History of the Computer

Historically, computers were human clerks who calculated in accordance with effective methods. These human computers did the sorts of calculation nowadays carried out by electronic computers, and many thousands of them were employed in commerce, government, and research establishments. The term computing machine, used increasingly from the 1920s, refers to any machine that does the work of a human computer, i.e., any machine that calculates in accordance with effective methods.

In 1946, John Von Neumann proposed the concept of stored program computer.

connet encode both program and data as binary number,

connet store the program along with the data electronically in a set of switches (computer memory),

connet provide a central processing unit that not only perform calculations but also fetch, decode and execute the instructions contained in the program.

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, with the advent of electronic computing machines, the phrase ‘computing machine’ gradually gave way simply to ‘computer’, initially usually with the prefix ‘electronic’ or ‘digital’.

Though desktop computers didn’t emerge until the late 1970s and graphics workstations weren’t widely used until the mid-’80s, several of their key technologies were developed much earlier. The integrated circuit, key to mass-produced computers, was unveiled in 1959. The first graphics program, Sketchpad, was developed by Ivan Sutherland at MIT in 1962. The first computer game, Spacewar!, also emerged at MIT around the same time. The first commercially available video display terminal was shipped in 1963. The mouse was developed in 1964 and the multiple window interface was developed in 1970. Even the first virtual reality head-mounted display was developed by Sutherland back in 1968. More than a decade later the Apple II became the first widely-sold personal computer, followed shortly by the IBM PC.

connet 8,500 BC Bone carved with prime numbers found

connet 1000 BC to 500 BC Abacus invented

connet 1642 Blaise Pascal’s invented adding machine, France

connet 1822 Charles Babbage drafted Babbage Difference Engine, England

connet 1835 Babbage Analytical Engine proposed, England

connet 1843 Ada Byron Lovelace computer program to calculate Bernoulli numbers, England

connet 1943 Turing COLOSSUS the first programmable computer, England

connet 1946 ENIAC first electronic computer, U.S.A.

connet 1951 UNIVAC first computer used by U.S. government, U.S.A.

connet 1969 ARPANET Department of Defense lays groundwork for Internet, U.S.A.

connet 1968 Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce found in Intel, U.S.A.

connet 1977 Apple computers for consumers sold, U.S.A

connet 1981 IBM personal computers sold, U.S.A.

connet 1991 World Wide Web consumer Internet access, CERN, Tim Berners-Lee Switzerland/France

connet 2000 Y 2K Bug programming errors discovered

connet Current Technologies include word processing, games, email, maps, and streaming

The development of network technology and increases in processing capabilities for microcomputers made consumer Internet use possible by 1991. The computer evolution since then continues. New uses emerge every year.