Part of the History of Computing

History

When you think about computing, you may think that it has only been around in the past few years. Well, at least, since computers have been around. This idea is actually quite contradictory from the truth.

Computing actually has been around for centuries. The earliest signs of appeared between 2400BC and 1800. One may ask how someone can compute anything then. Many cultures used an abacus for calculating. This was also the first sign of numerical notations and some of the first algorithms. They created some analog programs to make calculations of the planets and stars. Between 1800 and 1935, a computer was a person who preformed the calculations. In 1801 Joseph Jacquard invented a loom, where the design or pattern of the woven fabric was controlled by punched cards. Punched cards is a stiff piece of paper that contains information with the presence of absence of holes. Some people have them at their work, where it shows what time they have clocked in or out.

The first digital computer was designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at University of Pennsylvania in 1945. It used more than 18 thousand vacuum tubes (vacuum tubes was part of the first generation computers), and it performed 5000 operations per second (now it is about 1E9 operations). However, the size was not the best side of the computer. It weighed more that 27000 kg, and was over 1000 square feet. Computers of the second generation used transistors instead of tubes but, the size was still an issue. The next generation computers fixed the size issue. It used integrated circuits which led size to decrease. Third generation computers underwent great changes and became more available for the public. IBM was the major company producing computers. Finally in 1971, Intel took a huge step in the field, and introduced the world’s first microprocessor. It changed both performance and size. Such technology is being used even now. Today there are more companies producing computers , however, most of them are using Intel and AMD chips. Every year computers become more lighter, thinner, smarter and simply better.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring for computing.