INTRODUCTION

COMPUTER: is defined as an electronic device that works under the control of stored
program, automatically accepting, storing and processing data to produce information that is the
result of that processing. The standard of living almost in every country in the world has
improved due to the invention of computers. In the past the computer was referred to a person
who did the calculations and computing work.

ORIGIN OF COMPUTERS
The earliest counting device was the abacus, which originated from Asia. In 1640s, Blaise
Pascal, a French mathematician and philosopher invented the first mechanical calculator which
was manufactured for commercial purposes. In 1804, a French man, Joseph Marie used punch
cards to automate a weaving loom. Just after the first mechanical calculator, Charles Babbage,
“the father of the computer” began a long search to develop a machine that was used for
programming.

In the early 1840s, Augusta Ada “the first programmer” preferred using a binary system instead
of a decimal system. The Boolean logic which was used in the design of computer circuitry was
developed by George Boole. In 1890, Dr Herman Hollerith developed the first
electromechanical punched card data processing machine that later used to compile information
for the 1890 U.S. census.

In 1906, an American physicist Lee De Forest invented the vacuum tube for the circuitry. In
1939, the first electronic digital computer built by Dr. John V. Atanasoff assisted by Clifford
Berry called Atanasoff-Berry-Computer (ABC). In 1940, a German construction engineer,
Konrad Zuse introduced the first programmable computer designed to solve complex
engineering equations. The machine was the first to work on the binary system.

In 1943, Alan Turing, a British mathematician developed a hypothetical device that was
designed to perform logical operations and could read and write. In 1944, Harvard Aiken
assisted by engineers from IBM, constructed the Harvard Mark I computer. This computer was
able to handle all four arithmetic operations.

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In 1947, John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert developed the ENIAC (Electrical Numerical
Integrator and Calculator). The ENIAC used 18,000 vacuum, punch-card inputs and was not
programmable. In 1962, Steve Russell and MIT invented the Spacewar Computer Game. This
was the first computer game invented. In 1969, the Internet began.

In 1971, the Floppy disk was invented by Alan Shugart and IBM. It was named ‘Floppy’
because for its flexibility. In 1983, the Apple Lisa Computer was invented and was the first
home computer with GUI (Graphic User Interface).

GENERATION OF COMPUTERS
There are five different generation of computers. The term generation refers to the state of
improvement in the development of the computer. The circuitry has gotten smaller and more
advanced than the previous generation before it.

FIRST GENERATION
The First computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and the main memory was made up of
hundreds of vacuum tubes. These computers were very large and slow. They used a great deal
of electricity and generated a lot of heat just like bulbs do. They could only run one program at a
time. Examples of first computers that used vacuum tube is the UNIVAC (Universal Automatic
Computer) which was the first computer designed and was specifically for business data-
processing applications. The UNIVAC was built by Mauchly and Eckert in 1951. Later Dr.
Grace Murray Hopper developed the UNIVAC I compiler. In 1957, an IBM engineer, John
Backus designed the programming language FORTRAN (Formula Translator). Other examples
are EDVAC, LEO, EDSAC and ENIAC.

SECOND GENERATION
In the early 1960s transistors and some other solid state devices that were smaller than vacuum
tubes were being used for much of the computer circuitry. The transistors were faster, more
reliable, smaller and much cheaper to build than a vacuum tube. The IBM system 360 series of
mainframe (G) computers designed by Gene Amdahl was the first general purpose digital

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computes to use integrated circuits. Later, in 1965, Dr. Thomas Kurtz and Dr. John Kemeny
developed BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language.

THIRD GENERATION (1964 – 1971)

The transistorized circuitry was replaced by the integrated circuitry. Integrated circuitry is a
complete electronic circuit on a silicon chip. This packing made it possible to build computers
that were smaller, faster and cheaper. In this generation punched cards and printout were
replaced by the keyboards and monitors respectively. The keyboard and monitors allowed the
device to run many different applications at one time. The minicomputers were used in this
generation by the early 1970s.

FOURTH GENERATION
“The father of the microcomputer” , Ed Roberts designed the first microcomputer, the Altair
8800, which was produced by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry System (MITS). The
microcomputer used thousands of integrated circuits that were built onto a single silicon chip to
form the microprocessor. This had much larger capacity to support the main memory. What in
the first generation filled a room could fit in the palm of the hand. Later the Cray-Z
Supercomputer (G) Apple computer developed by Cray was founded by Steven Jobs and
Stephan Wozniak. A year after, Job and Wozniak designed and built the first Apple II
microcomputer in 1981, the IBM PC was introduced with 16 – bit microcomputer. In 1982 the
Time magazine chooses the computer instead of a person for its “Machine of the Year”. In 1988,
non destructive worm was introduced into the Internet network bringing thousands of computers
to a halt.

FIFTH GENERATION
The Fifth generation computing devices based on artificial intelligence, are still developing even
if there are some application being used today. Example of this is a voice recognition. The use
of super conductors and parallel processing is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality.
The goal of Fifth generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language
input.

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TYPES OF COMPUTERS
There are different types of computers namely analog, digital and hybrid computers.

Digital Computer
Digital computer is a type of computer that use binary digits for processing. An example of a
digital computer is PC.

Analog Computers
The Analog computer is different from the digital computer in respect that it can perform
numerous mathematical operations simultaneously. They calculate physical quantities.
Examples of Analog is the ammeter, voltage meter etc.

Hybrid Computers
These type of computer is a combination of both analog and digital computers. The digital
works on the principle of binary digit system. In Hybrid computers, the digital counterparts
convert the analog signals to perform robotics and process control.

CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTERS
Computers are classified in an order of decreasing power and size.

Mainframe; - These are computers with large hard drives, main memory (RAM), multiple CPUs
running together and does a lot of computing depending upon the speed of processors used and
memory used. They are used by large organization such as meteorological surveys and statistical
institutes.

Miniframe: - They are smaller than the mainframe computers. They are also used by business
organization just like the mainframe. The difference between the miniframe and mainframe is
that miniframe can support the simultaneous working of up to 1 to 100 users.

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Microcomputers: - These are very small computers, usually used in cameras. This type of
computer is meant for public use. Examples of microcomputers are as follows:-
 Personal Digital computer
 Tablet PC
 Laptops
 Handheld computer
 Desktop

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CONCLUSION
It is important to know the history of computers or their existence. The passage above has tied to
explain the history of computers and how they started. It also includes people who were
involved in upcoming computer systems. Types of computers that are commonly used today and
generation in how computers were discovered is also discussed.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. French, C. S. (1989), Computer Science, 3rd Edition, London Publishers

2. Flores F. (1971), Compiler Programming System, 360 (Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Eaglewood cliffs, N.J.)

3. Marvin, R. Gore (1979), Computer and Information System (2nd edition,

McGraw Hill, Inc)