2300 BCE in the Mesopotamian
civilization. Simple calculations, such as addition
and subtraction, could be performed using
abacus.
It is still used in many countries, especially in
countries of Asia and Africa. The abacus is used to
teach school children about place value in the
numeric system, and also for teaching arithmetic
operations to visually challenged children.

2)NAPIER’S BONES
In 1616, Sir John Napier made a calculating device
and called it Napier’s Bones. It was used for
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
The device was names because it had numbers
carved on bones or on strips of wood.
3)PASCALINE
The Pascaline was the first mechanical calculator
and was invented by Blaise Pascal in 1641. It
consisted of a rectangular box with eight movable
wheels. It was use for addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division of numbers up to
hundreds and thousands.

4)Difference Engine
In the 19th century, Charles Babbage invented the
first mechanical computer. It was called the
Difference Engine.

5)Analytical Engine
Charles Babbage also invented the first general
purpose computer known as Analytical Engine.
The Analytical Engine had the same basic
elements as the modern computer – input,
output, and memory devices. Charles Babbage is
known as the Father Of Modern Computers.

GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERS
Computers were not invented on a single day.
They were evolved through several years and
many generations. Computers are generally
classified into different generations based on their
technological advancements.

First Generation Computers(1940-1958)

Some features of the first generation computers
were:
 They used vacuum tubes
 They were very large in size, had small internal
storage and were very expensive.
 Input was based on punch cards and paper
taps.
Some examples of first-generation computes are:
 1. Mark I
Mark I was designed by Howard H. Aiken in the
year 1944. It was about 15 meters long and the
wires connecting the various parts of the machine
were about 800km long.
The machine was slow and it took 3 to 5 seconds
per calculation, but was the first fully automatic
calculator.

2. ENIAC(Electronic Numerical Integrator and

Computer)
The ENIAC was developed by John Presper
Eckert and John W. Mauchly in the year 1946. It
was the first fully electronic digital computer.
It consisted of 18,000 vacuum tubes, occupied an
area of 63 square metres, and weighed more than
27,000 kilograms! Whereas Mark I took about 5
seconds for adding two large numbers, the ENIAC
could do it in 200 microseconds. It was originally
built to help the army in launching bombs and
missiles more accurately. It did not have stored
programs; it had to be programmed by manually
wiring the code for each task.
 3.EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic
Calculator)
The EDSAC was designed by Professor M. Wilkes
of Cambridge University, England, in the year 1949
and was slightly faster than the ENIAC. It weighed
approximately 6000 kilograms and occupied an
area of 20 square metres. It was the first
electronic computer that used stored programs.
4.EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic
Computer)
The EDVAC was proposed by John Presper Eckert
and John W. Mauchly in 1944 even as the ENIAC
was being developed. John von Neumann, who
also gave the concept of stored programs, joined
them later to help in designing the EDVAC. It was
completed in 1948.
The EDVAC weighed approximately 8000
kilograms and covered an area of 45.5 square
metres.
It had the capacity to hold stored programs as well
as data.
5.UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer)
UNIVAC I was developed in the year 1951, again
by John Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly. It
weighed approximately 13,000 kilograms and
occupied an area of 35.5 square metres. It was the
first commercially available electronic computer
and also the first computer to handle both
numeric and text data.
Limitations of First-Generation Computers:
The major limitations of the first-generation
computers were as follows:
• Their operating speed was quite slow.
• Their power consumption was very high.
• They required large space for installation.
• Their potential to be programmed for tasks was
quite limited.
• They could solve only one problem at a time.
• They were hugely expensive to build.

Second-Generation Computers (1959-1964)

Some of the characteristics of the second-
generation computers were:
  They were faster and smaller in size than the
first-generation computers.
 They were more reliable than the first-
generation computers. They had many
components - printer, memory, disk storage,
operating system, etc. - which are associated
with modern-day computers.
 Transistors were used as their main
component, which replaced the vacuum tubes
used in the first generation computers.
 They were easier to program than the first-
generation computers. So they had greater
commercial use.
 The programming languages, such as COBOL
and FORTRAN came into use during this time.
IBM 1401 and RCA 501 are examples of second-
generation computers.

Third-Generation Computers (1964-1970)

The third-generation computers were smaller as
compared to the second-generation computers.
Their characteristics were:
 They were faster and smaller than the second-
generation computers.
 They used Integrated Circuits (ICs) as their
main component, which are popularly called
chips.
 They used new input and output devices such
as scanners, magnetic ink character readers,
etc.
 Memory capacity was greatly enlarged.
 They used an operating system that allowed
machines to run many programs
simultaneously.
 They were general-purpose computers and
had both scientific and commercial use. These
computers used a keyboard to input data and
a monitor to display the output.
The IBM 360 and 370 series are examples of the
third-generation computers.
Fourth-Generation Computers (1971-present)
The fourth-generation computers, i.e., the
present-day computers, are unique in the
following ways:

 They use microprocessors, a type of very-

large-scale integrated circuits (VLSIC), which
contain all the components of the CPU on a
single chip. The VLSICS perform the bulk of
processing and control all parts of the system.
The use of microprocessors has resulted in
decreased size and increased efficiency.
 They have much greater computing power
and storage capacity than the earlier
generations of computer.
 They use improved storage devices that are
cheaper than the earlier ones. They can be
linked together (i.e., networked) to share
storage capacity, space, data, etc.
IBM PC and Apple Macintosh are examples of
fourth-generation computers. In addition to the
desktop computers, nowadays, laptops, palmtops,
and tablets, which can be carried anywhere with
ease, have become very common. In the various
stages of the evolution of computers so far, the
focus has been on reducing the size and improving
the efficiency. This has resulted in smaller yet
faster computers. However, these computers do
not yet have the ability to think.

Fifth-Generation Computers (1989-Future)

The fifth-generation computers are referred to as
supercomputers. Supercomputers have very high
storage capacities, extremely high speeds, and the
ability to carry out highly sophisticated
operations, such as weather forecasting.
The CRAY CS300 series is an example of
supercomputers.
Fifth-generation computing also involves artificial
intelligence (AI). Artificial intelligence is a branch
of computer science that aims to create
computers that can think, behave, and react in the
same way as humans do.
The fifth-generation computers would possibly be
able to think like humans.
Japan was one of the first countries that tried
developing artificial intelligence in the late 1980s
and the early 1990s, but they did not succeed.
Even today, we have achieved only limited
success.
However, scientists believe that by 2030 we would
be able to have machines that equal the
complexity of a human brain.