History Of Computer

ets us take look at the history of the computers that we know today.The very first calculating device used was the ten fingers of a man’s hands.This in fact,is why today we still count in tens and multiples of tens.then the abacus was invented,a bead frame in which the beads are moved from left to right. People went on using some from of abacus well into the 16^th century,and still being used in some parts of the world because it can be understood without knowing how to read.

During the 17th and 18^th centuries many people tried to find easy ways of calculating.J.Napier a Scotsman devised a mechanical way of multiplying and dividing,wich is how the modem slide rule works.Henry briggs used napier’s ideas to produce logarithm tables witch all mathematicians use today.Calculus another brance of mathematics,was independently invented by both sir Isaac Newton,an Englishman and Leibnitz a german mathematician.

The first real calculating machine appeared in 1820 as the result of several people’s Experiment. This type of machine,which saves a great deal of time and reduce the possibility of making mistakes.depends on a series of ten-toothed gear wheelsin 1830 Charles Babbage,an Englishman,designed a machine that was called “the analytical Engine” This machine, which Babbage showed at the paris exhibition in 1855 was an attempt to cut out the human being altogether,except for providing the machine with the necessary facts about the problem to be solved.He never finished this work,but many of his ideas were the basis for building today’s computers.

In 1930.the first analog computer was built by an American named Vennevar Bush.This device was used in world War II to help arm guns.Mark I the name given to the first digital computer,was completed in 1994.The men responsible for this invention were Professor Howard Aiken and some people from IBM.This was the first machine that could figure out long lists of mathematical problems. All at a very fast rate,in 1946 two enggneer at the university of Pennsylvania,J.Eckert and J.Mauchly,built the first digital computer using part called vacuum tubes.They named their new invention ENIAC.Another important advancement in computer came in 1947.when john von Neumann developed the idea of keeping instruction for the computers inside the com[uter memory.

The first generation of computers,which used vacuum tube came out in 1950.Univac I is an example of these computer which could perform thousands of calculations per second.in 1960,the second generation of computers was developed and these could perform work ten times faster that their predecessor.The reason for this extra speed was the use of transistor instead of vacuum tubes.second-generation computers were smaller,faster and more dependable that first-generation computers.The third generation computers appeared on the market in 1965.these computers could do a million calculations a second,which is 1000 times as many as first-generation computers.

Unlike second-generation computers,these are controlled by tiny integrated circuits and are consequently smaller and more dependable. Fourth-generation computers have now arrived,and the integrated circuits that are being developed have been greatly reduced in size This is due to microminiaturization,which means that the circuit are much smaller than before as many as 1000 tiny circuits now fit onto a single chip.A chip is a require rectangular piece of silicon,usually from 1/10 to ¼ inch,upon which several layers of an integrated circuit are etched or imprinted,after which the circuit is encapsulated in p;astic,ceramic or metal.Fourth-generation computer are 50 times faster than third-generation computers and can complete approximately 1.000.000 instruction per second.

At the rate computer technology is growing,today’s computer might be obsolete by 1985 and most certainly by 1990.it has been said that if transport technology had developed as rapidly as computer technology,a trip across the atlantic ocean today would take a few seconds.

Dosen Pengampu : Yahya Suherman,SS