Wednesday, July 27, 2011

A Brief History Lesson On The Subject of The Computer And How it Has Developed Through Time

A computer is an electronic machine fujitsu lifebook p1620 keyboard, fujitsu cp228900-01 keyboard that has the potential to accept input, store, recall and process information to provide an output in a readable format. But in earlier times, a computer meant a person performing mechanical computations under the supervision of a mathematician.

In order to appreciate the future, we have to look at the past. The history of computer systems can be traced back in Babylonia where the abacus was born about 200 centuries ago. The abacus is really a wooden frame holding two parallel rods wherein the beads are strung. It had been used as a calculating tool by the ancient society. During the year 1642, Blaise Pascal built the first digital computer. He created his calculator to assist his father who was a tax collector at the time. Numbers were entered using dials and it was able to provide an answer as accurately as when calculated by using mathematics. Today, the fundamental theory of Pascal’s computer remains getting used in various applications such as odometers and water gauges.

In 1822, an English mathematician by the name of Charles Babbage was able to design the very first programmable computer. He had a theory that arithmetic tables could be computed and programmed mechanically. He built dell studio 14 keyboard, dell p445m keyboard a computing machine and called it the difference engine. Babbage’s difference engines were among the first in its category of mechanical computers. Although his machine was unwieldy, its construction was analogous to a modern computer. It could follow instructions; there was a separate data and program storage, and also it had a detached input and output unit. However, Babbage’s machine was never really finished because of financial problems and some other issues. You'll find a recently constructed version of the difference engine in the Science Museum in London.

The evolution of punched cards provided an excellent leap towards computing automation. In 1890, Herman Hollerith and James Powers used these cards with computers. They had made improvements on devices that could interpret the data contained inside the cards with little intervention from humans. As a result, work efficiency increased and reading mistakes were greatly reduced. Additionally, these punched cards can be utilized like a storage memory of nearly infinite range.

World War II created a requirement for greater computer power which was to become used in military applications. John Eckert and his sony vaio vgn-fw keyboard, sony vaio vgn-fw290n keyboard colleagues in Pennsylvania built an increased capacity electronic computer to serve this purpose. This computer was called the Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator or ENIAC. It was an all-purpose computer but of nonflexible construction.

Of course, Alan Turing, Gordon Welchman, Max Newman and Tommy Flowers were key individuals in the development of the computer at Bletchley Park. Colossus was created for code breaking but greatly progressed the advancement of the modern PC as we know it nowadays.

Computer designs of the 50’s were mostly valve-driven (vacuum tube). They were far better in performance than their earlier predecessors but they were bulky and expensive to produce. Transistor-driven computers were developed in the 60’s which effectively replaced the valve-driven computers. These transistorized computers were faster, smaller in size plus much more importantly, less expensive.

In the 1970’s, the integrated circuit became popular and was widely used as the primary electronic component for computers. It paved the way for mass production of computers, thus making them affordable not only for organisations but for personal individuals as well. This led towards the birth of personal computers hp probook 4515s keyboard, hp probook 4520s keyboard. Since then computer technology has developed exponentially to the point where we have powerful computers in the palm of our hands. The smart phone, obviously! But they still break down, and when that happens we call on a competent IT support service. They may not be able to repair Colossus though...

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