History of Computers This is a searchable directory about the history of computers, computing and a t imeline of the history of computers

and early calculating machines has been incl uded. Our timeline includes developments in the 1600's and their impact on compu ting. The development of the modern day computer was the result of advances in t echnologies and man's need to quantify. (The abacus was one of the first countin g machines. Calculating machines were sold commercially before the advent of ste el manufacturing technologies. Papyrus was something to write on, before we had paper. Writing was a way to record mathematical calculations.) This history of c omputers site includes the names of early pioneers of math and computing and lin ks to related sites for further study. A new "Timeline of the History of Compute rs and Related Technologies" has been added. This site was designed to be used b y students assigned topics about the history of computers and computing. Origina l articles are footnoted and related links are included. One important purpose o f this Web page, is to debunk myths some people create, such as "we have compute rs because of the military" (Not true). We have computers because man wanted to quantify as early as the ancient Chinese Dynasties, when they created the abacus and used it for calculating, and adding and subtracting in particular... Babbag e and Lovelace were "programming" machines as early as the 1800's before any mil itary computer in this country. 1801 was the creation of the Jacquard loom which used "punch cards". Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) have been around since 1885 and th e US gov't first used a computer in the 1950's. Great Britain's COLOSSUS was dev eloped before the ENGIGMA, so people trying to perpetuate the importance of the US military in the development of computer technologies is doing a disservice to students. Electronics and related computer development, and the invention of th e transistor were all independent of military intent. If anything, even the tota lisator machines were created for statistical purposes and have been used for ho rse racing, not rocket science. I love my Mac, and it has no military background that I am aware of. Military computers did not have integrated circuits like PC computer chips either... Stop saying computer development was military in origi n... simply can't back it up with fact. Yes, the military also had old computers , just like my Commodore was old... but they weren't related... no tubes in my c ommodore, that was different technology altogether than a military monster compu ter with vacuum tubes... mechanical relays... ta dah... that was hot stuff in th at age.

A computer is a device that accepts information in the form of digitalized data and manipulates it for some result based on a program or sequence of instruction s on how the data is to be processed. Complex computers also include the means f or storing data including the program, which is also a form of data for some nec essary duration. A program may be invariable and built into the computer (and ca lled logic circuitry as it is on microprocessors) or different programs may be p rovided to the computer (loaded into its storage and then started by an administ rator or user). Today's computers have both kinds of programming. Most histories of the modern computer begin with the Analytical Engine envisioned by Charles B abbage following the mathematical ideas of George Boole, the mathematician who f irst stated the principles of logic inherent in today's digital computer. Babbag e's assistant and collaborator, Ada Lovelace, is said to have introduced the ide as of program loops and subroutines and is sometimes considered the first progra mmer. Apart from mechanical calculators, the first really useable computers bega n with the vacuum tube, accelerated with the invention of the transistor, which then became embedded in large numbers in integrated circuits, ultimately making possible the relatively low-cost personal computer.

Modern computers inherently follow the ideas of the stored program laid out by J ohn von Neumann in 1945. Essentially, the program is read by the computer one in struction at a time, an operation is performed, and the computer then reads in t he next instruction, and so on. Recently, computers and programs have been devis ed that allow multiple programs (and computers) to work on the same problem at t he same time in parallel. With the advent of the Internet and higher bandwidth d ata transmission, programs and data that are part of the same overall project ca n be distributed over a network and embody the Sun Microsystems slogan: "The net work is the computer." Computers were introduced in the Philippines in the late 60's by IBM Philippines , Inc.,this computer was big and a whole room was needed to accomodate this comp uter,more commonly known as mainframes,thier basic function was more on data sto rage,and not just anyone can operate the computer,it needed a highly trained tec hnician to use it and translate its data,the language used by these computers we re Binary language a series of 0's and 1's,it was not a user friendly machine an d it was very expensive,in the Philippines only multi-national companies had one ,in the mid 70's a highly evolved computer came in to the scene,Apple with its A pple1 had a great impact on the Philippine market,this new computers were compac t and space needed was very small,these computers were called mini's or personal computers popularly called PC's,this started an era of computerization in the P hilippines,because of its affordability and the intoduction of a new Operating S ystem developed by Mr. Bill Gates,who's company was soon to be known as {microso ft),made the use of computers very easy and almost all the companies as well as individuals made full use of them in thier homes and in thier business,the Windo ws 3-11 was born a new operating system that was very easy to use,during the 80' s and 90's controll for the computer market in the Philippines was intense,Apple came out with thier Apple 11,Apple 11+,Apple 11 C's and the Apple mac's,in whic h IBM retaliated with thier 256,286,386,486 and eventually with thier Pentium cl ass units P-1,P-2,P-3,which made IBM predominant in the field of computers in th e Philippines,Before the turn of the century computers was a necessity rather th an an luxury in the Philippines more and more schools are incorporating computer as part of thier curriculum,the filipinos has evoled to a new breed of men weme n and even children who are dependent on computers for thier reaserches and scho ol activities,companies in the Philippines are now relaying on these computers i n thier day today activities from payroll to communication via E-mail to thier c lients,and filipinos are more and more aware of the importance of these gadgets in business and the countries economy,In the early part of the 21rst century mor e and more diferent types of computer are being introduced to the Philippines,th ere are now laptop's,mini desktop's and more,proving the the Philippines and its people the filipinos are now part of the hi-tech community.