Evolution Of Computers

 Abacus (2400 BC):

o First counting device.
o Developed by Romans.
o Redeveloped in China.
o Name was derived from Greek word “ABAX”, which means slab.

 Napier’s Bone (1617):

o Device that contains 10 set of rods made of bones.
o Used for multiplication and division.
o Developed by John Napier (a Scottish politician).
o Later also introduces Logarithms.

 Pascaline (1642):
o Develop by Blaise Pascal (a French mathematician).
o Developed this machine to help his father, who was a tax collector.
o Consist of series of gears with 10 teeth each, representing numbers from 0 to
9.

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Evolution Of Computers Class 4
 o When one gear completes its rotation, the other gear moves by one segment.

 Leibniz’s wheel or step reckoner (1673):

o Developed by Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz (a German mathematician).
o It could add and subtract like Pascal’s machine, but could not multiply and
divide.
o It could multiplication and division by repeated addition and subtractions.
o Binary arithmetic was also invented by him.

 Jacquard’s loom (1801):

o Developed by Joseph Marie Jacquard.
o She produced a workable programmable power loom.
o Weaving operations were controlled by punched cards tied together to form
a long loop.
o It was important because it was the first machine to perform automated task.

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 o

 Difference Engine (1822):

o It was an early calculator.
o Designed by Charles Babbage, the father of the modern computer.
o It was designed to help in the construction of mathematical tables for
navigation.
o It was the machine, which was on the verge of being the first computer, but it
never completed.

 Analytical Engine (1833 – 1871):

o It was an automated machine with features of modern computer.
o Designed by Charles Babbage (British mathematician).
o He continued to refine this machine till his death in 1871.
o It included ALU.
o In this machine control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops.
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 o Used integrated memory
o Historians now recognized this machine as “WORLD’S FIRST COMPUTER”.

 Morse code: was invented by Samuel Morse in the year 1835.

 Hollerith’s machine (1890):

o Invented by Herman Hollerith.
o He first invented a tabulator in 1890.
o Operate on punched cards to tabulate statistics.
o First automated data processing system used by U.S. Census.
o He became the founder of Tabulating machine company, which later merged
with other companies to form “IBM”.

 ABC (1939 – 1942):

o The first truly electronic computer.
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Evolution Of Computers Class 4
 o Called as Atanasoff – Berry Computer.
o Developed by Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff and his graduate assistant Clifford
Berry.
o Used a circuit with 45 vacuum tubes to perform the calculations and
capacitors for storage.
o Was also the first computer to use binary math.

 Mark – I (1944):
o Invented by Dr. Howard Aiken (Harvard).
o It was an automatic sequence-controlled calculator.
o It contained over 3000 mechanical relays.
o Was the first electro-mechanical computer capable of making logical
decisions.
o Was designed and built by IBM.
o Was a room sized calculator.
o Did not require any human intervention.
o Also called as ASCC (Automatic Sequence Controlled Computer).
o Was the beginning of Modern Era.
o Was the real dawn of computer age.

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Evolution Of Computers Class 4
  First Generation Computers (1940 – 1956) –
ENIAC (1946):
o Was the first multipurpose electronic computer, though very difficult to
reprogram.
o Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator, also called as ENIAC.
o Designed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly (Pennsylvania).
o Primarily used to computer aircraft courses, shell trajectories and to breaking
codes during World War II.
o Occupied a 20 foot by 40 foot room, and was 30 tones in weight.
o Used 18,000 vacuum tubes.
o It could never be turned off.
o Had a very limited storage capacity.
o Was programmed by jumper wires plugged into a large board.

UNIVAC (1951):
o Was built by Eckert and Mauchly.
o UNIVersal Automatic Computer.
o The first UNIVAC was purchased by U.S. Beureau of Census.
o Was the first commercial computer.

 Transistor (1948):
o Invented by John Bordeen, Waltar Brattain and William Shockly (at Bell labs).
o The change over from vacuum tube circuits to transistor circuits occurred
between 1956 and 1959.
o This lead to second generation computers.

 Second Generation computers (1956 – 1965) –

o Based on transistors.
o Used punched cards for input.
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 o Used assembly language for computing.
o Smaller and cheaper than first generation computers, due to the use of
transistors.
o Energy efficient.
o Emits large amount of heat, due to transistors.
o Computation were simpler and faster, due to transistors.
o 1 transistor replaced 40 vacuum tubes.
o Programming languages were developed from 1958 – 1962.
 FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator) – by \a team of IBM programmers.
 COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) – by Grace Hopper.
 LISP (LISt Processor)
 ALGOL (AGOrithmic Language)
 BASIC (Beginner All – purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)
o Some of secong generation computers were
ERMA (Electronic Recording Machine Accounting)
IBM 1401
IBM 1620
UNIVAC 1108
ATLAS
Honeywell

 Third Generation computers (1965 – 1975) –

o Used IC’s (Integrated Circuits) made of semiconductors.
o GUI (Graphical User Interphase) introduced.
o Increased speed and efficiency.
o Keyboards and Monitors became I/O devices.
o Mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart (1963).
o High level languages were introduced.
o UNIX was developed by Bell labs (1969).
o Mainframe computers were designed, which used IC for the first time.
o First chip was developed by Intel and named as Intel 1103 (DRAM chip).
o Floppy disk was invented by a team of IBM.
o Some of the second-generation computers were
PDP – 8 (first minicomputer)
IBM 360/370
NCR 395
ICL 2900

 Fourth generation computers (1971 – 1980) –

o Use of complex circuits called VLSI microprocessor chip in them.
o Thousands of ICs placed onto a silicon chip, made up a microprocessor.
o During this generation, semiconductor memories were replaced by magnetic
core memories.
o Intel produced LSI circuits in 1971.
o Intel produced 8080 microprocessor in 1972.

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 o In 1974, Xerox came up with ALTO workstations. It consisted of monitor, GUI,
Mouse and an ethernet card.
o In 1984, APPLE bought Macintosh PC.
o Pentium and IBM 4300 were also introduced.

 Fifth generation computers (1980 onwards) –

o Capable of parallel processing.
o Support voice recognition.
o Can understand natural language.
o Still in development phase.
o Artificial intelligence introduced.

 Some of the Supercomputers developed in India are

PARAM 8000
PRATYUSH (Cray X c40)
MIHIR
AADITYA
ANURAG

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Evolution Of Computers Class 4