History of Computer Technology

History of Computer The timeline of computer history starts from Abacus. Abacus was used for thousands of years. In 1642, Blaise Pascal, created calculator to help his father. In 1812, Charles Babbage, created a machine that could do calculations and print the result. In 1820, Charles Xavier Thomas de Calmar invented the arithometer. A machine that could do four basic mathematical function: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In 1890, Herman Holleith, created a machine that calculated census in 6 weeks.

First Generation Computers First generation computers were introduced doing World War II. In England, Colossus was created to decode German massages. In the United States, the U.S Army and University of Pennsylvania worked together to develop the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). ENIAC was started in 1943 and finished in Also, the machine weighed over 30 tons, contained 19,000 transistor tubes and 1,500 relays, and used almost 200 kilowatts of power. The ENIAC could do complex calculations faster then any other machine at hat time. The ENIAC could calculate 60-seconds trajectory in 30-seconds.

Second Generation Computers From 1956 the second generation of computers was marked by the shift from large, bulky, failure-prone vacuum tubes to Transistors. These Transistors use an electrical charge to change the conductive properties of the transistor. Transistor paved the way for much smaller, faster computers As a conductor the transistor is said to be in an “on” state and as an insulator the current is stopped by placing the transistor in an “off” state. At the same time, advances in printers, disks and tape storage, memory, and stored programs allowed to computers to become multifunctional devices.

Third Generation Computer In the late 1950’s, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce Invented the Integrated Circuit (IC). Which produced much less heat than transistor. This heat reduction allowed more components to fit onto a single chip. This chip is a semiconducting substance like silicon produced in such a tiny package which looks like a tin wafer. These microchips made revolutionized computers allowing them to shrink from the size of a room to a size of today’s laptop computers

Fourth Generation Computers By this time the computers have become available for normal people. They have been shrunk and are able to be moved. The first computer that was available was the MITS Altair The MITS first appeared for normal people in the country. The Apple I and II first appeared in million Pc’s were in use and an estimated 1 billion personal computers are used world wide.

Computer Hardware and Software

Hardware and Input/Output Devices Hardware is the physical components of the computer. Input devices allows an individual to enter information so that the computer can do work it is design to do. Example of Input devices: keyboard, mouse, scanners, digitizing pad, joysticks, game pads, and steering wheel for computer games. Output devices are feedback the lets you know what is happening on the inside of the computer. Example of Output devices: There is only one common output device and it is called computer monitor.

Processors and Memory Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the brain of the computer The CPU does basic things like adding subtracting multiplying dividing. The transistors are located at the heart of the CPU. Random-Access Memory (RAM) is the part that stores data going to and coming from CPU. When you turn your computer off all your work that you have saved on the RAM is lost. CPU can calculate most of the work you do on the computer that you want to be processed.

Hard Drives and Removable Storage Hard Drive is another storage device for your computer. Example of Hard drive: hard drives, CD-ROMs. And floppy disks. These things all have different ways of saving and deleting things in and out of it. The main storage device in the computer is the hard drive. The best way to store stuff today is to burn stuff on a CD. There are many different removable storage devices such as USB drive, Zip drives, and optical drives.

Networks Networking is the most important reason for using a computer today. In networking, media connect the network to the individual computer, which are called nodes. Each node has Network Interface Card (NIC), which allows data to travel between the network and it’s code. Networking is used everywhere for example -Bus-All the buses are connected to a cable. -Star-Each star is connected to a different hub. -Ring-All rings are connected together in a circle.

Operating Systems Operating Systems (OS) are often called platforms. They mange the hardware and the software on the computer. The second system consistent interference for applications. A user interacts with computer through Interface. Operating system is most known for its multitasking ability. The computer system has a limited amount of usage. The CPU only performs 1 trick at a time.

Software Applications Desktop software is originally the software in stores that you can buy. Nowadays there are numbers of application. There are several titles for all of the utility. One of the titles is utilities, you can find antivirus utility.